---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ShunkW <shunkw@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Sun, Aug 21, 2011 at 5:19 AM
Subject: Getting Away with Torture: Obama Bans War Criminals, Except Our Own
To: ShunkW <shunkw@sbcglobal.net>
Getting Away with Torture: Obama Bans War Criminals, Except Our Own
By Nat Hentoff
Global Research <http://www.globalresearch.ca> , August 20, 2011
The Star Democrat <http://www.stardem.com/>
By executive order on Aug. 4, President Barack Obama refused entry to the
United States of war criminals and human-rights violators (jurist.org, Aug.
4). He ignored, as he often does, the deeply documented factual evidence of
war crimes committed by the Bush-Cheney administration along with grim proof
that the Obama administration also violates our anti-torture laws and the
U.N. Convention Against Torture we signed. Take, for example, right now
under Obama, "The CIA Secret Sites in Somalia" (the nation.com
<http://nation.com/> , July 12).
In what will be an historic 108-page report, "Getting Away with Torture: The
Bush Administration and Mistreatment of Detainees
<http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0711webwcover.pdf> ,"
Human Rights Watch is further accelerating the rising insistence here on
accountability from George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and former
CIA director George Tenet for having not only authorized these war crimes,
but also failing "to act to stop mistreatment, or punish those responsible
after they became aware of serious abuses"
Not only has President Obama rejected an independent criminal investigation
of these highest-profile officials, but also, adds Human Rights Watch, of
Condoleezza Rice, John Ashcroft, David Addington (counsel to Cheney) and,
among others, John Yoo, author of the unsparingly cruel, aptly dubbed
"torture memos" from the Ashcroft Justice Department that gave "legal cover"
to allow torture.
Moreover, as Stephen Rohde, constitutional lawyer and chairman of the ACLU
Foundation of Southern California, discloses
(truthout.org.getting-getting-away-with-torture, July 28), Freedom of
Information lawsuits filed by the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional
Rights have yielded more than 100,000 pages of documents detailing these war
crimes.
As others and I have reported in articles and books, there is additional
evidence, including from actual Defense Department records, of the deaths of
"detainees" in our custody. Because unknown numbers of these deaths are very
likely to have also taken place in CIA "black sites" and during CIA
"renditions" to countries known for torturing, there is no way of knowing
how many other "ghost prisoners" have disappeared into eternity because such
information remains classified.
It is also worth noting as Jane Mayer, a key historian of this "dark side"
of our history, emphasized the impact on some CIA agents of their
involvement in these crimes. As I have reported ("History Will Not Absolve
Us: Leaked Red Cross report sets up Bush teams for international war-crimes
trial," Village Voice, Aug. 27, 2007):
"She quotes a former CIA officer: 'When you cross over that line of
darkness, it's hard to come back. You lose your soul. You can do your best
to justify it, but ... you can't go back to that dark a place without it
changing you.'"
CIA agents are also human beings.
For those growing number of Americans who are concerned with what has been
and still is done in our names, it's important to know exactly the warning
in this regard in the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment that was signed by President
Ronald Reagan in 1988 and ratified by our government in 1994:
"No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat
or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be
invoked as a justification of torture.
"An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked
as a justification of torture."
The United States also signed the Geneva Conventions, which mandates and
please pay attention to this, President Obama each contracting party "shall
be under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or
to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches (of the Geneva
Conventions), and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality,
before its own courts."
This means that you, President Obama, are obligated to bring the foregoing
list of war criminals during the Bush presidency into our courts or, before
that, be subject to an independent criminal investigation. Next week,
reasons to believe that you and your administration have also been violating
the Geneva Conventions, the Convention Against Torture and U.S. laws.
Also, Americans of all political parties, faiths and backgrounds are
themselves obligated to insist that this administration, like Bush-Cheney's
stop preventing lawsuits on these war crimes from even being heard in our
courts under the perversion of "the state secrets" doctrine.
We owe it to our next generation and those following to take responsibility
for our worldwide shame of having become a torture nation. As we condemn
other nations' crimes against their citizens Syria, Libya, Zimbabwe, et al
our government makes it easier for those countries to escape accountability
by utterly denying our own complicity in the cruel, inhumane, degrading
torture that has given terrorists around the world so valuable a means for
recruiting more terrorists.
Not one of the aspiring Republican candidates for the presidency next year
has said a word about this. And Obama cherishes their silence.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility
of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Centre for
Research on Globalization. The contents of this article are of sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization
will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements
contained in this article.
To become a Member of Global Research
<http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=section§ionName=membersh
ip>
The CRG grants permission to cross-post original Global Research articles on
community internet sites as long as the text & title are not modified. The
source and the author's copyright must be displayed. For publication of
Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial
internet sites, contact: crgeditor@yahoo.com <mailto:crgeditor@yahoo.com>
www.globalresearch.ca <http://www.globalresearch.ca/www.globalresearch.ca>
contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material
available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to
advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The
material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational
purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than
"fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner.
