Tag: Eric Holder

simulposted at Daily Kos

     The women were passing messages out saying ‘Please come and kill me, because of what’s happened’ and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling.

~snip~

It’s going to come out.”

salon.com

    I’ve referenced this this before, but this quote haunts me in my sleep.

 

Please, send an e-mail or call Attorney general Eric Holder. He is said to be strongly leaning towards naming a Special Prosecutor, let’s give him a little push in the right direction!

And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It’s going to come out.“

   There are people who will defend this. Terrible people.

    It is going to come out.

(Crossposted from Orange with author’s permission)

“You have the power to hold your leaders accountable.” – President Obama, Ghana, July 14, 2009

While congress says it is gearing up to investigate what is old news, that CIA and Special Ops forces are killing Al Qaeda leaders, a decision of far different gravity is being contemplated by Attorney General Eric Holder.  The new insistence of Congress on its oversight role, conspicuously absent throughout 8 years of Bush, is suddenly rearing its head in the form of questioning a policy which has been in place with no controversy for years.  The U.S. has been hunting and killing Al Qaeda leaders outside of official war zones since 2004, when the New York Times reported that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had signed an order authorizing Special Forces to kill Al Qaeda where they found them.

If you want to host a War Crimes Accountability series diary let me know. I will be posting these myself until someone wants me to pass the baton to them or share the load with me. E-mail me at [email protected] if you are interested, or say so in the comments below.

    Scroll down in order to contact the White House, The Attorney General’s Office, and Congressional Leadership in order to demand accountability today.

img hspace=”5″ align=”left” src=”http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u65/vradul/warcrimesactionlogo.gif” align=”left”

add > at the end and < at the begin to post

  Click and paste it into your Bush/Cheney Action and Accountability diary.

    NO EXCUSES!

    JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED.

    YELL LOUDER!

    ADD CONTENT HERE!

    What ever aspect of the war crimes, cover up and other matters pertaining to the criminality of the Bush/Cheney Administration you feel is appropriate is suitable for this series of diaries, within certain guidelines as will be determined by the

Important points

When calling The White House and AG Holder

– Support a Strong, independent Special Prosecutor

When calling Congressional Leadership and your Congressional Representatives

– Support H.Res 383 to investigate Bush/Cheney and their policies

When calling members of the House Rules Committee Chairwoman Lousise Slaughter and House Rules Committee members

– Support a closed rule with no amendments allowed and public hearings in a select House committee to investigate Bush/Cheney and review their national security policies

    Do NOT YELL LOUDER while speaking to Congressional staff and Representatives. They do not appreciate being woken up.

   Please, call and E-mail yourself if you can too. What else do you have to do? It’s not like you aren’t staring right at the page with the phone numbers and links on it in front of your computer.

    NO EXCUSES

Crossposted at Daily Kos

Please help recommend this diary there so people can call for action!

        State Department Deputy Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs 2002-2003

    Elizabeth Cheney



    Who better to remain loyal to Dick Cheney as he committed war crimes. Guilty of complicity, Liz Cheney is a war criminal.

  Titled the “Evolution of Presidential War Powers,” Cheney’s thesis, according to writer Zac Frank, argued that “constitutionally and historically, presidents have virtually unchecked powers in war.”

rightweb.irc

    Dick’s daughter Liz might be interested in running for office. “It’s something I very well may do,” says Liz “Mini Me” Cheney.

nypress.com

Contact AG Eric Holder and The White House to demand a Special Prosecutor to Investigate all aspects of the Bush/Cheney Administration today.

    Contact Congress today and ask them to support H.Res 383 and a closed rule so that open public investigations of Bush/Cheney and their policies can begin in a special committee in the House of Representatives.

    Contact information provided below the fold.

Crossposted at DKos

A troll on DK beat this diary up pretty bad and killed the thread. If anybody can give me a rescue it would be greatly appreciated.

Please, rec this diary up on DK if you can, so that others may see it as well

   If you don’t support warrantless wiretapping, The Patriot Act, torture or any of the other high crimes and War crimes committed by the Criminal Bush Junta you might be interested in H.Res 383.

    H.Res 383 was introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA9) and is designed to act as a Congressional oversight bill that would establish a select committee to review national security laws, policies, and practices. Better yet, this committee would have power of subpoena.

    If the House Leadership pushes this bill and the House Rules committee allows for open hearings and gives this bill a closed rule barring amendments, we could well be on our way to full investigations of Bush/Cheney and their policies crimes.  

Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s ongoing letter writing campaign for torture accountability. For those who have not been following this series how it works is as follows: every Monday the Dog writes a letter to decision makers urging accountability for the Bush Administrations State Sponsored Torture program. The Dog also provides the links to contact the decision makers. Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to either use the letter as a jumping off point or to cut and paste it (adding your name) and send it off. The whole point of this campaign is to keep the issue of accountability for torture alive until we get the action the Rule of Law requires.

“Originally posted at Squarestate.net“

Daniel Klaidman at Newsweek has a somewhat tantalizing article up just a little while ago today that may indicate a little hope for war crimes prosecution is not unreasonable…

Independent’s Day

By Daniel Klaidman | NEWSWEEK

Published Jul 11, 2009

Obama doesn’t want to look back, but Attorney General Eric Holder may probe Bush-era torture anyway.

