Catching this, not much up yet, gives me a chance to catch up on the Brit Iraq War Inquiry, still ongoing.
First the Brits with theirs, next the Dutch and theirs and now some very prominent Aussie's are calling for their own! Could the pressure start mounting on the Power that controlled the whole extremely failed policies of the previous decade? Time will tell but most residents of this country are apathetic and arrogant as to most everything especially baring their guilt and guilty in mass, as the The pitbull in lipstick said at the no American Flags tea gathering, "We don't want to look back'"!
As they say, "just one individual CAN make a difference."
"Prof. Francis A. Boyle, Professor of International Law, University of Illinois College of Law, of Champaign, Illinois, U.S.A., has filed a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.), in The Hague, against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleeza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales (the Accused)." The Complaint is based on the "criminal policy and practice of 'extraordinary renditions' perpetrated upon about 100 human beings," which practice represents "Crimes against Humanity" and are "in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the I.C.C." * (emphasis mine)
The Honorable Luis Moreno-Ocampo
Office of the Prosecutor
International Criminal Court
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM, The Hague
The Netherlands
Fax No.: 31-70-515-8555
Email: OTP.InformationDesk@icc-cpi.int
January 19, 2010
Dear Sir:
Please accept my personal compliments. I have the honor hereby to file with you and the International Criminal Court this Complaint against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice , and Alberto Gonzales (hereinafter referred to as the "Accused") for their criminal policy and practice of "extraordinary rendition." This term is really a euphemism for the enforced disappearances of persons, their torture, severe deprivation of their liberty, their violent sexual abuse, and other inhumane acts perpetrated upon these Victims. The Accused have inflicted this criminal policy and practice of "extraordinary rendition" upon about one hundred (100) human beings, almost all of whom are Muslims/Arabs/Asians and People of Color. I doubt very seriously that the Accused would have inflicted these criminal practices upon 100 White Judeo-Christian men. . . . .
[Note:A reading of the entirety of the Complaint can be found here.
16 Jan 2010 Almost a quarter of voters (23%) believe Tony Blair deliberately misled MPs over the Iraq war and should face war crimes charges, an opinion poll has found.
Snip
The YouGov survey for the Sunday Times found less than a third (32%) accepted that Mr Blair "genuinely believed in the threat" which he used to publicly justify sending UK troops, while 52% thought he had "deliberately misled" the country.
And by a similar margin (49% to 31%), they also said they believed his former communications director Alastair Campbell was not truthful when he gave evidence to Sir John Chilcot's inquiry this week....>>>>>
President Obama's track record has been stunning in its all out embrace and expansion of the corrupt Foreign Policy of the past 8 dark years (and with it, the total rejection of what people voted for) -- a darkness Obama won't let any sunlight near.
Here's the latest from Obama:
The Obama administration quietly announced Friday the appointment of John McLaughlin, former deputy CIA director, to head the internal investigation of the intelligence failures that led to the Christmas Day attempted bombing of a Delta airliner headed for Detroit as well as the events leading to the shootings at Fort Hood in November.
With this appointment, President Barack Obama has assured that the culture of intelligence cover-up will continue. McLaughlin has participated in and sought to cover-up many of the CIA's most egregious failures and misdeeds of the past decade. When he left the CIA, he then served as the agency's chief apologist.
So, who is John McLaughlin? Most of official Washington and the mainstream media view McLaughlin as the mild-mannered, professorial CIA bureaucrat, who former CIA director George Tenet called the "smartest man he had ever met."
Few people understand, however, that McLaughlin played the most important role in making sure that the Bush administration received the intelligence that would be used and misused to justify the use of force against Iraq in 2003.
Washington insiders remember that it was CIA director Tenet who told President George W. Bush, "Don't worry, it's a slam dunk," in response to the president's demand for stronger intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to provide to the American people. Few people remember that it was McLaughlin who actually delivered the "slam-dunk" briefing to the president in January 2003.
McLaughlin was the "villain" behind the politicized intelligence on Iraq in the run-up to the illegal war. He perverted the intelligence process, ignored high-level briefings on the weakness of the intelligence on WMD and then tried to silence David Kay, the chief of the Iraq Survey Group, when the weapons inspectors found no evidence of strategic weapons in Iraq.
When Kay returned to CIA headquarters from Baghdad, Tenet and McLaughlin made sure that Kay was given a tiny, windowless office at the end of a distant, deserted corridor undergoing construction. It had no secure phone or classified computer. Kay called it Siberia.
The Iraq inquiry has resumed this week, promising crucial witnesses - Tony Blair, Jack Straw, Lord Goldsmith and possibly Gordon Brown.
And so it begins again, will we see some more little tidbits of information on this Countries, the once United States, as we did before the Holiday break.
But probably not here in the states, for we're a Nation of Arrogance and Apathy, but Fear and what we call our Politics rules our critical thoughts and common sense and especially fear of bringing possible extreme criminal leaders, and their support groups, to justice!
The Chilcot Iraq War Inquiry is on a break for the holidays. Holidays of celebrating the birth of the 'prince of peace' from one religious ideology as well as other celebrations from this worlds other religious ideologies, all of these based on a number of religious themes and teachings but one stands out that isn't followed 'tolerance' of each other and even outside of religions the racial and religious makeup of others.
The U.S. Constitution leaves the decision to wage war to Congress, and Congress can enforce its decision not to wage war by refusing to fund it. Blocking a funding bill for wars requires the House of Representatives alone, and both Democrats and Republicans in the House are rapidly joining us in saying No to war funding.
It's time to finally get serious, to lobby, to protest, to sit in, to nonviolently disrupt and resist in local district offices until enough Representatives commit to voting No on any bill to fund more war.
