• About
  • The Poetry of Protest

Show Me Progress

~ covering government and politics in Missouri – since 2007

Show Me Progress

Tag Archives: crimes against humanity

The United States of America in a nutshell

01 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

crimes against humanity, Dick Cheney, torture

Previously: His sock puppet used a crayon, he used blood and oil (August 30, 2011)

Getting Away With Torture

Dick Cheney’s memoir shows the importance of the law, not of torture.

By Dahlia Lithwick

Posted Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2011, at 5:23 PM ET

….Dick Cheney is living proof that if we are not brave enough to enforce our laws, we will forever be at the mercy of a handful of men.

We are not worthy.

His sock puppet used a crayon, he used blood and oil

30 Tuesday Aug 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

book, crimes against humanity, Dick Cheney

Apparently, the dark lord has written a book and is hawking it.

“No blood for oil.”

@democracynow Democracy Now!

Ex-Bush Official Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: “I Am Willing To Testify” If Dick #Cheney Is Put On Trial owl.li/6gAjV @ggreenwald 2 hours ago

“….This is a book written out of fear, fear that one day someone will ‘Pinochet’ Dick Cheney,” says Wilkerson, alluding to the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested for war crimes. Wilkerson also calls for George W. Bush and Cheney to be held accountable for their crimes in office. “I’d be willing to testify, and I’d be willing to take any punishment I’m due,” Wilkerson said….

That’s some book review. Damn, in the coming days and weeks we’re all gonna need garlic if we stroll past the remainder bin at our favorite bulk shopping venues.

Dick Cheney confesses

21 Tuesday Apr 2009

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

crimes against humanity, Dick Cheney, torture

Former Vice President Dick Cheney:

Cheney Calls for Release of Memos Showing Results of Interrogation Efforts

“…I haven’t talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw, that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country,” Cheney said. “I’ve now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was…”

Uh, if the right wingnuts have been complaining that the release of the torture authorization memos would hurt America, won’t the release of the “dubya administration ‘snuff porn'” memos do the same? Why does Dick Cheney hate America? Just asking.

The incomparable Digby:

Vice For Life

…Did someone forget to tell Dick that he has no authority anymore to formally or informally ask the CIA to do jack?

I don’t ever remember a former president, much less a former vice president, behaving like this after he’s out of office. Can’t he find some GOP hacks to do this for him? It’s embarrassing…

It isn’t easy being out of power and not being able to travel the world without fear of arrest because you habitually violated the peremptory norms of international law.

Is this a great country, or what?

18 Wednesday Feb 2009

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

American exceptionalism, crimes against humanity, torture, unitary executive

From the incomparable Glenn Greenwald:

…If our political leaders can’t be held accountable for their war crimes and other serious felonies in foreign countries or international tribunals, and must never be held accountable in the U.S. either (because to do so is to “pour acid into our democratic machinery”), then it means that American political officials (in contrast to most other leaders) are completely and explicitly exempt from, placed above, the rule of law…

Go. Read the whole thing.

Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nüremberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal, 1950.

Principle III

The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible Government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.

[emphasis added]

They needed to ask?

25 Thursday Sep 2008

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Ashcroft, Bush White House, crimes against humanity, media criticism, Rice, Rumsfeld, torture

Harsh interrogation techniques? Don’t you long for simpler times when everyone knew it was called torture?

New York Times

Bush Aides Linked to Talks on Interrogations

By MARK MAZZETTI

Published: September 24, 2008

WASHINGTON – Senior White House officials played a central role in deliberations in the spring of 2002 about whether the Central Intelligence Agency could legally use harsh interrogation techniques while questioning an operative of Al Qaeda, Abu Zubaydah, according to newly released documents…

…The documents provide new details about the still-murky early months of the C.I.A.’s detention program, when the agency began using a set of harsh interrogation techniques weeks before the Justice Department issued a written legal opinion in August 2002 authorizing their use. Congressional investigators have long tried to determine exactly who authorized these techniques before the legal opinion was completed…

Uh, the 2002 memo was withdrawn, because it was in conflict with the peremptory norms of international law and the standards of behavior for civilized nations:

A Small Clique Of Legal Extremists…

The Memorandum for Alberto R. Gonzales, Counsel to the President of August 1, 2002 (the so-called “Bybee Memo”) goes to great lengths to narrowly define torture, create a “defense” defense, and to further assert the unitary executive (that the President determines what is “the law”). The memo signed by Jay Bybee, then an assistant Attorney General and now a judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, was reportedly the work of John Yoo, now a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. There is no mention of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in this memo…

…LEGAL STANDARDS APPLICABLE UNDER 18 U.S.C. §§ 2340-2340A MEMORANDUM OPINION FOR THE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL issued on December 30, 2004 (the so-called “Levin Memo”) states: “…This memorandum supersedes the August 2002 Memorandum in its entirety…”

AWOL military justice

Why the former chief prosecutor for the Office of Military Commissions resigned his post.

By Morris D. Davis

December 10, 2007

Los Angeles Times

I was the chief prosecutor for the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until Oct. 4, the day I concluded that full, fair and open trials were not possible under the current system. I resigned on that day because I felt that the system had become deeply politicized and that I could no longer do my job effectively or responsibly…

…I had instructed the prosecutors in September 2005 that we would not offer any evidence derived by waterboarding, one of the aggressive interrogation techniques the administration has sanctioned…

[emphasis added]

The old media is pathetic. They use the memes and language of those who want to obscure their reprehensible behavior. Torture is torture, not a “harsh interrogation technique.” As a party to the Tokyo War Crimes Trials the United States prosecuted individuals for waterboarding prisoners because it was torture. I’d expect even the mediocre legal minds who have served the present administration to know that. And the New York Times, too.

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007

Categories

  • campaign finance
  • Claire McCaskill
  • Democratic Party News
  • Healthcare
  • Hillary Clinton
  • Interview
  • Josh Hawley
  • media criticism
  • meta
  • Missouri General Assembly
  • Missouri Governor
  • Missouri House
  • Missouri Senate
  • Resist
  • Roy Blunt
  • social media
  • Standing Rock
  • Town Hall
  • Uncategorized
  • US Senate

Meta

  • Log in

Blogroll

  • Balloon Juice
  • Crooks and Liars
  • Digby
  • I Spy With My Little Eye
  • Lawyers, Guns, and Money
  • No More Mister Nice Blog
  • The Great Orange Satan
  • Washington Monthly
  • Yael Abouhalkah

Donate to Show Me Progress via PayPal

Your modest support helps keep the lights on. Click on the button:

Blog Stats

  • 581,244 hits

Powered by WordPress.com.

 

Loading Comments...