For media inquiries: crgeditor@yahoo.com
(c) Copyright Nat Hentoff, The Star Democrat <http://www.stardem.com/> ,
2011
The url address of this article is:
www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=26097
(c) Copyright 2005-2007 GlobalResearch.ca
Web site engine by Polygraphx Multimedia <http://www.polygraphx.com> (c)
Copyright 2005-2007
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=HEN20110820&
articleId=26097
Sw
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From: ShunkW <shunkw@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Sun, Aug 21, 2011 at 5:19 AM
Subject: Getting Away with Torture: Obama Bans War Criminals, Except Our Own
To: ShunkW <shunkw@sbcglobal.net>
Getting Away with Torture: Obama Bans War Criminals, Except Our Own
By Nat Hentoff
Global Research <http://www.globalresearch.ca> , August 20, 2011
The Star Democrat <http://www.stardem.com/>
By executive order on Aug. 4, President Barack Obama refused entry to the
United States of war criminals and human-rights violators (jurist.org, Aug.
4). He ignored, as he often does, the deeply documented factual evidence of
war crimes committed by the Bush-Cheney administration along with grim proof
that the Obama administration also violates our anti-torture laws and the
U.N. Convention Against Torture we signed. Take, for example, right now
under Obama, "The CIA Secret Sites in Somalia" (the nation.com
<http://nation.com/> , July 12).
In what will be an historic 108-page report, "Getting Away with Torture: The
Bush Administration and Mistreatment of Detainees
<http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0711webwcover.pdf> ,"
Human Rights Watch is further accelerating the rising insistence here on
accountability from George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and former
CIA director George Tenet for having not only authorized these war crimes,
but also failing "to act to stop mistreatment, or punish those responsible
after they became aware of serious abuses"
Not only has President Obama rejected an independent criminal investigation
of these highest-profile officials, but also, adds Human Rights Watch, of
Condoleezza Rice, John Ashcroft, David Addington (counsel to Cheney) and,
among others, John Yoo, author of the unsparingly cruel, aptly dubbed
"torture memos" from the Ashcroft Justice Department that gave "legal cover"
to allow torture.
Moreover, as Stephen Rohde, constitutional lawyer and chairman of the ACLU
Foundation of Southern California, discloses
(truthout.org.getting-getting-away-with-torture, July 28), Freedom of
Information lawsuits filed by the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional
Rights have yielded more than 100,000 pages of documents detailing these war
crimes.
As others and I have reported in articles and books, there is additional
evidence, including from actual Defense Department records, of the deaths of
"detainees" in our custody. Because unknown numbers of these deaths are very
likely to have also taken place in CIA "black sites" and during CIA
"renditions" to countries known for torturing, there is no way of knowing
how many other "ghost prisoners" have disappeared into eternity because such
information remains classified.
It is also worth noting as Jane Mayer, a key historian of this "dark side"
of our history, emphasized the impact on some CIA agents of their
involvement in these crimes. As I have reported ("History Will Not Absolve
Us: Leaked Red Cross report sets up Bush teams for international war-crimes
trial," Village Voice, Aug. 27, 2007):
"She quotes a former CIA officer: 'When you cross over that line of
darkness, it's hard to come back. You lose your soul. You can do your best
to justify it, but ... you can't go back to that dark a place without it
changing you.'"
CIA agents are also human beings.
For those growing number of Americans who are concerned with what has been
and still is done in our names, it's important to know exactly the warning
in this regard in the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment that was signed by President
Ronald Reagan in 1988 and ratified by our government in 1994:
"No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat
or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be
invoked as a justification of torture.
"An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked
as a justification of torture."
The United States also signed the Geneva Conventions, which mandates and
please pay attention to this, President Obama each contracting party "shall
be under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or
to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches (of the Geneva
Conventions), and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality,
before its own courts."
This means that you, President Obama, are obligated to bring the foregoing
list of war criminals during the Bush presidency into our courts or, before
that, be subject to an independent criminal investigation. Next week,
reasons to believe that you and your administration have also been violating
the Geneva Conventions, the Convention Against Torture and U.S. laws.
Also, Americans of all political parties, faiths and backgrounds are
themselves obligated to insist that this administration, like Bush-Cheney's
stop preventing lawsuits on these war crimes from even being heard in our
courts under the perversion of "the state secrets" doctrine.
We owe it to our next generation and those following to take responsibility
for our worldwide shame of having become a torture nation. As we condemn
other nations' crimes against their citizens Syria, Libya, Zimbabwe, et al
our government makes it easier for those countries to escape accountability
by utterly denying our own complicity in the cruel, inhumane, degrading
torture that has given terrorists around the world so valuable a means for
recruiting more terrorists.
Not one of the aspiring Republican candidates for the presidency next year
has said a word about this. And Obama cherishes their silence.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility
of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Centre for
Research on Globalization. The contents of this article are of sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization
will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements
contained in this article.
To become a Member of Global Research
<http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=section§ionName=membersh
ip>
The CRG grants permission to cross-post original Global Research articles on
community internet sites as long as the text & title are not modified. The
source and the author's copyright must be displayed. For publication of
Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial
internet sites, contact: crgeditor@yahoo.com <mailto:crgeditor@yahoo.com>
www.globalresearch.ca <http://www.globalresearch.ca/www.globalresearch.ca>
contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material
available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to
advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The
material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational
purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than
"fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner.
For media inquiries: crgeditor@yahoo.com
(c) Copyright Nat Hentoff, The Star Democrat <http://www.stardem.com/> ,
2011
The url address of this article is:
www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=26097
(c) Copyright 2005-2007 GlobalResearch.ca
Web site engine by Polygraphx Multimedia <http://www.polygraphx.com> (c)
Copyright 2005-2007
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=HEN20110820&
articleId=26097
Sw
--
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Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/
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