Please call your representatives and find out they will vote on funding the wars, urge them not to, etc. and post responses from them in the above site beneath the chart. The chart is regularly updated. This is a great way to keep a running to "track" of our representatives
*unfortunately, it's not possible to embed the link here
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Support over 100 outstanding, leading peace activists in their "Emergency Anti-Escalation Rally," on December 12, 2009, at the White House, by going to Ends the Wars Org and signing the letter to the President. It's easy, send them an e-mail and ask that your name and state be included.
This is what this Country, the United States, should be doing now or had already done during the previous administration, investigating towards Impeachment and possible Indictments, depending on what evidence of crimes and lies surfaced. Especially if we really are what we like to think and demand others to believe we are and if our Constitution still exist as the leading Representative Democracy on this planet. But leave it up to 'Old Europe', hopefully, to seek answers that should be in the light of day and a part of the physical history added to the already known.
But it's never to late for us to try and minimize the blowback from our extremely destructive policies, or is it!
Obama joined the leaders of Britain and France in accusing the Islamic republic of clandestinely building an underground plant to make nuclear fuel that could be used to build an atomic bomb. Iranian officials acknowledged the facility but insisted it had been reported to nuclear authorities as required.
Obama should try reading intelligence reports, like 2007's National Intelligence Estimate (the combined consensus report by all sixteen known U.S. intelligence agencies), which stated quite clearly that there is no concrete evidence of a weapons program in Iran. In July and August of this year, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed the lack of evidence although it refuses to state anything definitively. Yet still Obama, the D.C. political establishment, and the corporate media continue to lie to the contrary.
We've already been lied into one failed war, lied into ramping up another failed war, are so hurting for fresh soldiers that the Pentagon is now actively accepting white supremacists, yet still the establishment seeks to lie us into another conflict.
At precisely 2:12 A.M. Eastern Time this diary was deleted from the Daily Kos despite the "Fictional" tag I gave it. It has been labeled as a "Truther" diary, yet it says right in the tags AND THE FUCKING TITLE it was fictional. So not only does the new Kostapo (trained at this very facility :::shakes fist:::) have a response time of 13 minutes for banning your handle and 2 hours and 12 minutes to delete a diary....but they are also illiterate. That is all.
It was the best of times, and then, it was the worst of times.
In June of 1997 the Republicans found themselves marginalized by the prosperity brought about by a slick politician they would later impeach for having "sexual relations" with a woman that wasn't his wife.
They were bitter, defeated, and were preparing to ascend...with a little help from their friends.
He's since been on at least two NPR shows one being All Things Considered which is about a seven minute discussion of the book and the Pat Tillman military service story that was propagandized by both the cheney/bush administration, the pentagon and the military!
In over eight years past now, with all our screaming (rallying, calling, e-mailing, LTE's, etc.), have we Americans ever gotten anything we've felt was the morally and legally correct thing to be done? Even if anything at all was ever offered, it was but mere "crumbs" - a form of appeasement. And, then, later, we most always learn there was an underlying reason for not wanting to really deal with the issue. It seems that we may be in the same place, once again, as concerns investigations and prosecutions of Bush Administration officials, with Holder's idea being the limited focus on some CIA incidents.
Unrelated? Many of you are aware of the cases of Siegelman, Scrushy, Minor and Walker and Rove's * involvement. Yet, nothing seems to be going anywhere with these cases - status quo! Some of you may even receive Don Siegelman's appeal e-mail letters now and again. Dana Jill Simpson, as many of you will recall, is the attorney that has acted as "whistleblower," in the Siegelman case. Her home was burnt down and while driving, she was run off the road after having spoken out the truth.
Ms. Simpson recently received a tip and one that she followed up on. Why is that important? Just read!
More of the cheney/bush/republican congress incompetent criminality coming to light, especially out of the VA, while Two Occupations were still ongoing and troops were returning for the care needed, as their brothers and sisters were returning in Flag Draped Coffins!!
Ray McGovern, in a 2-Part video series, speaks with Jay Paul, Senior Editor of the Real News Network -- Revisiting the Downing Street Memo.
While we have mainly focussed our efforts on the torture, McGovern gives us some play by play events and some in-depth observations as to our war of aggression against Iraq. It is pretty jaw-dropping stuff!
Note this, as well:
With respect to waging a war of aggression-and that is a technical term defined by Nuremberg, the Nuremberg tribunal, which came after World War II. And what they said was that to institute a war of aggression is to commit the supreme international crime, differing from other war crimes only inasmuch as it contains the accumulated evil of the whole. (emphasis mine)
A war of aggression is the worst crime of all, because "it contains the accumulated evil of the whole." Of course, that would include torture, and all the heinous crimes that we know were committed.
Principle Vl The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under; international law:
Crimes against peace:
1--Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in
violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;
2--Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the
acts mentioned under (i).
Here is Part I:
In Part II, McGovern speaks about "The person that leaked the memo did an 'incredible' public service."
The supreme act of corrupt power is to murder with impunity, and it is this act that may bring down Dick Cheney. Today Lawrence Wilkerson had this to say about Cheney's secret death squads:
"What I suspect has happened is what began to happen while I was still in the government, and that was we're killing the wrong people," Wilkerson added. "And we're killing the wrong people in the wrong countries. And the countries are finding out about it, or at least there was a suspicion that the countries might find out about it, and so it was shut down. That's my strong suspicion."
For monsters like Cheney and Bush, the thrill of the kill was not diminished by making mistakes. No, this simply added to the feeling of unbridled power. That's what it means to kill with impunity. There were no checks on the heads of our national security state. They were no different from Louis XIV or Caligula. They held the power of life and death over hundreds of millions of people, and it was intoxicating.
Reform Immigration -
March on Washington
