"Yoo, Bybee, Cheney and Bush have never suffered the burden of a conscience"

By GottaLaff

I've said this before, but I have no problem being redundant when it comes to torture: These thugs should be in prison.

Via the L.A. Times letters to the editor, Yoo asked for it:

Letting them off solves nothing

Re “Cleared but not vindicated,” Editorial, Feb. 23

The last line in your editorial reads: "They may not be disbarred, but they are disgraced."

In order for anyone to feel disgraced, they must have a conscience. It's been painfully obvious -- for some time now -- that John C. Yoo, Jay S. Bybee, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush have never suffered the burden of a conscience.

What is disgraceful is that so many of the Bush administration's transgressions will remain not only unpunished but uninvestigated.

*****

The "torture memo" and the horrors that sprang from it have discredited America and American ideals. The damage to our national security will take a generation to repair and, meanwhile, puts our nation and our citizens abroad at great risk. Yoo and Bybee could not have done more damage had they been undercover agents in the employ of an arch foe such as, oh, Al Qaeda.

Hmmm. Hmmm. If only there was a way to wring a confession out of them . . .

Hmmm. Hmmm. Indeed.

Judge Refuses to Dismiss War Crimes Case Against Blackwater

By GottaLaff

Jeremy Scahill does it again, right on top of things as always:

On Wednesday, a federal judge rejected a series of arguments by lawyers for the mercenary firm formerly known as Blackwater seeking to dismiss five high-stakes war crimes cases brought by Iraqi victims against both the company and its owner, Erik Prince. At the same time, Judge TS Ellis III sent the Iraqis' lawyers back to the legal drawing board to amend and refile their cases, saying that the Iraqi plaintiffs need to provide more specific details on the alleged crimes before a final decision can be made on whether or not the lawsuits will proceed. [...]

Judge Ellis, a Reagan appointee with a mixed record on national security issues, rejected several of the central arguments Blackwater made in its motion to dismiss, namely the company's contention that it cannot be sued by the Iraqis under US law and that the company should not be subjected to potential punitive damages in the cases. [...]

Ellis also rejected Blackwater's argument that "conduct constitutes a war crime only if it is perpetrated in furtherance of a 'military objective' rather than for economic or ideological reasons." Ellis said that under Blackwater's logic "it is arguable that nobody who receives a paycheck would ever be liable for war crimes. Moreover, so narrow is the scope of [Blackwater's] standard that it would exclude murders of civilians committed by soldiers where there was no legitimate 'military objective' for committing the murders." [...]

Even if Judge Ellis ultimately rejects all of the federal arguments made by Burke and CCR, which is a big if, the cases can still proceed under "common law," as has happened in other torture and war crimes cases. Ellis has not yet ruled on those charges.

Please read his whole piece here.

To Xe who the Blackwater thugs really are, see my little primer, "Blackwater for Dummeez" here.

Jonathan Turley to Obama: Earn the Nobel by appointing a prosecutor for war crimes

By GottaLaff

There's a lengthy op-ed in today's L.A. Times in which several writers and scholars are asked what President Obama should do to earn the Nobel Peace Prize... that he already earned but apparently really didn't.

Here is one of two excerpts that I singled out. The second one will be in a separate post:

The most obvious start would be to fulfill our obligations under treaties and international law to appoint a special prosecutor, without limitations, to investigate and prosecute any war crimes committed by U.S. officials. Obama already has acknowledged that waterboarding is torture and that torture is a war crime, yet his administration is blocking investigations that are the prerequisite to justice. Obama has promised CIA employees as a group that they would not be prosecuted for torture for following orders, despite the long-standing finding from the Nuremburg trials that "just following orders" is no defense for a war crime. Appointing a special prosecutor would show that Obama will not continue to circumvent principle for politics. He could further demonstrate his commitment to international law by dropping his opposition to the release of photographs and other records showing our abuse of detainees.

For more on the torture photo backtrack, see yesterday's post here.

*****
All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

Lt. Col. Barry Wingard is a military attorney who represents Fayiz Al-Kandari in the Military Commission process and in no way represents the opinions of his home state. When not on active duty, Colonel Wingard is a public defender in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.

Guardian: CIA planned al-Qaida assassinations in friendly countries, officials say

By GottaLaff

Sy Hersh originally reported about Cheney's assassination ring, and I posted about that here. Now this:

Dick Cheney, the former vice president, ordered a highly classified CIA operation hidden from Congress because it pushed the limits of legality by planning to assassinate of al-Qaida operatives in friendly countries without the knowledge of their governments, according to former intelligence officials.

Former counter-terrorism officials who retain close links to the intelligence community say that the hidden operation involved plans by the CIA and the military to launch operations, similar to those by Israel's Mossad intelligence service, to hunt down and kill al-Qaida activists abroad without informing the governments concerned, even though some were regarded as friendly if unreliable.

The CIA apparently did not put the plan in to operation but the US military did, carrying out several assassinations including one in Kenya that proved to be a severe embarrassment and helped lead to the quashing of the programme. [...]

Another former senior intelligence official responsible for dealing with al-Qaida said that assassination plans were reined in after similar covert operations by the military were botched and proved to be embarrassing, particularly the killing in Kenya. [...]

The official said he believes from conversations with serving members of the CIA that the area of real concern in Congress is that the planned operations may also have involved the covert surveillance of American citizens, a particularly sensitive subject in the US.

There appears to be common agreement among knowledgeable former intelligence officials that the controversy goes beyond the immediate question of assassination and capture of al-Qaida operatives as there have been numerous killings and detentions since the 9/11 attacks. One former official said that the Bush administration discussed the assassination question in the context of a ban introduced in the 1970's in response to several failed CIA attempts to murder Fidel Castro and concluded that as the US had declared itself at war with Al-Qaida and the Taliban the ban did not apply.

Peter Bergen, a senior security analyst at the New America Foundation, said that the secret operation must have gone further than that to have created such a backlash in Congress. "If it's an assassination programme of al-Qaida leaders that is hardly surprising. Clinton had an assassination programme against Bin Laden. There have been 27 drone missile strikes against al-Qaida alone this year," he said.

But we shouldn't look back. Just keep moving along...

"The American people have shown no interest in this issue."

By GottaLaff

My dear Twitter friend and TPC reader FutureDirected forwarded me the following e-mail invitation yesterday:

Hear directly from a Guantanamo lawyer!

Guantanamo attorney and War Criminals Watch Advisor Candace Gorman on a national conference call.

Hear from one of the very brave and self-sacrificing attorneys who are devoting their lives to defending Guantanamo detainees. The interview wil be followed by a Q&A session.

I had to miss the call, but she was kind, and thorough, enough to take the following notes last night.

Here are the notes I took during the call, and a pdf by Candace [Note: Link to html version]:

http://gtmoblog.blogspot.com/

Candace Gorman, Attorney Civil Rights/Human Rights Professional consultant to the Hague: War crimes/Crimes Against Humanity
Algerian client, Al-Jizawe, guilt by association, lived in same guest house as another detainee. Asked for expedited ruling on Habeas Corpus

Two other clients

Letters between client and attorney, read and censored. Redacted version sent. Full version can be read in Washington. Process takes weeks.

Access to evidence: "None." Timex watch, supposedly can be used for detonating a bomb. US will not produce watch.

"Clients have not been charged with a crime, and never will be."

"It has been a mistake, by the Obama administration, to attempt to revise the Military Commissions process." "Take it out of Military hands. I recommend Article III court as the only Constitutional alternative."

Obama & Justice Dept. : "Nothing has changed in the DOJ (I don't like to use the word Justice because there is no Justice there.) .... I had great hope and there have been no changes."

Torture and treatment: Torture yes: solitary confinement. force feeding hunger strikers tube feeding. Being there, solitary, force fed, 'earthed'
Don't know about waterboarding.

Closing gitmo is important, but not just by moving them to another prison. "Most of these men are not guilty of anything."

"Handful of men have committed acts that need attention, we have to set up a process for handling that. We don't lock them up because they might do something."

"The American people have shown no interest in this issue."

"There is something insidious going on this country, with all this secrecy."

Many of the detainees have contracted tuberculosis and are not receiving appropriate care for it.

Does all this sound familiar? It should:

All my previous posts about Gitmo detainee Fayiz al-Kandari, and his military attorney Lt. Col. Barry Wingard, can be found here; That link includes audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.Our system of justice is broken. Military commissions rely on coerced confessions and hearsay, something Jane Mayer covers in great detail in her book..

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

VIDEO: Liz Cheney acknowledges Daddy speaking out for fear of prosecution

By GottaLaff

UPDATE: Looks like Paddy already posted this, but what the heck. Here it is again, only shorter:



If the corporate media would deny the disgraced, sleazy Cheney family (and the irrelevant Pat Buchanan) access to the airwaves, this insanity wouldn't be monopolizing the news cycle:

[...] Cheney himself has answered this question, claiming he is speaking out because he believes that torture and other Bush administration anti-terror policies — many of which Obama is abandoning — were “exactly the right thing to do” and that “there isn’t anybody there on the other side to tell the truth.”

In turn, media figures have answered the question in much the same way. “I think he genuinely believes we are threatened now more because of what Obama is doing,” MSNBC’s Pat Buchanan has said. CNN’s David Gergen said, “I think Dick Cheney almost has a Churchillian view of this, and that is somebody has got to stand up and be the voice in the wilderness.”

There's a reason the Nation of Dick is out in the wilderness: It's where he belongs.

Last night on CNN, however, Cheney’s daughter Liz revealed that fear of prosecution is indeed a motivating factor in the former vice president’s current media campaign [...]

Does Liz Cheney also fear that her dad will be prosecuted for his role in the Bush administration’s torture program? Perhaps so. As Steve Benen has noted, “Liz Cheney has been all over the television news” as well, with “12 appearances, in nine and a half days, spanning four networks.”

The Cheneys' opinions are nothing more than a worthless, self-serving, pre-emptive defense of Daddy Dearest's criminal acts, all crafted carefully to affect a potential jury pool.

Gitmo Official: Interrogators Told To Find Qaeda-Iraq Link

By GottaLaff

Nancy Pelosi is not the issue. Torturing people to establish a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda is. From the Nation of Dick's own big fat mouth:

The [McClatchy] news service dug up comments made in 2004 by Dick Cheney to the-now defunct Rocky Mountain News. Said the then-veep:

The (al Qaida-Iraq) links go back. We know for example from interrogating detainees in Guantanamo that al Qaida sent individuals to Baghdad to be trained in C.W. and B.W. technology, chemical and biological weapons technology. These are all matters that are there for anybody who wants to look at it."

Top Guantanamo investigator, retired Army Lt. Col. Brittain Mallow:

I'm aware of the fact that in late 2002, early 2003, that (the alleged al Qaida-Iraq link) was an interest on the intelligence side. That was something they were tasked to look at.

And why hasn't this made the media rounds again?

Liberal groups seek disbarment of Bush lawyers over torture

By GottaLaff

"Many view" this as a good start:

A coalition of progressive groups sought Monday to have 12 Bush administration lawyers disbarred for their roles in crafting the legal rationale for so-called enhanced interrogation techniques that many view as torture.

Yes, "many" have a sense of justice, morality, and the rule of law. "Many" understand that torture doesn't work. "Many" are rational members of society and are sick and tired of secrecy. "Many" want BushCo to be put under oath, but "many" realize that I'm off on a tangent here.

Kevin Zeese, an attorney for the coalition:

"Just as the bar would suspend an attorney who advised a police officer to torture and brutalize a detained immigrant or criminal defendant, the bar must suspend these attorneys for advocating and causing the torture of war detainees. The disciplinary boards that hear these complaints must act or they will be seen as complicit in the use of torture."

Zeese called disbarment "an important step toward the ultimate accountability of criminal prosecution."

The group registered formal complaints against David Addington, John Ashcroft, Stephen Bradbury, Jay Bybee, Michael Chertoff, Douglas Feith, Alice Fisher, Timothy Flanigan, Alberto Gonzales, William Haynes II, Michael Mukasey, and John Yoo. [...]

The complaints, filed with the state bars in California, the District of Columbia, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas, also seek other forms of disciplinary action in addition to disbarment.

A preliminary internal report on the Justice Department investigation into the authors of the Bush administration's so-called "torture memos" indicated the federal government might also urge state bar associations to take sanctions against the memo writers, according to two government sources familiar with the report.

The draft, which has been sent to Attorney General Eric Holder for approval or revisions, reportedly does not call for criminal prosecutions.

Sources familiar with the report said investigators for the Justice Department's ethics unit — the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) — have focused heavily on internal communications involving Bradbury, Bybee, and Yoo.

Dick Cheney, Patron Saint of Torture-Free

By GottaLaff

The Nation of Dick and the rest of BushCo committed war crimes in order to get the propaganda he wanted to invade Iraq. Yet...

Few in Congress or the mass media have pushed Cheney on this "great success." Fewer still have seen that that Bush and Cheney's illegal use of torture to sell their pre-emptive war in Iraq was probably their single greatest crime. Why the reluctance? Why do so many Americans refuse to see the obvious?

In large part because Congress, the corporate media, and even the general public were to some degree complicit in the crime. Whatever the CIA told Congressional leaders about waterboarding, sensory and sleep deprivation, stress positions, or sending captives to other counties for interrogation, only the mentally challenged had any excuse for not knowing from the public record at the time the rough outlines of how far Bush and Cheney had stepped beyond the law.[...]

...Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the others proudly told the world what they were doing. And, very much like the Good Germans of an earlier time, Congress and the media went along, as did most of the American public. Even worse, almost no one questioned the validity of all the so-called intelligence that the administration's methods produced. [...]

We now know from several sources that these selling points for invading Iraq came primarily from torturing al-Libi in Egypt. We also know from the recent report of the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Bush administration pushed the torturers from the beginning to find such a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda. That was one of the major purposes of the entire effort, as only those on the inside truly understood.

But, even before the invasion, anyone paying attention should have been able to see that the administration's "evidence" had to be tainted the moment Mr. Bush stepped beyond the Geneva Conventions and began "working the dark side."

Having failed to catch the crime at the time, many major media figures and members of Congress are understandably reluctant to accuse Bush and Cheney of criminal conduct and bring them to trial now. How much easier just to forget the whole sordid mess and get on with the nation's business. But, if Congress and the media do, they will fail again, as Mr. Cheney's spirited defense of torture and unlimited presidential power will come back to haunt us all in the secret memos of a new administration not so many years from now.

It's a little difficult to maintain transparency in this atmosphere.

VIDEO: Stanford Anti-War Alumni, Students Call for Condi War Crimes Probe

By GottaLaff



Marjorie Cohn:

During the Vietnam War, Stanford students succeeded in banning secret military research from campus. Last weekend, 150 activist alumni and present Stanford students targeted Condoleezza Rice for authorizing torture and misleading Americans into the illegal Iraq War. [...]

On Sunday, surrounded by alumni and students, Lenny Siegel and I nailed a petition to the University President's office door. The petition, circulated by Stanford Say No to War, reads:

"We the undersigned students, faculty, staff, alumni, and other concerned members of the Stanford community, believe that high officials of the U.S. Government, including our former Provost, current Political Science Professor, and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow, Condoleezza Rice, should be held accountable for any serious violations of the Law (included ratified treaties, statutes, and/or the U.S. Constitution) through investigation and, if the facts warrant, prosecution, by appropriate legal authorities."

I stated, "By nailing this petition to the door of the President's office, we are telling Stanford that the university should not have war criminals on its faculty. There is prima facie evidence that Rice approved torture and misled the country into the Iraq War. Stanford has an obligation to investigate those charges." [...]

As National Security Advisor, Rice authorized waterboarding in July 2002, according to a newly released report of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Less than two months later, she hyped the impending U.S. invasion of Iraq, saying, "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." Her ominous warning was part of the Bush administration's campaign to sell the Iraq war, in spite of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency's assurances that Saddam Hussein did not possess nuclear weapons.

A week before the nailing of the petition, Rice made some Nixonian admissions in response to questions from Stanford students during a campus dinner designed to burnish Rice's image on campus.

I posted about that here, along with this video:

Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and president of the National Lawyers Guild. She is the author of "Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law" and co-author of "Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent." Read her articles at www.marjoriecohn.com.

Whether or not any of this petition has any immediate effect, it is still important to keep the pressure on. I applaud Marjorie Cohn for her efforts and support her for them. The more attention this continues to get the better.

Bush: War Crimes Will Be Prosecuted...It Will Be No Defense To Say, I Was Just Following Orders

Sigh. Via Think Progress.

U.N. Official: Obama's Decision Not to Prosecute Torture Violates International Law

By GottaLaff

If it isn't one thing, it's another:

President Barack Obama's decision not to prosecute CIA operatives who used questionable interrogation practices violates international law, the U.N.'s top torture investigator said Saturday. [...]

In a brief telephone interview with The Associated Press, Manfred Nowak, an Austrian who serves as a U.N. special rapporteur in Geneva, said the United States had committed itself under the U.N. Convention against Torture to make torture a crime and to prosecute those suspected of engaging in it.

"They are party to the convention and the convention is very, very clear," Nowak said when asked to confirm comments contained in an interview he gave Austria's Der Standard newspaper. "The fact that you carried out an order doesn't relieve you of your responsibility," he said, adding it could be a mitigating factor.

Nowak, who said he would soon travel to Washington for meetings with officials, also called for a comprehensive independent investigation into the matter and added it was important to compensate the victims.

"Now we need to know all the facts -- not just bits and pieces," Nowak said. "First you need the truth and then you need justice."

One way or another, there will be repercussions for BushCo's war crimes. Will Nowak's statements be enough to get the ball rolling?

Leahy Admits Truth Commission Idea is Dead

By GottaLaff

J Sid McCain won't support the truth commission. Then again, neither will any other Rushpublic. I guess they're just not that into the truth:

Charlotte Dennett, a journalist and former candidate for Vermont attorney general, writes in Consortiumnews.com that in a meeting with Leahy on Monday, the senator admitted that his idea for a “Commission of Inquiry” is going nowhere fast.

“We had asked for the meeting to learn why he supported a truth commission over the appointment of a special prosecutor,” writes Dennett. “Halfway through the allotted 30 minute meeting (with him taking up much of the time explaining why he was not generally opposed to prosecution, since he had been a DA for eight years and had the highest conviction rate in Vermont), he told us that his truth commission had failed to get the broad support it needed in Congress, and since he couldn’t get one Republican to come behind the plan, “it’s not going to happen.” [...]

It also suggests that Leahy couldn’t get Sen.John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was tortured as a POW during the Vietnam War — and supposed champion for human rights — to go along with the commission idea. [...]

While advocates for a truth commission may be disappointed to learn the proposal isn’t moving forward, this may mean there’s now more of a chance that senior Bush policymakers who authorized torture, warrantless wiretapping and other illegal conduct will be held accountable in a court of law. Particularly as other U.S. allies — the United Kingdom and Spain, in particular — have recently announced their own investigations related to U.S.-sponsored torture and abuse of “war on terror” detainees.

In the meantime, as I’ve written before, Leahy and the Senate Judiciary Committee could still initiate a comprehensive inquiry into the role of the Justice Department in potentially illegal conduct under the Bush administration, as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and the Senate Intelligence Committee have done for the CIA.

IMHO, the truth commission was all show and not enough tell. However, there is still reason for some optimism about future prosecutions. John Dean tells us why (start at about 4:45):

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Impeachment's hottt again... if it's Obama

By GottaLaff

Impeach Bush? Never! Who cares about torture, lies, illegal wiretaps, fraudulent wars, etc.? No, no, pish-posh, what were we thinking? During the Bush presidency, impeachment was so Clinton ago. Well, guess what? It's 2009, Obama is in the White House, and impeachment is hotttter than evah!

After accepting illegal and unethical behavior for years from President Bush, the right wing has finally come around to advocating for the impeachment of a President. On Sat. March 21, more than 4,000 people gathered in Orlando for a “tea party” protest to denounce what they called “wasteful Washington spending.” The Orlando Sentinel quoted one attendee saying, “They need to shove that bum out,” referring to Obama. The signs that were distributed said “Obama Bin Lyin’ IMPEACH NOW”.

Holy cow! President Obama is trying to get us out of a depression via a bold stimulus package! Shove the bum out!

Dick Cheney, on the other hand, ran secret "executive assassination rings"... and that's A-OK with the tea-partiers.

Nothing wrong with that logic, right?

H/t: BuzzFlash

Political Carnival EXCLUSIVE: First-hand knowledge of Cheney's assassination ring's existence

By GottaLaff

One of our Commenters, who must remain anonymous, has generously shared what little information he is able to with me about Dick Cheney's horrific "executive assassination ring", originally reported by Seymour Hersh. Anonymous and I have e-mailed back and forth for a few months now, and he was going to allow me to use some of his Iraq experiences for a series of posts.

However, things have changed for reasons that are explained below. This is all Anonymous is now allowed to reveal:

I can confirm for each of you that the assassination ring does exist. I spoke with one member of the Delta Forces on a regular basis. I can not repeat anything that I was told, but I can tell you that even the so-called terrorist knew exactly where they were housed on our base at an undisclosed location in Iraq. Laffy, i'm sure you know who I am. I can not repeat anymore than what I have typed from fear of reprisal. Which is also the reason why I never came back to you on what happened to my wife and me while being in Iraq last year.

[W]e have people out there that can and will hunt me down. [...] But those guys would have to come by our tent to pick up all their cargo that would be airlifted from random parts of the world. I can tell you that I know for a fact that it truly does go on. But I swore that I'd never repeat anything that was ever told, or pictures that I saw with my own eyes. Pictures that those guys could be severely punished for showing anyone out of their official channels.

Yes, I realize this is coming from an anonymous source, although I do know his name and have for some time, and have seen photos (from his time in Iraq and other venues) of him and his wife and even his friends. I also understand that he is not saying any of this under oath, but neither was Sy Hersh... yet. It is all hearsay for the time being.

I posted this to buttress Hersh's words. And I wanted to buttress Hersh's words to emphasize the following:

Dick Cheney and George Bush must be prosecuted. There must be a thorough investigation, and they must be prosecuted. How many more posts about these criminals will I have to write before this will happen? What does it take?

President Obama, I'm a fan, but I strongly disagree with your belief that "we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards". That is a very bad precedent when it comes to dealing with very bad people doing very, very bad things. Please, for the sake of your country, reconsider.

Let's hope that Attorney General Holder has other ideas.

Open Question Thread

I have a very unexpected visitor, so I'm going to go drink the booze he brought over chat a bit. Check out this article and tell me what you think, but in a realistic way. G-d knows I'd love to see this man in leg irons, but it ain't gonna happen. Back in a bit.

George W. Bush: Should Canada detain him and arrest him for war crimes?

Lawyer seeks to prosecute Bush for torture, bar him from Canada

By GottaLaff

Yeah, I know, it's not going to happen. But please, can't someone, somewhere say this is a real possibility, just once?

Even out of power and away from the White House, former President George W. Bush seemingly cannot get away from calls for his prosecution.

The latest outcry comes from a Canadian attorney with Lawyers Against the War, who said she will file a suit against Bush and bar his entry to Canada over alleged war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Former President Bush plans a visit to Canada on March 17 for a speaking engagement at Calgary, on invite from the city's chamber of commerce. [...]

The letter (PDF link) asks the mounted police to "begin an investigation of George W. Bush for aiding, abetting and counseling torture between November 13, 2001 and November 2008 at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Bagram prison in Afghanistan and other places."

"The letter also alleges that Bush has engaged in 'systematic or gross human rights violations, or a war crime or a crime against humanity' under subsections 6(3) to 6(5) of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act," reported Straight.com.

