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Apr 22 2009
Transcript 04-21-2009 WH Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secrectary
For Immediate Release
April 21, 2009
PRESS BRIEFING BY PRESS SECRETARY ROBERT GIBBS
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
2:08 P.M. EDT
[snip intro and discussion of Obama trip to Missouri – skip to first substantive question]
Mr. Babbington, wearing a Carolina blue shirt but not a Carolina blue tie, go ahead.
Apr 21 2009
The Bush Administration’s Stunning Geneva Hypocrisy
by Jason Leopold, April 20, 2009
Newly released US government documents, detailing how Bush administration officials punched legalistic holes in the Geneva Conventions’ protections of war captives, stand in stark contrast to the outrage some of the same officials expressed in the first week of the Iraq war when Iraqi TV interviewed several captured American soldiers.
“If there is somebody captured,” President George W. Bush told reporters on March 23, 2003, “I expect those people to be treated humanely. If not, the people who mistreat the prisoners will be treated as war criminals.”
Then, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, President George W. Bush, and other administration officials orchestrated a chorus of outrage, citing those TV scenes as proof of the Iraq’s government contempt for international law in general and the Geneva Conventions in particular.
“It is a blatant violation of the Geneva Convention to humiliate and abuse prisoners of war or to harm them in any way. As President Bush said yesterday, those who harm POWs will be found and punished as war criminals,” Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said on March 24, 2003.
That same day, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the BBC that “the Geneva Convention is very clear on the rules for treating prisoners.. They’re not supposed to be tortured or abused; they’re not supposed to be intimidated; they’re not supposed to be made public displays of humiliation or insult, and we’re going to be in a position to hold those Iraqi officials who are mistreating our prisoners accountable, and they’ve got to stop.”
At a March 25, 2003, press briefing about progress in the US-led invasion, Secretary Rumsfeld said, “This war is an act of self-defense, to be sure, but it is also an act of humanity…. In recent days, the world has witnessed further evidence of their [Iraqi] brutality and their disregard for the laws of war. Their treatment of coalition POWs is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.”
Read the whole article here:
http://www.antemedius.com/content/bush-administrations-stunning-geneva-hypocrisy
Apr 20 2009
Stem Cell Research Scientists Develop Cure for Blindness
Crossposted from Antemedius
The Times Online, April 19, 2009
BRITISH scientists have developed the world’s first stem cell therapy to cure the most common cause of blindness. Surgeons predict it will become a routine, one-hour procedure that will be generally available in six or seven years’ time.
The treatment involves replacing a layer of degenerated cells with new ones created from embryonic stem cells. It was pioneered by scientists and surgeons from the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London and Moorfields eye hospital.
This week Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical research company, will announce its financial backing to bring the therapy to patients.
The treatment will tackle age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of blindness. It affects more than 500,000 Britons and the number is forecast to increase significantly as people live longer. The disease involves the loss of eye cells.
Under the new treatment, embryonic stem cells are transformed into replicas of the missing cells. They are then placed on an artificial membrane which is inserted in the back of the retina.
Apr 20 2009
The Verdict
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.
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The following are excerpts from comments at RawStory today
on Jeremey Gantz’s story It’s official: No U.S. prosecution of Bush officials
Apr 19 2009
A Disgrace. And A War Criminal.
When President’s Obstruct Justice They Disgrace Us All
oleeb at TPM, April 19, 2009, 1:06PMPresident Obama’s morally indefensible decision to block investigations and prosecutions of those in the American government who planned and carried out torture both at home and abroad is a clear and disgraceful obstruction of justice. When Republicans obstruct justice, Democrats are quick to criticize and rightfully so. But legitimate criticism of obstruction of justice is based on opposition to shielding criminal actions and illegality, not because a Republican did it. There is no excuse for allowing barbaric criminal acts to go unpunished no matter who committed them.
Let’s be clear. The torture planned and carried out by the United States was illegal, aka a crime. The investigation and potential prosecution of these crimes is a criminal and legal matter. It is not a political matter and should not be treated as such. The President makes a grave moral error by playing political games with such serious criminal activity. War crimes are not political. They shock the conscience of humanity because of their brutality and barbarism. If these crimes are not heinous enough for the President to allow the law to be carried out and all the perpetrators from top to bottom made to answer for their crimes and complicity then what would it take for a crime to be heinous enough or so unspeakable that he would no longer be willing to obstruct justice in an effort to protect the criminals?
[snip]
President Obama garnered the support and votes of millions of people because he said he would be different. He pointedly marketed himself as not being tainted by a lifetime in Washington. Well some people are quick learners as it appears our President is when it comes to turning a blind eye to war crimes. By failing to do his duty and by obstructing the legal process he is obligated to carry forward, the President disgraces not only himself, but all Americans.
Regardless of party, any President who knowingly and willingly obstructs investigation into crimes that he and everyone on earth knows have occured and which we are by our own laws and by international law are obligated to investigate, is committing a crime himself. If we are a nation of laws and not of men then now is the time to prove it. the President needs to change course on this matter, but if he doesn’t we, as citizens need to do whatever we can to force him to do the right thing. Those who do nothing contribute to this evil through our indifference. No political rationale, no excuses, no fantasy about a secret strategy to do the right thing in the end excuses the President’s or the Attorney General’s immoral conduct as it relates to the war crimes we know were committed during the previous administration.
Remember, silence is consent.
Apr 19 2009
Baghdad, City of Walls – Video Documentary
Crossposted from Antemedius
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad is an award-winning photographer and journalist from Iraq.
