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The National Campaign to Impeach President George W. Bush

Posted in News & Views, War & Peace by secretariat on the July 27th, 2007

by Professor Francis A. Boyle

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn’t Fit

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s installation of George W. Bush as
President in January of 2001, the peoples of the world have witnessed a
government in the United States of America that demonstrates little if
any respect for fundamental considerations of international law,
international organizations, and human rights, let alone appreciation of

the requirements for maintaining international peace and security. What
the world has watched instead is a comprehensive and malicious assault
upon the integrity of the international legal order by a group of men
and women who are thoroughly Machiavellian in their perception of
international relations and in their conduct of both foreign policy and
domestic affairs. This is not simply a question of giving or withholding
the benefit of the doubt when it comes to complicated matters of foreign
affairs and defense policies to a U.S. government charged with the
security of both its own citizens and those of its allies in Europe, the
Western Hemisphere, and the Pacific. Rather, the Bush Jr.
administration’s foreign policies represent a gross deviation from those
basic rules of international deportment and civilized behavior that the
United States government had traditionally played the pioneer role in
promoting for the entire world community. Even more seriously, in many
instances specific components of the Bush Jr. administration’s foreign
policies constitute ongoing criminal activity under well-recognized
principles of both international law and U.S. domestic law, and in
particular the Nuremberg Charter, the Nuremberg Judgment, and the
Nuremberg Principles.

Depending upon the substantive issues involved, those international
crimes typically include but are not limited to the Nuremberg offenses
of crimes against peace, crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well
as grave breaches of the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the 1907
Hague Regulations on land warfare, torture, disappearances, and
assassinations. In addition, various members of the Bush Jr.
administration committed numerous inchoate crimes incidental to these
substantive offenses that under the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and
Principles were international crimes in their own right: viz., planning,
preparation, solicitation, incitement, conspiracy, complicity, attempt,
aiding and abetting, etc. Of course the great irony of today’s situation
is that six decades ago at Nuremberg, representatives of the U.S.
government participated in the prosecution, punishment and execution of
Nazi government officials for committing some of the same types of
heinous international crimes that members of the Bush Jr. administration
currently inflict upon people all around the world. To be sure, I
personally oppose the imposition of capital punishment upon any person
for any reason no matter how monstrous their crimes: Bush Jr., Tony
Blair, Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, Vladimir Putin, Ariel Sharon,
my former client John Wayne Gacy, etc.

Furthermore, according to basic principles of international criminal
law, all high-level civilian officials and military officers in the U.S.
government who either knew or should have known that soldiers or
civilians under their control committed or were about to commit
international crimes, and failed to take the measures necessary to stop
them, or to punish them, or both, are likewise personally responsible
for the commission of international crimes. This category of officialdom
who actually knew or at least should have known of the commission of
such substantive or inchoate international crimes under their
jurisdiction and failed to do anything about it typically includes the
Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, Director of Central
Intelligence, the National Security Adviser, the Attorney General, the
Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and regional CINCs, and presumably the
President and Vice President. These U.S. government officials and their
immediate subordinates, among others, were personally responsible for
the commission or at least complicity in the commission of crimes
against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes as specified by
the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles - at a minimum. In
international legal terms, the Bush Jr. administration itself should be
viewed as constituting an ongoing criminal conspiracy under
international criminal law.

Consequently, on Tuesday 11 March 2003, with the Bush Jr.
administration’s war of aggression against Iraq staring the American
People, Congress and Republic in their face, Congressman John Conyers of
Michigan, the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee (which has
jurisdiction over Bills of Impeachment), convened an emergency meeting
of forty or more of his top advisors, most of whom were lawyers. The
purpose of the meeting was to discuss and debate immediately putting
into the U.S. House of Representatives Bills of Impeachment against
President Bush Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld, and then Attorney General John Ashcroft in order to
head off the impending war. Congressman Conyers kindly requested that
Ramsey Clark and I come to the meeting in order to argue the case for
impeachment.

This impeachment debate lasted for two hours. It was presided over by
Congressman Conyers, who quite correctly did not tip his hand one way or
the other on the merits of impeachment. He simply moderated the debate
between Clark and I, on the one side, favoring immediately filing Bills
of Impeachment against Bush Jr. et al. to stop the threatened war, and
almost everyone else there who were against impeachment for partisan
political reasons. Obviously no point would be served here by
attempting to digest a two-hour-long vigorous debate among a group of
well-trained lawyers on such a controversial matter at this critical
moment in American history. But at the time I was struck by the fact
that this momentous debate was conducted at a private office right down
the street from the White House on the eve of war.

Suffice it to say that most of the “experts” there opposed impeachment
not on the basis of enforcing the Constitution and the Rule of Law,
whether international or domestic, but on the political grounds that it
might hurt the Democratic Party effort to get their presidential
candidate elected in the year 2004. As a political independent, I did
not argue that point. Rather, I argued the merits of impeaching Bush
Jr., Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft under the United States
Constitution, U.S. federal laws, U.S. treaties and other international
agreements to which the United States is a party, etc. Article VI of
the U.S. Constitution provides that treaties “shall be the supreme Law
of the Land.” This so-called Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution
also applies to international executive agreements concluded under the
auspices of the U.S. President such as the 1945 Nuremberg Charter.

Congressman Conyers was so kind as to allow me the closing argument in
the debate. Briefly put, the concluding point I chose to make was
historical: The Athenians lost their democracy. The Romans lost their
Republic. And if we Americans did not act now we could lose our
Republic! The United States of America is not immune to the laws of
history!

After two hours of most vigorous debate among those in attendance, the
meeting adjourned with second revised draft Bills of Impeachment sitting
on the table.

Certainly, if the U.S. House of Representatives can impeach President
Clinton for sex and lying about sex, then a fortiori the House can,
should, and must impeach President Bush Jr. for war, lying about war,
and threatening more wars. All that is needed is for one Member of
Congress with courage, integrity, principles and a safe seat to file
these currently amended draft Bills of Impeachment against Bush Jr.,
Cheney, Rumsfeld, and now Attorney General Albert Gonzales, who bears
personal criminal responsibility for the Bush Jr. administration torture
scandal. Failing this, the alternative is likely to be an American
Empire abroad, a U.S. police state at home, and continuing wars of
aggression to sustain both-along the lines of George Orwell’s classic
novel 1984. Despite all of the serious flaws demonstrated by successive
United States governments that this author has amply documented
elsewhere during the past quarter century as a Professor of Law, the
truth of the matter is that America is still the oldest Republic in the
world today. “We the People of the United States” must fight to keep it
that way!

[Francis A. Boyle is a Professor of International Law and a human rights attorney. He is the author of “Destroying World Order” (2004, Clarity Press).]

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PALESTINE HOLOCAUST-LETTER TO CLARE SHORT, MP

Posted in Israel, Palestine, War & Peace by secretariat on the July 26th, 2007

Sent by Citizens International

23 July 2007

Clare Short MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

Dear Madam,

We write to express our deep appreciation of your eloquent speech in the British Parliament recently on the sufferings and plight of over five million Palestinians living in the occupied territories.

We can understand your shock at Israelās āblatant, brutal and systematic annexation of land, demolition of Palestinian homes, and deliberate creation of an apartheid system by which the Palestinians are enclosed in four bantustans, surrounded by a wall, with massive checkpoints that control all Palestinian movements in and out of the ghettos.ā

Its unlawful land grab, especially after the Oslo peace accord, has rendered the
two-state solution to the Palestinian- Israeli conflict advocated by the International Quartet meaningless.

The unconditional support of the United States government for Israelās unlawful activities in the occupied territories, in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and international law, is responsible for the creation of an apartheid system there. Israel and the United States, supported by the European Union and some Palestinian traitors, are working to destroy those who are opposed to apartheid and a bantustan solution to the conflict.

Instead of welcoming Hamasās victory, last year, in the fairest and freest democratic elections held in the Arab world, the US and the EU colluded with Israel and imposed an economic blockade of the occupied territories and refused to engage with Hamas. Collective punishment of Palestinian civilians for exercising their democratic right and electing Hamas is clearly prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention.

After Hamasās recent take over of Gaza, the economic blockade has been tightened that would lead to a serious humanitarian disaster and genocide. Israelās closure of the border crossings has produced grave for the 1.5 million people who have to depend on food aid to survive.

More than 5000 people wanting to return to Gaza have been stranded at the Rafah international border crossing which the Israeli Occupation Forces have closed. Recently, it was reported that 30-year old Taghrid Abed died āwhile languishing in unbearable heat on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossingā. More than 30 people have died at the crossing.

Israeli strangulation of Gaza is leading to the collapse of its economy and even the pro-US UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has urged Israel to open all border crossing points into Gaza. He said: āIf what is left of Gazaās economy is allowed to collapse, poverty levels already affecting two-thirds of households will rise further, and the people of Gaza will become near totally aid dependent.ā

Last week, Hardad-Zervos of the World Bank warned: āThe pillars of Gazaās economy have weakened over the years. Now, with a sustained closure on this current scale, they would be at risk of virtually irreversible collapse. A solution must be reached very soon, if not immediatelyā¦ ā He said that 3,190 businesses were closed in the last month alone, leaving more than 65,000 people unemployed. Unemployment could reach the unprecedented level of 44 percent.

The collective punishment of the people of Gaza by Israel is reminiscent of the Nazi treatment of the Jews during the Second World War. Professor Richard Falk, a Jew and a leading expert on international law, does not think that it is āan irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with the criminalised Nazi record of collective atrocity.ā

In an article for the Turkish newspaper ZAMAN, Falk wrote: āThe entire population of Gaza is treated as the āenemyā of Israel and little pretext is made in Tel Aviv of acknowledging the innocence of this long victimised society. To persist with such an approach under present circumstances is indeed genocidal, and risks destroying an entire Palestinian community that is an integral part of an ethnic whole. It is this prospect that makes appropriate the warning of a Palestinian holocaust in the making, and should remind the world of the famous post-Nazi pledge ānever again.ā

Instead of trying to prevent the Palestinian holocaust in the making, the US, the EU, and Britain are aiding and abetting Israel. The other big powers - Russia, China and India ā do not want to act against Israel for its repeated violation of UN Security Council resolutions and international law for fear of offending the US and the EU, their major trading partners.

The UN has been reduced to a tool of US foreign policy. Sanctions are imposed on Iran for enriching uranium, which is permitted under international law, while Israel goes unpunished for Judaising East Jerusalem through ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population, a crime against humanity.

It is the hypocrisy and double standard practised by the West with regard to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the failure of the UN to uphold its own Charter, and the reluctance of Russia, China and India to stand up to the US that is pushing the victims of oppression and their supporters to seek violent paths to fight their oppressors.

Unless there is a change in the foreign policy of the US, the EU and Britain, committed to upholding the UN Charter and international law in conflict resolution regardless of the parties involved, we will be seeing increased violence globally, including in the West.

In a democracy, change can come only through the power of public opinion. There is, thus, a crying need for mobilising the people to put pressure on the US and the EU to change their policy on the Palestinian-Israel conflict and work for a solution based on international law and justice.

The economic situation in Gaza is deteriorating rapidly and urgent action is needed to prevent a serious humanitarian disaster there. We agree with you that the human rights conditionality clauses in the EU-Israel trade treaties should be invoked to apply pressure on Israel to comply with international law and lift the blockade of Gaza. As the largest trading partner of Israel, EU has sufficient leverage to impress on Israeli leaders that they cannot continue with their violation of international law without being punished.

We appeal to you to take the following action in order to put pressure on Israel to end its economic blockade of the occupied territories, particularly Gaza, the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem and other human rights violations, and to promote unity among the Palestinian groups.

1. To initiate action in the British Parliament and the EU Parliament to adopt a
resolution calling on the EU and Britain:

To enforce against Israel the human rights conditionality clauses in the
EU-Israel trade treaties until it lifts the blockade and economic embargo, and
stops its violation of international law in the occupied territories.

To engage with Hamas in order to find a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

To promote dialogue and unity among the Palestinian groups.

To support the unity government formed in the occupied territories pursuant to the Mecca Agreement

To restore economic and financial aid to the Palestinian Authority

We would like to work together with you and other progressive groups in Britain to bring to an end the cruel Zionist occupation of Palestine and the enormous suffering of Palestinian refugees for over six decades, and to promote peace with justice for all, Jews, Christians and Muslims.

We hope that you and your colleagues will make the prevention of a Palestinian holocaust one of the key issues at the coming Labour Party conference and renew the pledge āNEVER AGAINā.

Please let us have your early response to our appeal.

Kind regards.

Yours truly,
ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦..
S.M Mohamed Idris
Chairman
Citizens International

3 Comments

Henoko protest leader injured in underwater attack.

Posted in News & Views, War & Peace by secretariat on the July 24th, 2007

Sent: Sun, 22 Jul 2007 18:48:58 +0200
From: Hikaru Kasahara
Date: 22-07-2007 16.19

As nonviolent resistance to the new U.S. military sea base construction in Henoko, Okinawa, continues, Japanese government aggression against protesters has taken an ugly turn.

On July 21, Natsume Taira, one of the protest leaders, was almost killed in an incident involving a diver from a company contracted by the Defense Facility Administration’s Naha Bureau. The Bureau has been pressing ahead with the installation of seabed equipment for what it calls a “pre-survey”– an activity legal experts say violates Japan’s Environmental Impact Assessment Law.

According to the Okinawa Times, the incident occurred when Natsume, a pastor, was diving one kilometer offshore of Henoko fishing port. He was using his body to shield the groundsill of a piece of equipment from three contract divers. As of the divers locked his arm in a full nelson, Natsume found himself unable to breathe. Natsume managed to slipped away from his attacker and burst to the surface. On examination of a video shot by protesters, it appeared the contract diver had closed the valve on Natsume’s air supply. Natsume was rushed to hospital and treated for decompression sickness. “I believe the worst is over,” he said in a statement to supporters.

Responding to this serious aggression, Okinawa-based groups Citizen’s Coalition for Peace and Conference Opposing Heliport Construction called a press conference and released an urgent statement.

Although this is not the first time Henoko protesters have experienced violence from Japanese government forces, Natsume told the Ryukyu Shinpo newspaper, “They have crossed a line. I will consider a criminal compliant against this act.”

Hikaru Kasahara (Asian Peace Alliance [APA] Japan)

======================================
WE STRONGLY CALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT ======================================
1. If you have a media list, please send it to APA Japan (ppsg@jca.apc.org) as we would like to send information about Henoko to international media.

2. Email, Fax, Phone statements in support of Natsume and the Henoko
protest:

Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF)
Tel: +81-3-3268-3111
Email: mso-cadv@ic.jmsdf.go.jp

Japan Defense Facility Administration Agency (Naha Bureau)
Email: mso-cadv@ic.jmsdf.go.jp
Tel: +81-98-868-0174
Fax: +81-98-866-3375

Ministry of Defense
Tel: +81-3-5366-3111
Email: infomod@mod.go.jp

Japan Coast Guard, 11 Regional Headquarters
Tel: +81-98-867-0118
E-mail?soumu-11@kaiho.mlit.go.jp

U.S. Councilor Office, Naha, Okinawa
+81-98-876-4211

U.S. Embassy in Tokyo
Tel: +3-3224-5000

3. Send your solidarity message to the people of Henoko:

Heiwa Shimin Renrakukai (Citizens Coalition for Peace, Naha, Okinawa) Fax:+81-98-885 8230

Conference Opposing Heliport Construction (Nago, Okinawa)
Fax: +81-980-53-6992

4. Letters to the Editor:

Yomiuri
https://app.yomiuri.co.jp/form/index.php
Asahi
http://www.asahi.com/reference/form.html
Mainichi
https://form.mainichi.co.jp/toiawase/
Nihon Keizai (Nihon Business)
webmaster@nikkei.co.jp
Sankei
u-service@sankei.co.jp
Tokyo Shimbun https://cgi2.chunichi.co.jp/tko/hotline/form.shtml
Nikkan Gendai
http://gendai.net/?m=infotoiawase
Shimbun Akahata
hensyukoe@jcp.or.jp
Kyodo Tsushin
feedback@kyodonews.jp
Jiji Tsushin
https://www2.jiji.com/f/enq/form.php?pid=company
NHK [less than 400 words] https://www.nhk.or.jp/css/goiken/bangumi.html
Nihon TV
https://www1.ntv.co.jp/staff/form.html
Fuji TV https://wwws.fujitv.co.jp/safe/red_mpl/response/res_form.cgi?
TV Asahi Hodo Station http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/hst/contents/opinion/index_see.html
TV Tokyo
https://www2.tv-tokyo.co.jp/main/goiken.php

Okinawa Newspapers (less than 400 words)
Okinawa Times opinion@okinawatimes.co.jp
Ryukyu Shimpo koe@ryuukyushimpo.co.jp

5. Henoko protest contact person:

Ms. Suzuyo Takazato (Citizens Coalition for Peace, Naha, Okinawa) Mobile number: +81-90-3072-0672
Fax: +81-98-864-1539

submitted by Paola Manduca

1 Comment

Niloufer Bhagwat’s Response to Faiza Al Araji’s Today is Better than Tomorrow

Posted in Iraq, News & Views, War & Peace by secretariat on the July 23rd, 2007

One narrative among several others, straight from the heart , exploding the myth of the Shia, Sunni and Kurd …….It happened to us in India too , the Black Operations, the killer
squads the killings in the name of religion and sects to restructure South Asia in 1947 and millions of innocent people were massacred under the British plan for partition
to enable the better exploitation of both halves by their Companies, to continue to repatriate surpluses. So when I read these narratives these are raw wounds which open
up , wounds which never heal as this was the pattern of Imperialist civilization
collective murders and killings of other peoples and societies in brutal racist
attacks .

You need assistance from all over the world to select , compile and publish these heart rending yet detailed accounts of IRAQ UNDER US-UK LED allied CORPORATE OCCUPATION in all languages of the world along with the list of US PROCONSUL Paul Bremer’s 100 ORDERS . The evidence of what the allegedly most advanced economic and political system’s their governments and people did to Iraq to preserve the American and British Dream …….

And the Collaborators….. there must be a special list of those in the Diaspora who assisted in destroying the society which had given them birth . The book must have a rogue’s gallery of every war criminal , every CEO who benefited from the loot and a list
of Companies and Security Agencies with their Directors /Proprietors with
their nationality .

Many have asked me as to what I mean by an economic system which destroys even more ruthlessly than it creates .Iraq is an example . No one should be allowed to forget what was done by the US-UK-Israel led allied Occupation and its mercenaries
to the people of countries attacked and occupied in the region , not for a thousand years . We must remember that there was an economic and political system which created Man Eaters; they used everything to live off the death of man of whole societies,
they killed people in the name of democracy ;in the name of religion, in the name of religious sects; in the name of an American /British dream; in the name of the chosen people as though a God would choose some and not choose others in the same planet;and that they killed and massacred again, again and yet again until collapse ……….

We need to call upon people and societies of the entire region to be compassionate
to people who have lost everything , to-morrow it may be their turn.We need to use every penny of Zakat for those bombed and uprooted in every country in the neighbourhood of those destroyed and we need to shun all religious discourse which divides rather than unites, which is obscurantist and reactionary , and declines to view the reality that there
are exploiters and exploited within a country and across countries and these are reflected
in political and economic systems which are not God made but constructed by societies.

We need to boycott and shun those who collaborate with the MAN EATERS.

Niloufer Bhagwat

0 Comments

Today is better than tomorrow…..

Posted in Iraq, News & Views, War & Peace by secretariat on the July 23rd, 2007

Faiza Al-Arji,
A Family in Baghdad

Friday, July 13th, 2007

Note: Faiza Al Arji particpated in the War Crimes Conference here in Kuala Lumpur in February and provided statutory evidence before the War Crimes Commission.

Peace be upon youā¦.
I don’t know why sometimes an old Arabic proverb comes ringing into my mind: “If you know; it is a disaster, and if you don’t know, then it is a greater disasterā¦..”. I think it is said about a person who thinks he knows everything, then he discovers he was a fool, and what was hidden was much greaterā¦

Perhaps this is how it is with most people who follow up the news of Iraq, especially the poor American people, surrounded as they are by a government and a media that follows it, repeating all the lies day and night to keep the American people ignorant about what is taking place in Iraq, while they are the No. 1 party involved in that war, as it is financed from the pockets of the tax-payers. They tell them- you are sacrificing for America, for the freedom of America, and the reputation of Americaā¦ and the truth is- they are sacrificing for a bunch of thieves; the owners of capitalist companies, so their investments should grow and their bank balances should increase, and let the American people go to hell, just like the Iraqi people went to hellā¦..

The story of this war started when Bush and Blair cried over the unjustly treated Iraqi people, oppressed by a fascistic and criminal regime that tied people’s freedoms and tyrannized them. The media was full of stories about Iraqi families running away from hell; where the fathers were tortured, the mothers threatened, and the children terrorized, so they run away from hell, and asked for humanitarian asylum in the continents of Europe, Australia, America, and elsewhereā¦ and after all these introductions; after the exaggeration and the daunting against Saddam’s regime as being the worst in the twentieth century, people were prepared psychologically to accept change in Iraq and to topple its government, in the hope that “Democracy”, “Human Rights”, and “Freedom” would all become words of the daily vocabulary of Iraqisā¦ the Iraqis waited, with the whole world, the Americans first of all, for the fulfillment of the rosy dream, proclaimed by Bush, Blair, and the rest of the gangā¦.

And here are the years passing by, with Iraq moving from bad to worstā¦.
It became a sentence I hear from the Iraqis everyday; I heard it from various sides, the same sentence repeated, as if they all agreed to it: today is better than tomorrowā¦.

What does it mean for a human to say, and repeat: today is better than tomorrow?
Here I am in Jordan, I see people thinking of tomorrow, they have a dream that tomorrow is better than today, and so are people everywhere in the world. That is how I lived all my life, believing that tomorrow is better than today.
But it seems the story is different for people who live through catastrophic conditions, like those in Palestine and Iraq, where there is an occupation, with armies, greed, and evil schemes, where there is ruin, destruction, killing, and daily bloodshedā¦ people become forgotten, weak creatures, their rights, dreams, and ambitions crushedā¦

And the question jumps up: do we surrender to the evil powers that are breaking the lives of humans like us? Do we stand, helpless, idle, and look at our brothers and sisters dying quickly, or slowly, without caring?
This is a point that deserves to be consideredā¦.

Yesterday, Bush said- America will not withdraw from Iraq as long as the security conditions have not improved ā¦ and that means he will not withdraw from Iraq. And we all know he doesn’t want to withdraw in the first placeā¦
The building of huge American military bases in Iraq, the building of a big American embassy, and keeping the Iraqi government, the Iraqi army and police force as weak structures; torn apart, battling and divided onto themselves; that is exactly what corresponds with Bush’s wishes, and what justifies remaining in Iraq indefinitelyā¦

So, let Iraq remain torn, divided onto itself, with a conflicting government and Parties, sectarian warring militias, then bring on words like- Sunnies, Shia’ats, Kurds, and Arabs for ignorant people from all sides to keep busy with, and you can say goodbye to something called- Iraqā¦

Forget something called Iraqā¦ for it has turned into a heap of ruins in which live miserable, poor, and sick people, gnawed by hunger, ignorance, corruption, and darknessā¦

This is Bush’s Iraqā¦

And if we got back to the days of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, we would have found them the days of prosperity and welfare, compared to what we see today. Our cities turned into gloomy ruins, the best of our people; the doctors, the university professors, the scientists, either immigrated or were killed. We saw poverty such as we didn’t see during the years of the embargo, we witnessed an administrational corruption far more than what used to happen in Saddam’s time, and we saw a recklessness about human rights that suppressed what we saw during the days of Saddamā¦ the water supply, the electricity, the education, the health services, and the employmentā¦all these are deteriorating into the worstā¦.
And- today is better than tomorrowā¦. As the Iraqis are saying nowā¦

Four years ago, Iraq was better than it is nowā¦
One year ago, it was betterā¦
Six months ago, it was betterā¦
And today is better than tomorrowā¦.
This is the daily life reality in all of Iraqā¦

Hunger and poverty increase every day, the number of widows and orphans increased from what it was before, the administrational corruption increased. The security condition is deteriorating, the government is weak, incapable, and is hiding in the Green Zone, while the militias belonging to the Government Parties are ravaging the streets; killing people, kidnapping, torturing, and no one calls them to account. The occupation forces are doing as they please; arresting, breaking into and blowing up buildings, and bombing, under the pretext of following Al-Qaida’aā¦

Iraq has changed from a country dreaming of freedom and sunshine into a dark hell filled with poisonous snakes, scorpions, explosives, and gangsā¦
And Bush still insists to remain in Iraq, he still insists that all is going very well, but the problem is- how many Al-Qaida’a extremists will be eliminated for Iraq to become a paradise of peace, security, structure, prosperity, and happinessā¦.

I remember reading in old Arabic history books that every disease has a cure, except Foolishness, meaning- a fool cannot be cured, a hopeless caseā¦.
Well then, what if a foolish man took over the leadership of the strongest country in the world?
Tell me, if you please; how to solve this problem?

Usually, for some two years or more now, I work as a volunteer to send medicines or food aid to displaced families in the western parts of Iraqā¦
Sometimes I laugh, saying- I am a Shia’at, how come I help the Sunnies?
These are poisonous names entered by the occupier, in which I do not believe, even if the world turned upside down, until the Day of Judgment. I do not believe in them, but I have seen Iraqis who did accept these designations and used them to their advantage. I have seen men and women who exploited the story of- Sunnies, Shia’ats, and Kurds. For example: the Shia’ats and Kurds work as contractors for the Americans, form Parties or Organizations, or try to get financing from some American sides under the consideration that they were oppressed and unjustly treated during the days of Saddam Husseinā¦ I have seen bluffing Sunnies who claim to be members of the resistance and are unjustly treated, in order to get financing from other organizations who hate the occupationā¦

And, I have seen the poor peaceful people who didn’t play over the ropes; these are crushed by life, and in today’s Iraq, poverty, hunger, and injustice increased upon them, they call for aid, but no one answersā¦..

In the last few weeks I finally met some organizations working in the provinces in the south of Iraqā¦ I said to them ā now I want to hear from you; I used to work with the western parts of Iraq, I have seen poverty and hunger, and the excuse was that they were terrorists and housed the resistance, that’s what the American media and the Iraqi government sayā¦ well then, you’re in the south; you do not have a resistance or terrorists, how do you live?

And then came the astonishing reports and photosā¦

Poverty and hunger such as I have not seen even in Falluja, overtaxed by the siege and hungerā¦.

I started my questions: where is the government and its institutions?
Answer: sinking in administrational corruption; the money is sent from Baghdad, the officials in the municipality councils steal it, and the province’s streets remain dirty and poor without tending. The displaced go without care, the youth without job opportunities, and the cities without re-construction projectsā¦
- Well then, what about the militias?
- Raking havoc about the provinces, they belong to Parties represented in the government, battling with each other, tempting young people to join them. And if we organized some gatherings to debate and criticized the existence of militias, we received phone calls and personal threats to shut up and not to start such debates againā¦
Four years ago, we weren’t like thatā¦. They said, sadly ā¦
And I remembered the proverb: today is better than tomorrowā¦..
-All right, you are civil society organizations, aren’t you financed by the government to develop the needs of the local society and to enlighten the people?
Answer- the government is hostile to us, looking upon us as opponents, because we criticize its performance, speak about the militias and human rights, and criticize its slackness in helping the poor and displaced peopleā¦
My question is- how is this government different from that of Saddam Hussein? Isn’t it supposed to be an American-made government caring for the human rights of the Iraqi people, of which he was deprived in the days of Saddam Hussein?
And the answer is- smilesā¦.then, laughterā¦

They went back to Iraq, I promised them I shall contact a big international organization here, then present their reports and projects, hoping to be able to get some attention or financingā¦.

After a couple of interviews here and there, the answer was an apology; this organization doesn’t finance small projects for a number of poor families, but give quick, emergency aid like food rations, sponge mattresses, or plastic barrels for water or fuel. And this is what I saw carried out in one of this big organization’s projects with an Iraqi organization working in Dewaniyah, Naserriya, and Samawaā¦

Meaning- poor, limited aidā¦

Well then; what about these huge buildings, high fences, security men, cement blocks and high salaries, why all these expenses? And you do not finance but poor, naĆÆve projects?

By God, it seems the world has gone completely out of its mindā¦ the money is there, but there is a very evident mismanagementā¦
Where do these international organizations spend their money? And who calls them to account?

By God, if Bush is the one who controls the fate of the world’s countries, then there is no blame upon these organizations, for the important thing is to be within his command and not to disagree, and that would be enough. For who will judge them for their slackness with the Iraqi people?
No one, of courseā¦.

Then I met a lady working for the human rights field with these international organizations. I showed her a report about a poor Iraqi woman from Babylon, the militias killed her husband in Baghdad, then she was driven out with her children while she was pregnant. She gave birth in a toilet booth, for no one helped her to go into the nearby medical center. Her baby daughter died. She is living a sad life and is in need of help. The lady looked at the report and said: by God it is a sad story, but I am in a hurry, I want to travel. If you have a report about violence against the Iraqi women, I mean- a case of a woman being beaten by her husband or was forced into marriage against her will, send it to me so I can investigate the case and help herā¦
I remained astonishedā¦..

Are these the stories that should be marketed in Iraq, violence against women?
Well, what about the woman who lost her husband because of the gangs and sectarian militias? Isn’t she a victim of violence?
These are the priorities of the international organizations working for Iraq?
I mean; there is an Iraqi proverb that says: ((Arab wen, Tanbora wen??)) {”= A” talks in one direction, and “B” listens in another!!!}
Ha,ha,ha,ā¦
How can I explain it to the non-Iraqis?
I mean- how far are we from this vain woman?
This Americanized, pampered woman, where is she living? And how can she help the Iraqi women?
Impossible to help them, for she lives in another world, and the salary she receives is a pityā¦.

Before that, I visited an American organization here, to ask them what projects they are presenting to Iraq? What are they doing to the displaced families?
The Arabic employee said with pride: we have a team inside Iraq, and we arranged some projects to the displaced.
I said: pardon, but can I learn about these projects?
She said: we gave a bag to each displaced family, containing a towel, a soap bar, toothpaste and toothbrushes.
I kept staring at her face; is she sane, or nuts?
Where is the food after which they can brush their teeth and wash their hands with soap?
Ha,ha,ha,ā¦
I wish I knew who puts down the work plans of these naĆÆve, nut organizations? And who finances them?
They remind me of Marie Antoinette when the French people were starving for the lack of bread, and she said naively: well, why don’t you feed them with biscuits?

And I remembered now a person I met some months ago. He is an Iraqi living in America, his wife is an American. He works in geology and well drillingā¦ then, after the war on Iraq, he presented himself as an expert in marshes, and he started working with international organizations visiting the marshes and writing reports about themā¦

When I entered the offices of the organization he works with here in Amman, I found the walls covered with pictures of beautiful birds; large numbers of birds of different kinds, and written below them that these birds used to live in the Iraqi marshes habitat, and this project is to redraw these birds into their environmentā¦

I turned to the American woman who works in the office and asked: and what about the people in the marshes? Do you have a project to improve their lives?
She laughed, blushing: no, we have nothing for the people, we are an organization caring for natureā¦

How nice! I felt happy because of this humanitarian organization that cares about nature, birds, and sparrows, but doesn’t listen to the misery of the poor hungry Iraqisā¦

We sat down, the three of us. The Iraqi talked and laughed a lot, he said he was just visiting here, and will go back to America where his wife and kids areā¦
I stared at him, telling myself: this is one of the Iraqis who didn’t suffer an embargo, or hunger, or wars. He’s been living in America since about 1978, he studied there, got married, obtained the nationality, and perhaps forgot something called Iraq in his lifeā¦ after the war, he jumped forward and said: I am an Iraqi, went with the American and European organizations to the marshes and made himself an expert, pledging to follow up the redevelopment of the marshes, and received financing from different organizations to develop the marshes……….

I said to him: very well, now what have you developed in the marshes? Didnāt all the American and British newspapers cry about the marshes, and that Saddam Hussein starved them to death, dried up the water, and destroyed the environment? What have YOU done?
He said: thank God we now have a team measuring the biological changes in the environment, I mean- the percentage of oxygen and other elements in the water; if it is suitable for the birds that immigrated to come backā¦ checking the humidity in the air, and if it is suitable for the birds to lay their eggs?
I said to him: and how will you announce to the birds that the environment is suitable? Will you put a balloon in the air on which is written- hay, come back, we fixed the environment for you here?
He laughed and said: well, I mean, they will return with timeā¦
He gave me a book published on excellent paper and very fancy printing, full of bird’s pictures and their life storyā¦
I said: well, what about the Iraqi families in the marshes, did you build any schools for them? Clinics? Did you provide drinking water purifying stations for them? Have you developed their lives and compensated them for the poverty of the past years?
He said, indignantly: this isn’t our business, this is done by other organizations or the government. Our business is only with the environment and the birds. We set up a web site, and written all the necessary information, and if someone likes to come along and invest or create a business there, he’s free to do soā¦ā¦
I hid my rage, and smiledā¦.
In Iraq, we have a nice name describing the fools, with a genuine Iraqi word: dupeā¦
Ha,ha,ha
Whenever I remembered that bourgeois, that word jumps to my mind, why?
I don’t know…………

These are the models that entered Iraq after the occupation, then deserted and run away, after running out of their lies, and stealing the financing from naĆÆve or evil organizations, god only knowsā¦

But the marshes and its people remained poor, crushed, and forgotten creatures, whose lives didn’t develop with anything real, their story was exploited to draw donations and outside financing, and that was the end of the movieā¦

This is the story of the entire Iraqi people, who was dealt with in the same way as the people of the marshes; lies and exaggerated stories in the media to draw financing and sympathy. And the result- nothing substantial was achieved, on the contrary, the financing was stolen or used in petty projects, and the poor Iraqi families were left starving of hunger, deprivation, and neglectā¦.