Lawyers Against the War has been pursuing similar tactics for years. The group's Web site, which appears to have not been updated in the last five years, carries prior letters the organization has posted to Canadian officials. [...]

"The federal government is keeping silent on the upcoming visit," reported Canadian magazine See. "'We have no comments to offer on the visit of Mr. George W. Bush to Calgary,' said Foreign Affairs spokesperson Alain Cacchione in an e-mail. When told about Davidson's letter, a spokesperson with the Canadian Border Services Agency said 'we wouldn't comment on something like that.'"

"[Lawyers Against the War's Gayle] Davidson noted that the B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled that a private prosecution of this nature cannot proceed to a first hearing without the consent of the federal attorney general, who is Robert Nicholson," reported Straight.com.

"We can assume that he won't," she told the Web site. "So the next step would be to take an application to the Federal Court of Canada seeking an order of mandamus compelling the attorney general to give his consent."

Why must these efforts always go nowhere, especially when the outcries come from the good guys who have truth on their side? That was rhetorical.

International Criminal Court’s Bashir case could set legal precedent for going after Bush

By GottaLaff

I'm clinging to anything I can get. Here's something clingworthy now! Thank you, Think Progress:

The International Criminal Court (ICC) yesterday issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Today, the AP reports that, based on the legal principles the ICC used to arrest al-Bashir, former President George W. Bush could be next on the list:

David Crane, an international law professor at Syracuse University, said the principle of law used to issue an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir could extend to former US President Bush over claims officials from his Administration may have engaged in torture by using coercive interrogation techniques on terror suspects.

Crane is a former prosecutor of the Sierra Leone tribunal that indicted Liberian President Charles Taylor and put him on trial in The Hague.

Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Programme at Human Rights Watch, said the al-Bashir ruling was likely to fuel discussion about investigations of possible crimes by Bush Administration officials.

Bush "unjoined", but Team Obama may re-join the court. Let's hope they do just that.

CIA destroyed 92 interrogation tapes

Somebody needs to be prosecuted for this malfeasance. I'm looking at you George...

WASHINGTON- New documents show the CIA destroyed nearly 100 tapes of terror interrogations, far more than has previously been acknowledged.

The revelation Monday comes as a criminal prosecutor is wrapping up his investigation in the matter.

The acknowledgment of dozens of destroyed tapes came in a letter filed by government lawyers in New York, where the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit seeking more details of terror interrogation programs.

"The CIA can now identify the number of videotapes that were destroyed," said the letter by Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin. "Ninety two videotapes were destroyed."

The tapes became a contentious issue in the trial of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, after prosecutors initially claimed no such recordings existed, then acknowledged two videotapes and one audiotape had been made.

Newly released documents show Defense Department involved with secret prisons

By GottaLaff

President Obama better damn well call for change on this one:

The Department of Defense’s involvement in the CIA’s “ghost” detention program is certain, according to three human rights groups -- Amnesty International USA, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. They released documents today from the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of State that, they said, prove the existence of secret prisons at Bagram and in Iraq as well as the Department of Defense cooperation with the CIA ghost detention program. They also said the documents show one case where the Defense sought to delay the release of Guantanamo prisoners. [...]

“It is astonishing that the government may have delayed releasing men from Guantánamo in order to avoid bad press,” said Center for Constitutional Rights attorney Gitanjali Gutierrez, who represents many of the men held in Guantánamo and has made 30 trips to the base since 2004. “Proposing to hold men for a month and a half after they were deemed releasable is inexcusable. The Obama administration should avoid repeating this injustice and release the innocent individuals with all due haste.”

This is the first time the Defense Department has provided any documents in response to the 2007 lawsuit based on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests dating back to 2004, the groups said.

Through their lawsuit, the human rights groups seek the disclosure of government documents that relate to secret detention, extraordinary rendition and torture, they said.

Here are links to the documents: 1., 2., 3., 4., 5., 6., 7., 8.

As more information comes out, more evidence of war crimes is revealed, and as a consequence, the odds that there will be prosecutions increases.