He began documenting life on the streets of Baghdad in 2001 and, when the Iraq war started two years later, he reported for The Guardian newspaper on those parts of the Iraqi capital that were simply too dangerous for outsiders to cover. But growing violence forced him to leave the city.
In Baghdad, City of Walls Ghaith returns to the streets of a Baghdad now divided by security walls separating the city’s Sunni and Shia residents.
Thousands of homeless roam the streets, children grow up hating Americans, the dead are buried in improvised cemeteries and there is electricity for only three hours a day.
Ghaith’s ability to move around the city despite the dangers, gives us a unique insight into this Baghdad and to a story so far untold.
Baghdad, City of Walls aired in England in early April 2009. View the program in 4 parts below.
Apr 18 2009
Keith Olbermann: US Must “Move Forward” with Torture Accountability Now
From truthout.org: Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment on why a better future for the United States must begin with a criminal investigation into who is responsible for the Bush administration torture memos.
To read the full transcript, please see this page.
Apr 18 2009
Torture Blogging 60’s Ba-looooooze
I just hope that your love knows, what this life is all about
’cause I’m in the same position as when I started out.
Now I know there’re folk in hospital that are far worse than me,
Oh, but that don’t mean to much when my spirit don’t feel free
Yes I’m crying, yes I’m crying, hey i’m crying, hey I’m crying
Well the bouquet rocks my senses, and the blues they roll my mind,
and I’m in a strange condition and my head is hard to find.
And I just keep on searching, trying to seek my goal, and I just
keep on studying, Oh trying to find a road.
And I’m crying, and I’m crying, Hey I’m crying, hey I’m crying
Wait for the sunshine, look at the rain, look at my future all
seem the same. Hard to distinguish right from the wrong, look at
my troubles coming on strong.
Only God knows, oh where my search will end, ’cause a freak ain’t
got no money and a pauper has no friends, and there ain’t no use
in worrying and there ain’t no use in dying, oh, no use testifying
and there ain’t none you could buy.
And I’m crying, and I’m crying, hey I’m crying, oh, I’m crying
Only God knows where my search will end, cause a freak don’t have
no money and a pauper has no friends, and there ain’t no use testifying,
and there ain’t no use in lying,
And I’m crying, and I’m crying, hey I’m crying, oh, I’m crying
Apr 18 2009
Torture Blogging 60’s Ba-looooooze
I just hope that your love knows, what this life is all about
’cause I’m in the same position as when I started out.
Now I know there’re folk in hospital that are far worse than me,
Oh, but that don’t mean to much when my spirit don’t feel free
Yes I’m crying, yes I’m crying, hey i’m crying, hey I’m crying
Well the bouquet rocks my senses, and the blues they roll my mind,
and I’m in a strange condition and my head is hard to find.
And I just keep on searching, trying to seek my goal, and I just
keep on studying, Oh trying to find a road.
And I’m crying, and I’m crying, Hey I’m crying, hey I’m crying
Wait for the sunshine, look at the rain, look at my future all
seem the same. Hard to distinguish right from the wrong, look at
my troubles coming on strong.
Only God knows, oh where my search will end, ’cause a freak ain’t
got no money and a pauper has no friends, and there ain’t no use
in worrying and there ain’t no use in dying, oh, no use testifying
and there ain’t none you could buy.
And I’m crying, and I’m crying, hey I’m crying, oh, I’m crying
Only God knows where my search will end, cause a freak don’t have
no money and a pauper has no friends, and there ain’t no use testifying,
and there ain’t no use in lying,
And I’m crying, and I’m crying, hey I’m crying, oh, I’m crying
Apr 17 2009
To Give Obama Some Small Credit Where Due
Crossposted from Antemedius
Yesterday was a very dark day. Most who know me know how hard and unmercifully I slammed Obama and Holder, but Obama especially since he is Holders superior, for their excusing and shielding of CIA torturers from prosecution based on nothing more than the universally repudiated Nuremburg defense of “just following orders”. Many may even think that I was and am being too inflexible in my criticisms and direct comparison of Obama to Bush over this matter with my opinion that he is also shielding Bush and Cheney with his actions.
Protecting and shielding war criminals.
That remains my opinion, and will remain my opinion unless and until a Special Prosecutor is appointed and George Bush and Dick Cheney are sitting in a prisoners dock charged with war crimes for which there is more than ample evidence, above and beyond their own public confessions and gloating, that they committed.
To be honest I really don’t care whether the CIA Interrogators are ever prosecuted. They will have to live with what they did, and they will probably be shunned for the rest of their lives by anyone with any remnants of humanity left in their souls.
It is one thing to shield the followers of orders. It is an entirely different thing to shield and protect the issuers of those orders. To do so is to be complicit in the crimes and no better and in fact worse than the perpetrators, in my opinion.
But to give Obama some small credit where due, he and Holder did leave themselves an opening, and in fact not only left an opening but created that opening with their actions yesterday. We can even speculate that perhaps did what they did yesterday they did in an attempt to create enough public anger and drum up enough public support to make it politically possible to prosecute Bush and Cheney.
If, and it’s a very big if that still appears very doubtful, If Obama and Holder did what they did yesterday as setup for future prosecutions of Bush and Cheney then they will earn a little of my respect back.
Bush and Cheney must be prosecuted.
In the United States, what Obama did yesterday is simply not done. American Presidents do not disseminate to the world documents which narrate in vivid, elaborate detail the dirty, illegal deeds done by the CIA, especially not when the actions are very recent, were approved and ordered by the President of the United States, and the CIA is aggressively demanding that the documents remain concealed and claiming that their release will harm national security. When is the last time a President did that?