The story of the war on Iraq is one of the biggest shameful stories in the history of humanityā¦

It will remain to be told thus, until the Day of Judgmentā¦

Told as an evidence of lies, injustice and deception, of how someone can put on the guise of virtue, honor and mercy to save the lives of innocent people, and the result was- more innocent souls crushed, the lives of those remaining alive embittered, and their daily life’s motto becomes: today is better than tomorrowā¦.

We shall keep on waiting until the American occupation’s nightmare is removed, and they go out of Iraqā¦

Then, the Iraqis will go back to the proverb: tomorrow will be better; we will unite our ranks and build our country with our own handsā¦..
Amenā¦.

* * *

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Protesting Power: War, Resistance, and Law by Francis A. Boyle

Posted in News & Views, War & Peace by secretariat on the July 19th, 2007

Book Review on his latest book, published by Rowman & Littlefield

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

For more information about this book, please click here, or copy and
paste in your browser this web address:
http://www.RowmanLittlefield.com/ISBN/0742538923

In this expert and lucid manual, international lawyer Francis Boyle focuses his attention on civil resistance, a category that he distinguishes sharply from civil disobedience. Civil resistance, he persuasively argues, is a ‘basic right’ of American citizens under international and domestic law, as ‘it is the civil resisters who are the sheriffs and that the U.S. government officials committing state crimes are the outlaws.’ The historical and legal analysis provide information and understanding of inestimable value to all citizens who care about their country.? ?Noam Chomsky.

In this indispensable book, distinguished activist lawyer Francis Boyle sounds an impassioned clarion call to citizen action against Bush administration policies both domestically and overseas. Especially since the Reagan Administration, hundreds of thousands of Americans have used non-violent civil resistance to protest against elements of U.S. policy that violate basic principles of international law, the United States Constitution, and human rights. Such citizen protests have led to an unprecedented number of arrests and prosecutions by federal, state, and local governments around the country. Boyle, who has spent his career advising and defending civil resisters, explores how international law can be used to question the legality of specific U.S. government foreign and domestic policies. He focuses especially on the aftermath of 9/11 and the implications of the war on Afghanistan, the war on terrorism, the war on Iraq, the doctrine of preventive warfare, and the domestic abridgement of civil rights.

Written for concerned citizens, activists, NGOs, civil resisters, their supporters, and their lawyers, Protesting Power provides the best legal and constitutional arguments to support and defend civil resistance activities. Including a number of compelling excerpts from his own trial appearances as an expert witness and as counsel, the author offers inspirational and practical advice for protesters who find themselves in court. This invaluable book stands alone as the only guide available on how to use international law, constitutional law, and the laws of war to defend peaceful non-violent protestors against governmental policies that are illegal and criminal.

About the Author
Francis Boyle is professor of law at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. A Harvard law graduate, for the last twenty years he has been involved as lawyer and/or witness in the major cases challenging U.S. defense policy, notably nuclear issues and, in recent years, preemptive wars. He speaks and writes regularly on civil resistance and anti-war issues. Most recently he helped to defend Camilo Mejia, the first military resister to the current Iraq War.

Order today & save 25% with our special online pre-publication discount!
Available only at www.RowmanLittlefield.com

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Israelās illegal Occupation Is Violent and Ongoing

Posted in News & Views, War & Peace by secretariat on the July 19th, 2007

by Sonja Karkar
Special Report
Women for Palestine
19 July 2007
_________________________________________________

Six years ago almost to the day, the great intellectual Edward Said wrote an
article(1) that could almost have been written today. Then he said, āRarely
have I seen such a concentration of Israeli mendacity received with such
cringing servility by Palestinians, and all this while millions of Palestinians
are suffering the worst possible collective punishment.ā I have no doubt that
he would have been even more scathing about the state of play now because it
seems the Palestinian leadership (many of whom are still around) has learned
nothing from the endless deception and betrayal carried out by Israel during
all the years of peace talks. Only Israel has gained in thisillegal occupation, and
criminally so, at the devastating expense of the Palestinian people.

Unbelievably, little is being said about the Occupation in the current
political drama. Instead, we are getting news reports of what Fatah said,
what Hamas said, what Israel is prepared to offer or not offer and the usual
farcical allusions to peace talks from the US. This plays right into
Israelās hands, particularly when a catatonic world is just beginning to
wake up ā when influential voices are accusing Israel of apartheid, when the
dastardly effects of the Wall are beginning to be noticed and when
respectable institutions are contemplating divestment and boycotts. And
Israel is encouraging the pathetic play for power amongst some Palestinians
all too willing to comply, so that public opinion will be deflected away
from its crimes. It is in this political maelstrom, that the Palestinians
under occupation are having to struggle just to live from day to day without
even the remotest glimmer of hope for a life of freedom and peace, let alone
the justice that has long been their due. Theirs is a struggle whose
tragically epic proportions deserve much much more than the paltry news
items and commentaries that barely get published or mentioned.

Ever since the Palestinians were catastrophically dispossessed of most of
their homeland in 1948, their situation has gone from bad to worse to
disastrous. No other conflict has had such intense involvement from a
superpower as actor and broker in all that time and no other Occupying Power
has had so much financial and political support as it flagrantly violates
every aspect of international law and every UN resolution upholding the
rights of the Palestinians. If Israel really wanted peace, it would have
been easy to get the Palestinians to accept a state on 22 percent of their
land after Arafat held out the olive branch and agreed to recognise Israel.
It would have been easy after Oslo when the Palestinians agreed to just
about everything, leaving only Jerusalem and the right of return for later
discussions. But, while Israel was talking āpeaceā, it was still stealing
Palestinian land, still building illegal Jewish settlements right in the
heart of Palestinian territory, still herding Palestinians through their
degrading grid of checkpoints, still arresting and torturing, still
thundering into Gaza with its massive military arsenal, only to then begin
building the infamous Wall, deep inside the Armistice line. Today, Israelās
apartheid policies and practices have taken on new dimensions with denial
of entry, the creation of reservations, population transfers and ethnic
cleansing a shocking reality.

Israel continues to pursue its unilateral decisions to secure final borders
at the expense of a viable Palestinian state. It continues to demand huge
increases in funding from the US for weapons and military hardware that
wreak such bitter havoc on the people under its occupation. Yet, we are
supposed to use the language of diplomacy and democracy instead of calling
a spade a spade. The Fatah politicians talk about capacity and institution
building, extract promises from Palestinians to forgo resistance and agree
with Israel to round up anyone who might just have an association with
Hamas. Never mind that Israeli soldiers continue their raids into
Palestinian towns and continue their brutish violence against a terrified
civilian population. Never mind that Gaza is being hermetically sealed from
the outside world and the people are being forced to depend on the most
basic aid. As the latest staged scenario plays itself out, it is apparent
that the US no longer controls the situation, Europe is floundering, the UN
is a lame duck , the Palestinian people are the hapless quarries, caged and
almost beaten into submission and Israel takes what it wants. And all the
while, the politicians smile, shake hands and talk about a ānew futureā with
nary a word about the ordinary people suffering extraordinary hardships
under the yoke of Israelās violent occupation.