Alone among cabinet officers, attorneys general are partisan appointees expected to rise above partisanship. All struggle to find a happy medium between loyalty and independence. Few succeed. At one extreme looms Alberto Gonzales, who allowed the Justice Department to be run like Tammany Hall. At the other is Janet Reno, whose righteousness and folksy eccentricities marginalized her within the Clinton administration. Lean too far one way and you corrupt the office, too far the other way and you render yourself impotent. Mindful of history, Holder is trying to get the balance right. “You have the responsibility of enforcing the nation’s laws, and you have to be seen as neutral, detached, and nonpartisan in that effort,” Holder says. “But the reality of being A.G. is that I’m also part of the president’s team. I want the president to succeed; I campaigned for him. I share his world view and values.”

These are not just the philosophical musings of a new attorney general. Holder, 58, may be on the verge of asserting his independence in a profound way. Four knowledgeable sources tell NEWSWEEK that he is now leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration’s brutal interrogation practices, something the president has been reluctant to do. While no final decision has been made, an announcement could come in a matter of weeks, say these sources, who decline to be identified discussing a sensitive law-enforcement matter. Such a decision would roil the country, would likely plunge Washington into a new round of partisan warfare, and could even imperil Obama’s domestic priorities, including health care and energy reform. Holder knows all this, and he has been wrestling with the question for months. “I hope that whatever decision I make would not have a negative impact on the president’s agenda,” he says. “But that can’t be a part of my decision.”

I originally posted this video interview with Zinn back on April 10, 2009 following the then recent revelations of President Obama’s DOJ under Eric Holder betraying Obama’s campaign promises to instead embrace the Bush administrations claims for immunity and “states secrets” in the case of clear FISA violations and illegal wiretapping.

So much more has gone down since then, and Obama has turned his back on so many of his campaign pledges to make his administrations policy decisions so far essentially a direct extension of the policies of the past eight years, with most of the bigger points outlined in Paul Street’s recent article The Dawning Age of Obama as a Potentially Teach-able Moment for The Left that I wonder if it is time for revisiting what Zinn had to say in this interview now…

In part three of what was a series of interviews, historian, political scientist, social critic, activist, author and playwright Professor Howard Zinn talks here with Real News CEO Paul Jay about why so many people seem to be convinced that Obama is anything more than what he appears to be given his actions and policies implemented since inauguration, and about how to create a mass popular movement to pressure Obama for progressive results in a supportive way, and concludes that social turmoil is not only not bad but necessary if it leads to something good in the sense of creating real change.

Real News – April 10, 2009

Send a message to Obama

Howard Zinn: Social turmoil is not bad if it leads to something good

Real News CEO Paul Jay talks with Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights about the Obama Administration doing everything they can do to “run away” from the whole issue of accountability for the premeditated, organized and institutionalized torture program of the Bush Administration, about the need for real transparency as opposed to the false claims of transparency from Obama while reports and information are held back or heavily redacted before release, and about demands now coming from UN human rights advocate Navi Pillay for holding accountable senior Bush Administration officials.

Also see:

Obama Vows to Deal With Torture, But His Pledge Doesn’t Apply to the Bush Administration

by Jason Leopold

Please support Torture Awareness Day

Simulposted at Daily Kos

Medical reports corroborated the detainee’s account, stating that the detainee had a broken nose, fractured leg, and scars on his stomach. In addition, soldiers confirmed that Task Force 20 interrogators wearing civilian clothing had interrogated the detainee. However, after initially reporting the abuse, the detainee said that he was forced by an American soldier to sign a statement denouncing the claims or else be kept in detention indefinitely. He agreed.

    An investigator who reviewed the signed statement concluded that “[t]his statement, alone, is a prima facie indication of threats.” However, despite the medical report and testimony from other soldiers, the criminal file was ultimately closed on the grounds that the investigation had “failed to prove or disprove” the offenses.

ACLU.org

    Does anything stand against the American concept of the rule of law more than this?

Crossposted from Antemedius

The other day, after Barack Obama’s speech at the National Archives Building in Washington, the New York Times printed a “news analysis” piece that was one of the most offensive pieces of manipulation I think I’ve ever read, in it’s oh so reasonable sounding efforts (probably successful with the vast majority who read it) to marginalize and equate with neanderthals and the far right wing anyone who is not interested in becoming terrorists to fight invented terrorism, with it’s interpretation of Obama’s statements in his speech:

He must convince the country that it is in safe hands despite warnings to the contrary from the right, and at the same time persuade the skeptical left that it is enough to amend his predecessor’s approach rather than abandon it.

In the reductionist debate in Washington, either any sacrifice must be made to win a pitiless war against radicals, or terrorism does not justify any compromise with cherished American values.

Unfortunately, Barack Obama seems to be in complete agreement with the NYT’s manipulations of public opinion:

“Both sides may be sincere in their views, but neither side is right,” Mr. Obama said. “The American people are not absolutist, and they don’t elect us to impose a rigid ideology on our problems. They know that we need not sacrifice our security for our values, nor sacrifice our values for our security, so long as we approach difficult questions with honesty and care and a dose of common sense.”

Today, Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, talks with Real News Network CEO Paul Jay with his own analysis of Obama’s speech and his determination to “legalize” the Military Commissions set up under George Bush with the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA).