T-Shirts and Posters
Criminal Prosecution and Accountability
ProsecuteBushCheney.org
Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2009-01-19 05:04.WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Prosecutions:
Federal:
Add your organization or individual name to joint statement requesting a Special Prosecutor. Ask organizations you're in touch with to sign on. The demand for prosecution has been supported by many members of Congress.
Sign a petition asking Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in war crimes. Sign now.
Collect signatures in the real world by printing out this PDF. Please enter the data you collect on the petition online and/or mail the completed (or partially completed) forms to JDS, 4407 Garrison Street NW, Washington DC 20016.
SEND POSTCARDS TO HOLDER: (PDF).
Phone and Email and fax the Office of the Attorney General at 202-514-2001 AskDOJ@usdoj.gov fax:202-307-6777 to request a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in war crimes.
Report Cheney and Bush's public confessions to authorizing torture as a crime tip to the FBI.
The ACLU now has its own petition to Holder: Sign it now.
Firedoglake now has one too: Sign it here.
In June 2008, 56 Democratic Congress members, led by Congresswoman Jan Shakowsky and Congressman John Conyers, wrote to Attorney General Mukasey asking for a Special Prosecutor. Conyers and Congressman Jerrold Nadler wrote to Mukasey again in December 2008. Please ask them to re-send these letters to the new Attorney General, Eric Holder. Conyers 202-225-5126, Nadler 202-225-5635. Nadler says he's drafting a new letter. Here's a letter we've drafted that you can ask your congress member to send. On April 17, 2009, Nadler publicly asked for a special prosecutor. You can ask your representative to simply release a statement like Nadler's or make comments to the media like Jan Schakowsky's. On April 28, 2009, 16 House Judiciary Committee members wrote to Holder. You accomplished this! We still need the other 419 members of Congress to do the same. In May, 2009, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky sent her own letter to Eric Holder.
Also sign the No Amnesty for Torturers Petition to Congress.
Congressman John Conyers has proposed extending statutes of limitations on Bush-Cheney crimes. Help make this happen.
Contact the State Department's Office of War Crimes Issues and urge them to ask Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in war crimes.
Here are tips and info. on contacting Congress.
State and Local:
Bush and others can be indicted at the state or district level for murder. Please take these steps. They have also violated state laws against warrantless spying and various other crimes. Persuade or elect a decent prosecutor!
International:
The International Criminal Court can also indict. Please request it.
And petition the United Nations to set up an international tribunal.
Foreign:
Our friends at the Center for Constitutional Rights are coordinating with attorneys pursuing prosecutions in other countries under universal jurisdiction.
The British and Spanish governments have begun criminal investigations. The Spanish have begun a second criminal investigation.
Impeachment:
While Bush and Cheney can and should still be impeached, a more likely success would be the impeachment of Jay Bybee. Please ask your Congress member to pursue it: TELL CONGRESS NOW. There's no point in asking to have him disbarred in Nevada or California, because he is not even a member, but he is a member of the DC Bar and should be disbarred there.
Production of Information:
Overwhelming evidence of probable cause for prosecutions is in the public realm, in some cases including public confessions and other evidence of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. No one should be denied a fair trial, but no trials should be delayed which are already compelled by the evidence. A prosecutorial investigation would be the most effective tool for producing additional evidence. The facts on Bush and Cheney are well known, and those on their chief co-conspirators somewhat less so. Making these facts better known and producing more of them is a worthwhile task, secondary to pursuing prosecutions.
Purchase The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecution.
Ask the Justice Department not to coverup torture With "state secrets" claims, as it is doing. Phone and Email the Office of Attorney General Eric Holder at 202-514-2001 AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
In the House and Senate, Congress members Nadler, Petri, Conyers, Delahunt, and Lofgren, and Senators Leahy, Specter, Feingold, McCaskill, Whitehouse and Kennedy have just reintroduced the State Secrets Protection Act. ASK YOUR REP AND SENATORS TO SIGN ON. Ask your Congress member and senators to sign on and to encourage the Attorney General to appoint a Special Prosecutor: 202-224-3121.
Senator Russ Feingold has requested a classified briefing to explain the "state secrets" claim. Encourage him to pursue the matter and to encourage the Attorney General to appoint a Special Prosecutor: Feingold, (202) 224-5323.
