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Bet you didn’t know that Cheney had been held accountable for his role in arranging that the United States involve itself in torture. When a questioner at Claire’s “Kitchen Table Talk” in St. Louis on Thursday asked the senator what she thought should be done about recent revelations, Claire said … well, let’s let her say it. (The video begins partway through the questioner’s remarks. The woman, a single mother struggling with two mortgages, is nevertheless concerned about more than just the economy.)
What kind of message does this send to our children? We try to teach them about right and wrong, and about how there are consequences to one’s actions. Come January 20th, Cheney and Bush will have served the maximum time allowed by the Constitution for Pres. and VP, how does a party change in the executive branch hold those accountable for committing crimes, directly violating the constitution, blocking oversight, trashing international treaties which legally are part of the supreme law of the land?
What kind of message does this send to our children about right and wrong? You break a law, get to smugly proclaim as much in lame-duck after-the-fact interview, and we just move along politically? Well, ‘we’ve asked them to leave the room’, that’s accountability? Hardly.
…there is no ignoring it.
If they did it once and are not held accountable they’ll do it again.
Freedom from torture is a non-derogable human right. No law, no treaty, no executive order can permit nor excuse torture. Period.
Torture is a Federal crime, a violation of our treatiy obligations, and a violation of the peremptory norms of International Law (jus cogens).
From A Small Clique Of Legal Extremists…:
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This is a practical clause. If we had no way to enforce our treaties in our laws no one would make treaties with us.
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was presented after World [W]ar II. Its provisions made their way into the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and as such, were ratified as norms of international law by the majority of civilized states in the world.
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The United States signed and ratified both the Convention Against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
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The United States has not ratified nor signed this treaty, supposedly because its contents were already accepted norms of international law.
In the Aftermath of World War II the United States was a participant in the Nüremberg Tribunal
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Yeah, they’re war criminals all right. If we let them get away with it we’re just as culpable as they are.
accountable as well as possibilities of Bush pardons are discussed in this Newsweek article (via Huffington Post)