Edward Saidās words may have been written in 2001, but the thrust of his
message is no less resounding: ā. . . no matter the occasion, no matter the
question, no matter the newspaper or TV or radio journalist, every question
must first be answered with a few basic points about the military occupation
. . . This is the source of violence, this is the source of the main problems,
and it is the reason Israel can never have real peace. Our entire political
position must be based on ending the occupation and this must take precedence
over any and every other consideration. . .ā It is the occupation, the occupation
and the occupation over and over again.

______________________________________________________

(1) Said, Edward - Israel Sharpens its Axe, Counterpunch, 13 July 2001

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Depleted Uranium, Death and Destruction– Then Why Is Leuren Moret smiling?

Posted in War & Peace by secretariat on the July 16th, 2007

By Tom King
Courtesy of Because People Matter
Progressive News and Views July / August 2007

It was puzzling. How could Leuren Moret, uncoverer of secrets as dark and breathstopping as the collective body counts in all the killing fields, make her entrance at the 19th convocation of Sacramentoās Peace Pyramid beaming so beatifically? She had returned only a few hours previously from a four-month tour of Asia, concluded in Hawaii, where āthis wonderful thing had happened.ā What happenedāwell, weāll come to that. But meanwhile her introductory sum-up will give you a hint. āI love empowering citizens. I light the match and I walk away and it turns into a bonfire!ā

In 1968, the first woman graduating in geology from UC Davis, Moret took an MA at Berkeley in Near Eastern studies, and commenced a career as geoscientist. Eventually this took her to Californiaās Livermore National Lab, where disgusted by what she learned about the unconscionableagendas of the microscope brigade around her, she became a whistleblower and eventually āflew the coop.ā Her resignation kicked off a decade of intense research, untiring public edification (16 to 18 hour workdays), and continual harassment by her enemiesānon-stop trashing her home, wrecking her computers, stealing her documents, and worst of all, assisted by her ex-husband, the five-year kidnapping of her daughter. (In the covert world this is called āmobbing,ā which aims to push the object to suicide.) Her message is without a doubt as frighteningly sinister as hell in its deepest, darkest circles. Toward the end of WWII an element of nuclear fallout was determined to be so noxious that it was banned internationally
in 1945. After a moratorium of 46 years, however, the poison was put to prodigious use in the first Gulf War because it makes munitions that cut through heavy armor and is a cheaper way to dispose of toxic trash. This is DUāfalsely called ādepletedā uranium. DU is nuclear trash from nuclear weapons and power projects. It contaminates air, water, food, soil. Inhaled it behaves like gas in the lungs, dispersing throughout the body and, according to Moretās research, producing such malaises as mental derangement, autism, diabetes, and cancer.

Although the Bush administrationsystematically denies the medical claims of returning Iraq veterans, research tells a literally killing story. For instance, while medical disability among soldiers after WWII was 5%, and 10% after the Vietnam War (with its Agent Orange), it reaches a paralyzing 55% after Gulf War I. Our soldiers are coming home with brain tumors the size of golf balls. Military physicians now regularly counsel, āDonāt have children!ā Those who doāalas!āoften pay an unthinkable price. āIn a Veterans Administration study of 251 Gulf War I veterans, severe birth defects and diseases in 67% of the children born after the war were foundā¦ born without eyes, brains, organs, legs, arms, hands or feetā¦ā (Flanders, āGulf War Syndrome: Mal de Guerre,ā The Nation 03-07-94.)

We are used to calculating the cost of war solely in terms of those who come home in body bags, but in Leuren Moretās grim summary, for anyone who enters radioactive zones such as Iraq, life is over. āI discovered something else that was too horrible to imagine,ā testifies Leuren. āI found proof of the real and deeper purpose for the US using DU weapons beginning in 1991: to deliberately and strategically contaminate entire regions where the worldās oil supplies are locatedā¦[guaranteeing] the annihilation of populations in those regionsā¦ . I began to cry the day that bombing started in Afghanistan in 2001. I cried for the mothers, the fathers, the children, the babies, the grandparents and the future generations who will not be born because of this radioactive poisoning of their genetic future.ā
If you think DU is merely a mideast problem, however, think again. Uranium has a half-life of billions of years. Once released, the lethal particulates never leave the soil or the air. The winds carry them continents awayābringing them, dear reader, a gift to us all. āPeople do not understand or realize the global impact of DU and other radioactive weaponsā¦ .There is nowhere on Earth that will escape some form or level of contamination.ā

Well, thenācarrying such a woeful weight of the worldāhow to explain Leurenās entrance at the Peace Pyramid, all but whistling like one of the Seven Dwarfs heading off to work?
Answer: itās a warriorās story of a great battle won. When she arrived in Hawaii she found hardly anyone had even heard of DU, and despite numerous interviews subsequently, neither DU nor her own name appeared in newsprint. But she was undeterred, and proceeded with scientific investigation, finding with monitored readings that 850 Hawaiian sites were contaminated. Around Kona, which was plagued with widespread illnesses and highest cancer rates, came the worst readings, producing 93 as opposed to a normal of 5-20. With her characteristic eloquence she planted the seeds in the minds of the Hawaiian citizenryāand filed a complaint against the Pentagonās scurrilous cover-up. When she returned to Hawaii at the end of her Asian tour this spring she found the seeds she had planted had blossomed in awarenessāand wrath. Hawaii had become a volcano of anger. If Leuren is right, itās about to erupt with dire consequences for the Pentagon.

I donāt want to close without telling you more that helps explain buoyant spirits despite unimaginable enormities and Leurenās own personal persecution. By her own testimony, she is like those Holocaust survivors, stripped of everything, no longer afraid because nothing else can be taken from her. Though she has lost certain persons from her life, she has come to find wherever she goes generous, grateful hearts and a multitude of hugs. Herself a passionate people-lover, she finds love everywhere. Perhaps most significantly, she has found the sacred work for which she was intended, and so doing, found herself. Her risks are the risks of a warrior; but fear has long since been slain, and courage outfacing whole battalions of official tormentors has become as natural as breathing.

Hear and see her: www.youtube.com/v/L94IUSw54pQ.
Check out these websites:
www.news-journalonline.com/special/uranium/index.htm
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042007B.shtml
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5864

Tom King is the leader of the Peace Pyramid, a suburban grassroots group promoting a cabinet-level Department of Peace. āI love empowering citizens. I light the match and I walk away and it turns into a bonfire!ā

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Kangaroo Courts for Harvard’s Kangaroo Law School Profs:Newspeak Times

Posted in News & Views, War & Peace by secretariat on the July 12th, 2007

By Prof. Francis A. Boyle

… 5. The war criminal Jack Goldsmith who while working as a lawyer for the

Bush Jr. administration at both the Pentagon and later its Department of

In-Justice did much of the legal spade-work designing, justifying and

approving the hideous human rights atrocities that the Bush Jr.

administration has inflicted on everyone after 9/11. Goldsmith and his

co-felon legal accomplice from the Bush Jr. administration Professor John

Yoo–now desecrating Berkeley’s Law School where my friend and colleague the

late, great Dean Frank Newman had taught Human Rights–are functionally

analogous to Nazi Law Professor Carl Schmitt, who justified every hideous

atrocity that Hitler and the Nazis inflicted on anyone.