President Obama has promised transparency, but has not released even these incriminating memos that we already know about. Ask him to do so: 202-456-1111.
Ask Congress to reissue the subpoenas that were refused during the 110th Congress, and to enforce them through inherent contempt. Ask John Conyers to lock up Karl Rove.
Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Russ Feingold, Patrick Leahy, and Jack Reed, as well as Congressmen John Conyers and Jerrold Nadler, have made statements in 2009 in support of some form of accountability, and Conyers has explicitly advocated for a Special Prosecutor as well as introducing a bill to create an investigative commission. Such a commission might be counterproductive, as argued by Jonathan Turley, Peter Dyer, David Swanson, Bob Fertik, Martin Garbus and Ron Slye. The Justice Department itself has argued for "state secrets" blocks on prosecutions on the grounds that commissions can substitute for enforcing laws. The American public prefers criminal prosecutions to commission investigations. Senator Robert Byrd, too, supports some sort of accountability.
More valuable and appropriate for Congress, without interferring in (substituting for) law enforcement, would be a commission on presidential power and how to restrain it.
Lee-Wexler Bill Would Create Study of Torture-Wiretap Policies.
More on Conyers' proposal for a commission and the lengthy report he released when making the proposal go here. If you think your Congress member should sign on to H.R. 104, give them a call: 202-224-3121.
Indirect Pressure:
States and localities and political parties and organizations can pass resolutions. Here's how.
Make a citizen's arrest of a war criminal.
Taking Them to Court:
Organizations and individuals can file other types of law suits. Please do so.
Mandamus: You can ask a judge to order a prosecution. It's been tried in Minnesota with this writ, yielding this refusal.
Filing Complaints With State Licensing Authorities:
File your own complaint against Jay Bybee here.
Many of the people described on the citizen's arrest page are lawyers or psychologists, and we should file complaints with licensing agencies.
A coalition has filed bar complaints:
Restoring the Structure of the Rule of Law and Expanding Representative Democracy:
Congresswoman Barbara Lee has introduced a resolution rejecting as unconstitutional the treaty that President George W. Bush made without consulting Congress to establish three more years of war in Iraq. Ask your Congress member to sign onto H.Res. 72: 202-224-3121. Many groups and individuals are urging Pelosi to support this.
Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin has announced her intention to reintroduce a resolution urging the reversal of a number of Bush-Cheney abuses of power. We should be prepared to support this, and we should ask members to sign on as original cosponsors: 202-224-3121. Likely cosponsors are members of the progressive caucus. UPDATE: The new and improved resolution is here.
A bill is in the works to allow many more than 8 Congress members to attend secret briefings by the executive department.
We also need to:
Demand that President Obama reverse all of President Bush's signing statements that altered laws, and demand that Congress ban the use of funds for any activities created in violation of the law by presidential signing statements.
Support a bill to limit abuse of signing statements: (S.875).
Amend the Constitution to clearly ban the use of presidential pardons to pardon crimes authorized by the president.
Amend the War Powers Act and the Constition to include the requirement that Congressional authorizations of war include time limits of no more than 12 months, after which Congress must vote again to extend the war or end it, to disallow the unconstitutional initiation of wars without Congressional approval, and to make the law enforceable.
Make war profiteering by any war maker a major felony. This would apply to any employee of the federal government or anyone who had within the past decade been an employee of the federal government.
Legislate a requirement that, in any war, the military aged children and grandchildren of the president, the vice president, all cabinet officials, and all Congress members serve on the front lines in the most dangerous combat positions -- no exceptions, no exemptions.
Prohibit the use of mercenaries or any armed contractors, as well as the use of any military force on American soil except when directly engaged in defensive war against a foreign nation.
Repeal the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, the 2008 FISA "modernization" act and the Protect America Act, the original Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the PATRIOT Act.
Support a bill to permit civil suits for illegal spying to be brought against the government and not be blocked by claims of "sovereign immunity" (S.876).
Support a bill to require that the Supreme Court review cases of illegal spying (S.877).
Ban secret budgets, secret laws, and secret agencies.
Change the Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster.
Amend the Constitution to eliminate the Senate.
End all rendition.
Amend the Constitution to make the ban on ex-post-facto laws include any laws that would retroactively grant immunity for crimes.
Amend the Constitution to bar the vice president from exercising executive power.
Amend the Constitution to clarify the Congressional power of inherent contempt.
