and am not about to be silent about this story coming out of
the NYTimes:
Charges Seen as Unlikely for Lawyers Over Interrogations
please send your comments to info@FireJohnYoo.org so that I can post them to this site.
Comments:
"Regarding the draft report that Yoo and Bybee should not be prosecuted, a comment. This report is consistent with the approach that President Obama (and Pelosi before him) has taken toward the crimes of the Bush administration from the beginning--"bad stuff, but let's move on."  That consistency raises the question as to whether the report was truly independent or constructed (like the Torture memos) under White House Guidance. Even if the White House did not direct the findings, If the Justice Dept finds no need for prosecution of these crimes they will have damaged the new Administration seriously because of the following implications: first, that the new Administration is trying to minimize the crimes committed by the prior administration so as to maintain its own options and standing among criminal elements within the US ruling elite.   Second, that the laws and Convention against torture can be disregarded by the US (much as Bush maintained).  Third, that the new Administration is reinforcing the Right's mantra against government, promoting impunity, and the idea that these people are above the law. This then encourages common people to feel there is no way to achieve justice, and so, like Bush, the new Admin will end up encouraging lawlessness." - Marc Sapir
passage c/o George: The words of the US chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, Justice Robert Jackson, are relevant. Jackson was adamant that the true test of what was done at Nuremberg would be the extent to which the Allied victors, including the US, applied these principles to themselves in future years. In his opening statement to the Court, Jackson placed the issue of 'victor's justice' in context: "We must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow. To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to our lips as well. We must summon such detachment and intellectual integrity to our task that this Trial will commend itself to posterity as fulfilling humanity's aspirations to do justice." Such "aspirations to do justice" included for Jackson applying the law equally and fairly to all. "If certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes," he stated, "they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us." -- David Krieger, "The War on Iraq as Illegal and Illegitimate," http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2005/03/00_krieger_war-illegal-illegitimate.htm
I wanted to share my thoughts about the May 6th,
New York Times article Torture Memos: Inquiry Suggests
No Prosecution. I'm just floored by the fact that some internal inquiry by the Justice Department says that there will be no prosecution and as
the way things look today, they're right. Like who gave them the final
word! It seems that this article is shaping the people to believe that,
sanctions or disbarment, is the most the people should expect. But then that
doesn't surprise me. disgusting, horrific and I thought, illegal. The German counterparts to
today's lawyers had to stand trial at Nuremberg but Yoo, Bybee etc are going on
with their lives. Again, i'm not surprised. this sort of things happens all the time, throughout the history of this
country. We can't change anything." think what they're calling for is good, but I have a question in how does World
Can't Wait fit into that? After reading the article, i was thinking that
education and thus action was needed and I thought WCW should be on the
forefront of this. I also thought a more centralized action at some point
in the future would be important. Mass independent political action to change
the terms of the debate. the govt is set to release more pictures. And my birthday no less, what a
gift?!?) So it seems like this is a fluid situation. I'm just trying to wrap my
head around these things. yes we must do something very vocal and very public and not be dissausded. What about like the boots memorial we do a field of paper maiche hands with blood dripping and the names of the torture advocates or likenesses attached?
Other ideas? - PEhret"no criminal prosecutions headline that is getting a lot of attention tonight -- I'm not sure that's quite as significant as people think,"Â DOJÂ report will be a bombshell