Despite my best efforts to prevent it, the Harvard Law School Faculty and

Deans hired the war criminal Goldsmith right out of the Bush Jr.

administration knowing full well that he was up to his eyeballs in the Gitmo

Kangaroo Courts, torture, war crimes, enforced disappearances, murder,

kidnapping, and crimes against humanity, at a minimum. And when Goldsmith’s

proverbial “smoking-gun” Department of In-Justice Memorandum was published

by the Washington Post, Harvard Law School’s Dean Elena Kagan contemptuously

boasted in response about how “proud” she was to have hired this notorious

war criminal. Previously Kagan had also publicly bragged that the future of

International Legal Studies at Harvard Law School would be in the “good

hands” of their resident war criminal Goldsmith. How perversely and

tragically true! The Neo-Conservative Harvard Law School Faculty and Deans

deliberately set out to hire this Neo-Nazi legal architect of the Bush Jr.

administration’s bogus and nefarious “war against terrorism” because they

fully support it together with all its essential accouterments of torture,

kangaroo courts, war crimes, murder, kidnapping, enforced disappearances,

crimes against humanity, and Nuremburg crimes against peace.

June 10, 2007

Z Magazine

www.zmag.org

Harvard’s Kangaroo Law School:The School for Torturers

by Francis A. Boyle
Not surprisingly, the newly released January 2007 issue of the American

Journal of Imperial Law–otherwise known as the self-styled American Journal

of International Law but originally founded and still operated by U. S.

State and War Departments’ apparatchiks and their professorial

fellow-travelers–just published an article by Harvard Law School’s recently

retired Bemis Professor of International Law Detlev Vagts (who only taught

me the required course on Legal Accounting) arguing in favor of the

Pentagon’s Kangaroo Courts System on Guantanamo despite the fact that they

have been soundly condemned by every human rights organization and every

human rights official and leader in the entire world as well as by the

United States Supreme Court itself in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006). I am not

going to bother to recite here all the grievous deficiencies of the Gitmo

Kangaroo Courts under International Law and U.S. Constitutional Law. But

suffice it to say that the Gitmo Kangaroo Courts constitute war crimes under

the Laws of War, the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949, and even the U. S.

Army’s own Field Manual 27-10, The Law of Land Warfare (1956). Field Manual

27-10 (1956) was drafted for the Pentagon by my Laws of War teacher Richard

R. Baxter, who was generally recognized as the world’s leading expert on

that subject, which is precisely why I voluntarily chose to study

International Law with him and his long-time collaborator Louis B. Sohn, and

not with the bean-counter Vagts. For the entire post-World War II

generation of international law students at Harvard Law School, Louis Sohn

shall always be our real Bemis Professor of International Law and never the

False Pretender to that Throne known as Detlev Vagts.

Since those student days I have personally appeared pro bono publico in five

U.S. military courts-martial proceedings involving warfare that were

organized in accordance with the Congress’s Uniform Code of Military

Justice (U.C.M.J.)–which still does not apply to the Gitmo Kangaroo Courts

despite the ruling by the U. S. Supreme Court in Hamdan that the U.C.M.J.

should be applied in Guantanamo–on behalf of five U. S. military personnel

who each acted as matters of courage, integrity, principle, and conscience

at great risk to their freedom:

1. U. S. Marine Corporal Jeff Paterson, the first U.S. military resister to

President Bush Sr.’s genocidal war against Iraq;

2. Army Captain Doctor Yolanda Huet-Vaughn, the highest ranking U. S.

commissioned officer to be court-martialed for refusing to participate in

President Bush Sr.’s genocidal war against Iraq;

3. Captain Lawrence Rockwood, who was court-martialed by the U. S. Army for

trying to stop torture in Haiti after the Clinton administration had

illegally invaded that country in 1994;

4. Army Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia, the first U. S. military resister to be

court-martialed for refusing to participate in President Bush Jr.’s war of

aggression against Iraq; and

5. Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada, the first U. S. commissioned officer

to be court-martialed for his refusal to participate in President Bush Jr.’s

war of aggression against Iraq.

6. As I can attest from my direct personal involvement, each and every one

of these five courts-martial under the U.C.M.J. were Stalinist show-trials

produced and directed by the Pentagon that predictably and readily

degenerated into travesties of justice. These five U.C.M.J. courts-martial

involving warfare each proved correct the old adage attributed to Groucho

Marx that military justice is to justice as military music is to music. By

comparison, the Gitmo Kangaroo Courts will not even be run in accordance

with the U.C.M.J. despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in

Hamdan that they should be.

Whenever they are up and running the Gitmo Courts will constitute Stalinist

Show Trials as well as Kangaroo Courts, and their preliminary proceedings

have already proven them to be Travesties of Justice. Even worse yet,

fully-functioning Stalinist Gitmo Kangaroo Courts will quickly become

conveyor-belts of death for alleged and already tortured terrorist suspects

along the lines of the Texas execution chamber operated by George Bush Jr.

when he was the “governor” of that state and tortured to death 152 victims

by means of lethal injection. But today under the Four Geneva Conventions of

1949, executing persons detained as a result of armed conflict without a

fair trial before a regularly constituted court constitutes a grave war

crime. To be sure, under the First Amendment to the United States

Constitution Professor Vagts has the freedom to advocate war crimes so long

as he does not participate in their commission, or incite them, or aid and

abet them. But precisely where is that line to be drawn for law professors?

In this regard, the Harvard Law School Faculty currently has at least five

professors who have advocated torture and war crimes:

1. Vagts himself, who also supported abusing the then recently captured

President of Iraq Saddam Hussein despite his being publicly acknowledged to

be a Prisoner of War by the Bush Jr. administration itself and thus

absolutely protected by the Third Geneva Convention of 1949 and the

Convention against Torture;

2. the infamous Alan Dershowitz, a self-incriminated war criminal in his own

right. Dersh publicly acknowledged being a member of a Mossad Committee for

approving the murder and assassination of Palestinians, which violates the

Geneva Conventions and is thus a grave war crime;

3. the Con Law non-entity known as Richard Parker;

4. Another one of my teachers, Waco Phil Heymann. Previously, Waco Phil had

been Deputy to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, the Butcheress of Waco.

Reno ordered the Waco Massacre, while Heymann ordered its cover-up and thus

earned his well-deserved sobriquet of Waco Phil. All those incinerated women

and children!

5. The war criminal Jack Goldsmith who while working as a lawyer for the