Amend the Constitution to include the right to vote and to have one's vote counted publicly at the polling place.
Give Washington, D.C., voting representation in Congress.
Amend the Constitution to ban private financing of campaigns, create public financing, and provide free air time to candidates.
Sign and ratify the Rome treaty to join the International Criminal Court.
Require that Congress members read and allow the public to read every bill before voting on it. (Also promoted here.)
Require that every bill handle only one subject.
Require that all laws be made by Congress.
Legislate a ban on presidents firing US attorneys at will. Give them four-year terms and allow their dismissal only for good cause.
Establish regular questioning of presidents by Congress members in Congress, as seen in British Parliament.
Make government transparent on the internet, including actions of agencies and actions of Congress members.
Amend Freedom of Information Act to allow less secrecy.
Ban secret holds on bills by senators.
Demand that Supreme Court ban alteration of laws via signing statements, establish policy that benefit of doubt given to departmental interpretations of law is not given to White House interpretations imposed on departments, and reject partisan and bi-partisan gerrymandering.
Require that nonprofits always reveal their corporate sponsors when lobbying.
Spreading the Word:
Be a media activist. Be the media and submit your reports, videos, photos here.
Please place this graphic toolkit on your website.
Put this theme song wherever you play music.
Buy a shirt or sign.
Buy "Prosecute Torture" bumper stickers.
Getting Organized:
Join After Downing Street.
Join Democrats.com.
Join the Progressive Democrats of America Issue Organizing Team on Accountability and Justice.
Join the National Accountability Network.
Join the United for Peace and Justice Working Group on Accountability and Prosecution.
Join the Peace Team.
Join World Can't Wait.
Join CODE PINK: Women for Peace.
Join Veterans for Peace.
Join High Road for Human Rights.
Join American Freedom Campaign.
Join Center for Constitutional Rights.
Join National Lawyers Guild.
Join the ACLU.
The Robert Jackson Steering Committee was formed at a September 2008 conference in Andover, Mass. Watch video.
Read the news below at http://prosecutebushcheney.org
For People Unclear on the Concept:
The crimes and abuses: ignoring and failing to respond to threats of terrorism, misspending funds, misleading Congress, creating false propaganda, invading Iraq in violation of Constitution, UN Charter, and HJRes 114, establishing bases and seeking to control resources, allowing energy companies to secretly make policy, providing immunity to mercenaries, wasting funds on war profiteers, detention without charge, rendition, torture, murder, imprisoning children, creating secret laws, using military domestically, spying without warrant, rewriting laws with signing statements, undermining preparedness for natural disasters and destroying economy through military waste, politicizing the Justice Department, ordering obstruction of justice, blocking prosecutions with bogus claims of "state secrets," et cetera, et cetera.
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Top CIA officials appear before jury over destruction of al-Qaida tapes
Submitted by davidswanson on Sat, 2009-07-04 12:59.• 92 video tapes may have been illegally destroyed
• London station chief included in inquiry
By Chris McGreal in Washington, guardian.co.uk
Senior Central Intelligence Agency officials, including the London station chief, have been brought before a grand jury in Virginia investigating the potentially illegal destruction of 92 video tapes recording the torture and interrogation of al-Qaida detainees.
A special prosecutor, John Durham, has called the CIA officials as part of an 18-month-long criminal probe in to the destruction of evidence of the agency's interrogators using waterboarding and other forms of torture against Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al Nashiri who are described by the Americans as "high value" detainees now held at Guantánamo Bay.
A President Breaks Hearts in Appalachia
Submitted by davidswanson on Sat, 2009-07-04 02:43.By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst environmental tragedy in American history. When will the Obama administration finally stop this Appalachian apocalypse?
... Obama has the authority to end mountaintop removal, without further action from Congress and without formal rulemaking. He just needs to make the coal barons obey the law.
Upcoming DC Panel: "Congress vs. the President: The Scope and Limits of Congressional Oversight Powers"
Submitted by Chip on Fri, 2009-07-03 15:38.The Constitution Project is holding a panel "Congress vs. the President: The Scope and Limits of Congressional Oversight Powers" on July 16th. Details and RSVP here.
Waking from Madison's Nightmare
Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2009-07-03 01:40.By David Swanson
The book I just read is in the running, in my estimation, for second-best text on how to undo the imperial presidency. (Can't be first, of course.) It's called "Madison's Nightmare: How Executive Power Threatens American Democracy," by Peter M. Shane, and it's much more about what the problem is than how to solve it, but the two things are not really separable, and the analysis of the problem here is invaluable.
Torturing the Rule of Law
Submitted by shahidbuttar on Thu, 2009-07-02 18:41.Sixty years ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson left Washington to pursue what he later called "the most important, enduring, and constructive work of [his] life": prosecuting international war crimes committed during WWII. Justice Jackson helped usher in a new international regime that promised to help deter human rights abuses.
Unfortunately, Jackson's achievements have proven less enduring than he hoped. Our nation continues to undermine international law by sweeping torture under the rug, with serious implications going forward.
The Nuremberg Trials established a timeless principle: individuals are criminally liable for violating fundamental human rights, even if their governments authorized those violations. Some laws, Nuremberg held, transcend those of any nation.
Amnesty Details Gaza 'War Crimes'
Submitted by Chip on Thu, 2009-07-02 13:34.
Amnesty details Gaza 'war crimes' | BBC
Israel committed war crimes and carried out reckless attacks and acts of wanton destruction in its Gaza offensive, an independent human rights report says.
Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed using high-precision weapons, while others were shot at close range, the group Amnesty International says.
Its report also calls rocket attacks by Palestinian militants war crimes and accuses Hamas of endangering civilians.
The Israeli military says its conduct was in line with international law.
Israel has attributed some civilian deaths to "professional mistakes", but has dismissed wider criticism that its attacks were indiscriminate and disproportionate.
Amnesty says some 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the 22-day Israeli offensive between 27 December 2008 and 17 January 2009, which agrees broadly with Palestinian figures. Read more.
Declaration of Indictment
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2009-07-01 15:10.IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 2009
The unanimous Declaration of the fifty united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with a gang of lawless thugs and insist on the appointment of a special prosecutor to enforce the laws of the land even against those until recently holding the reins of Power, a decent respect to the opinions of humankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Prosecution.
04-309: Death from Torture
Submitted by Chip on Tue, 2009-06-30 21:53.04-309: Death from Torture
By emptywheel | firedoglake
Meet "04-309." I don't know his name--DOD redacted that from the reports on detainee deaths it released to ACLU some time ago. "04-309" is the number DOD assigned to the autopsy they did on him in Mosul on April 26, 2004, just two days before the Abu Ghraib story broke.
When 04-309 was captured by Navy Seals around April 2, 2004, he was around 27, a "well-developed, well-nourished" man, 6 foot and 190 pounds. He had no visible scars. He was, apparently, healthy.
04-309 did, however, show signs of minor injury: cuts and bruises around his head and belly and right shoulder and arm. These wounds may have come when he was arrested--his autopsy summary says "Q by NSWT [Navy Seals], struggled/interrogated" before it describes he, "died sleeping."
But 04-309's Final Autopsy Report--completed on November 22, 2004, long after Abu Ghraib broke and the CIA's Inspector General concluded the CIA's interrogation program was cruel and inhumane (though not all that long after a criminal investigation of homicides committed in 2002 concluded, on October 8, 2004, that the deaths were partly caused by sleep deprivation and stress positions)--doesn't conclude how he died. It does, however, describe these "circumstances of death:" Read more.
Bill in Senate Would Allow Prosecution of Bush for Iraq War
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2009-06-30 19:47.By David Swanson
Senators Dick Durbin, Russ Feingold, and Patrick Leahy have introduced a bill in the United States Senate (S. 1346) that would allow the prosecution of George W. Bush and his subordinates for the invasion of Iraq. Before concluding that the Spirit of Justice has risen from the flames, a few caveats: First, none of these senators intends the bill for this purpose, and they would all vehemently and honestly deny that they had any such thing in mind. Second, the bill still has to pass both houses and be signed into law. Third, it has to be signed without a signing statement completely altering it. Fourth, the same Department of Justice that won't prosecute torturers would have to prosecute those who attacked Baghdad. Nonetheless, the possibilities are worth considering.
Disbar Torture Lawyers Press Conference
Submitted by Chip on Tue, 2009-06-30 08:24.Disbar Torture Lawyers Press Conference - National Press Club, DC - June 29, 2009
Part 1:
More videos below.
Cheney Worried That Iraq Withdrawal Will ‘Waste’ The Sacrifice By U.S. Troops
Submitted by Chip on Tue, 2009-06-30 08:02.Cheney Worried That Iraq Withdrawal Will ‘Waste’ The Sacrifice By U.S. Troops
By Amanda Terkel | Think Progress
Tomorrow is the deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq, a date Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is calling a “great victory.” But in a new interview with Washington Times radio, Vice President Cheney was still pushing the U.S. to stay in Iraq, saying that withdrawal would “waste” the sacrifice of U.S. troops:
Mr. Cheney told The Washington Times’ America’s Morning News radio show that he is a strong believer in Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and that the general is doing what needs to be done.
“But what he says concerns me: That there is still a continuing problem. One might speculate that insurgents are waiting as soon as they get an opportunity to launch more attacks.
“I hope Iraqis can deal with it. At some point they have to stand on their own. But I would not want to see the U.S. waste all the tremendous sacrifice that has gotten us to this point.“ Read more.
Video: Bar Complaints Filed Against Rizzo and Fredman, Obama's Torture Lawyers
Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2009-06-29 18:34.Judges Above the Law
Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2009-06-29 17:11.By Scott Horton
The chief judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals acted preemptively in an apparent effort to head off challenges to his colleague, torture lawyer turned judge Jay Bybee. On Friday, public interests groups in California filed a judicial misconduct complaint against Bybee based on his focal role in creating legal memoranda designed to protect torturers against criminal prosecution. Judge Alex Kozinski handed down a decision stating that judges of the court of appeals could not be held accountable for any crimes they may have committed before they came on the bench—at least not through the court’s own internal disciplinary mechanisms.
Witch Hunts and Torture
Submitted by Chip on Mon, 2009-06-29 13:35.
Witch Hunts and Torture
Western religious history can shed some useful light on today’s discussion of ‘enhanced interrogation’ — or as they referred to such practices back in the 15th century, torture.
By Mary Zeiss Stange | USAToday
Former POW John McCain knows torture, and he has consistently condemned its use by government agents. Nonetheless, in April he warned that any probe into the Bush administration's use of harsh interrogation techniques would amount to a "witch hunt." The senator was surely unaware of the considerable historical irony involved in his invoking this phrase.
Viewed objectively, the original witch hunts shed significant light on the current debate about the uses of torture. Conducted under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church, the Inquisition, and more particularly that aspect of it known as the Witchcraze, was the most spectacular case of systematic torture in Western religious history. It lasted roughly from the 15th through the 17th centuries in Europe, and it offers definitive proof that if reliable information is what you are after, torture is not a good way to get it.
If invoking religious precedent seems an odd way to resolve the question of whether torture is ever acceptable, it is sobering to note that according to a recently released poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, a majority of regularly attending American churchgoers say it is. Questioned by the Associated Press as to whether Jesus would condone torture, conservative commentator Gary Bauer has speculated that Jesus himself, being the Son of God, probably wouldn't be a torturer, but that he'd regard as "morally suspect" any of his followers who shrank from torturing for the sake of the greater good. Read more.
Faith Leaders Press Obama For Torture Commission
Submitted by Chip on Mon, 2009-06-29 13:21.Faith leaders press Obama for torture commission | The Christian Century
Prominent religious officials led a march to the White House last month to urge President Obama to form a commission of inquiry into interrogation practices under the Bush administration. The clerics and other senior religious leaders and supporters who joined them for the "public witness" formed a crowd adorned with robes, collars, hijabs and yarmulkes.
"It is often said the way to move forward is putting behind the past," said Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, as he stood in front of the White House. "We who gather here today believe the way to the future comes after a full disclosure of truth of wrongdoing."
The rally was sponsored by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), which has applauded Obama's executive order requiring that the U.S. abide by international anti-torture agreements. Read more.
Color Revolutions, Old and New
Submitted by Chip on Mon, 2009-06-29 13:11.Color Revolutions, Old and New
By Stephen Lendman
In his new book, "Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order," F. William Engdahl explained a new form of US covert warfare - first played out in Belgrade, Serbia in 2000. What appeared to be "a spontaneous and genuine political 'movement,' (in fact) was the product of techniques" developed in America over decades.
In the 1990s, RAND Corporation strategists developed the concept of "swarming" to explain "communication patterns and movement of" bees and other insects which they applied to military conflict by other means. More on this below.
www.VelvetRevolution.us