News and Articles 7-3-06

Did Bush commit war crimes?

But the real blockbuster in the Hamdan decision is the court's holding that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention applies to the conflict with Al Qaeda — a holding that makes high-ranking Bush administration officials potentially subject to prosecution under the federal War Crimes Act.


High Court Has Found Bush Guilty of War Crimes

Largely missed in all the coverage of the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case was the establishment by the court majority that all Bush administration claims to the contrary, the Geneva Convention rules regarding captured prisoners apply to the captives taken not only in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in the so-called War on Terror.


Geneva Conventions are "Quaint" and "Obsolete"


Second-ranking Republican focuses on Geneva Accords' application to Bush's war on terror

Two Republican senators said Sunday that Congress must rein in the Supreme Court ruling that international law applies to the Bush administration's conduct in the war on terror.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the second-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, said the 5-3 court decision "means that American servicemen potentially could be accused of war crimes.

"I think Congress is going to want to deal with that," McConnell said on NBC's Meet the Press. He called the ruling "very disturbing."

The Geneva Convention's Article 3 is "far beyond our domestic law when it comes to terrorism, and Congress can rein it in, and I think we should," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., assigned as a Reserve Judge to the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals. Graham spoke on Fox News Sunday.


"Ya except that we're signatories to the Geneva Convention which means that we accepted it as the "law of the land" the moment we signed it and although congress can legalize something that may occur in the future they can not pass a law that in itself is unconstitutional, and any law they pass making Bush's actions legal does not make them legal retroactively. This violates the "Ex Post Facto" provision of the constitution.

Article 1 section 9 "No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed." and Article 1 section 10 "No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. "...For instance if congress decides to legalize murder the day after Bush commits it he still goes to jail...See how that works?" - Nobody


The presidential oath of office

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."


Bush: Constitution 'just a goddamn piece of paper'

GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the ['Patriot'] act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

"I don't give a goddamn," Bush retorted. "I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way."

"Mr. President," one aide in the meeting said. "There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution."

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"


Bush's Sick Vision of 'Democracy'

he president believes our government should work like this: President Breaks Law, Court says President broke law, Congress vows to pass law to make President's actions illegal, President attaches signing statement indicating he will not follow law.

Perhaps the nation would be better served if all members of government simply played ring around the rosy or a good hearty game of tag, because this pantomime of a fully functioning system of checks and balances is an insult to those of us who actually believe in democracy.


THE HIDDEN POWER

Most Americans, even those who follow politics closely, have probably never heard of Addington. But current and former Administration officials say that he has played a central role in shaping the Administration’s legal strategy for the war on terror. Known as the New Paradigm, this strategy rests on a reading of the Constitution that few legal scholars share—namely, that the President, as Commander-in-Chief, has the authority to disregard virtually all previously known legal boundaries, if national security demands it.


At Guantanamo, Dying Is Not Permitted

The prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, won a major victory this week when the Supreme Court struck down the Bush administration's planned military tribunals. But for many prisoners at the detention facility, the protests haven't stopped. Hunger strikes persist, in what Guantanamo commander Rear Adm. Harry Harris, Jr. has called "asymmetric warfare" — a means to attract attention to their increasingly controversial detention. As a result, the camp's administrators have sought to keep prisoners alive at all cost — because a prisoner's death (as the U.S. found out three weeks ago, when three Gitmo inmates committed suicide) can be a major embarrassment for the U.S. and add fuel to widespread demands for the facility to be shut down.


The founding fathers save America's soul

The president is not an old-style monarch, empowered in wartime to make up rules as he goes along to defend his subjects. He is not the law. He must obey the law, as all citizens must. And in a series of actions and decisions after 9/11, President George W Bush in effect broke the law, violated his oath of office and pushed the limits of his power beyond the permissible.


Democrats Urge Broader Review of Bush War Powers

Senior Democrats called on Sunday for a broader review of whether President George W. Bush had overstepped his war powers after the Supreme Court struck down his administration's Guantanamo military tribunals.

Seeking to capitalize on the sharpest judicial rebuke yet of Bush's tactics in the war on terrorism, Democratic critics said the ruling opens the door for a closer look at complaints he had improperly bypassed Congress in other areas as well.

The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the military commissions created by Bush to try foreign terrorism suspects held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo were unlawful and violated the Geneva Conventions.

Sen. Charles Schumer of New York accused the White House of acting as if Bush's power is "infinite and unchecked by anybody" and sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez seeking a review of "all their other arrogations of power.

"Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, rejected that view, saying the ramifications were limited to the need for Congress to craft a new system for trying Guantanamo inmates. Their legal limbo has drawn international condemnation .


Marine Recruiter Attacks Demonstrators

The following is a statement that is being circulated regarding an incident at the military recruiting station on Orange Street in New Haven on Wednesday, June 28. A baseball bat-wielding Marine recruiter engaged in an unprovoked assault on two demonstrators outside the recruiting center and then seized the cellphone belonging to another demonstrator who had witnessed and photographed the assault. There are plans for a rally and press conference outside the recruiting center for July 5 at 5PM.

The National Lawyers Guild was contacted immediately after the incident by organizers who were looking for legal assistance because, among other things, the New Haven police were trying to discourage the victims from making a complaint against the recruiter — apparently at least one officer expressed the opinion that having an anti-war demonstration outside a military recruiting center was a “provocation.”

The question that this incident must raise is this: if a US Marine recruiter, while safely ensconced behind a desk in an air-conditioned office in New Haven, working in a position that plainly keeps him in the public eye, feels free to use a baseball bat to beat a protester . . . then how much restraint do we imagine that his compatriots use against Iraqis?



Slain Iraqi girl feared soldiers

Fifteen-year-old Abeer Qasim Hamza was afraid, her mother confided to a neighbor.

The pretty girl had attracted the unwelcome attention of U.S. soldiers working at a checkpoint that she had to pass through almost daily in their village in the south-central city of Al-Mahmudiyah, her mother told the neighbor.

Abeer told her mother again and again in her last days that the soldiers had made advances toward her, a neighbor, Omar Janabi, said over the weekend, recounting a conversation he said he had with the girl's mother, Fakhriyah, on March 10.

Fakhriyah feared the Americans might come for her daughter at night, at their home. She asked her neighbor if Abeer might sleep at his house, with the women there.

Janabi said he agreed.Then, ``I tried to reassure her, remove some of her fear,'' Janabi said. ``I told her, the Americans would not do such a thing.''


"In order for most people to learn to kill other humans they need to learn to see them as something other than human. Soldiers are trained to do this and it's a matter of survival for them. They don't have time to think twice before they pull that trigger. This dehumanization in turn opens the door to any number of atrocities. In our thousands of years of history one thing we should know for certain is the horrors of war and what monsters may become of good men. That's why war is supposed to be the last resort and our soldiers not used like some demented 9 yr olds little green army men. " - Nobody


Iraqi Troops Are Turning on Their American Counterparts


More than 1000 Iraqis dead in June

AT least 1009 Iraqis, including civilians, soldiers and policemen, were killed in rebel attacks in June, government officials said today.


Methods questioned in investigation leading up to Sears Tower arrests

Homegrown Terrorism or Made-for-TV Event?


FBI says, ‘No hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11'

The Muckraker Report spoke with Rex Tomb, chief of investigative publicity for the FBI. When asked why there is no mention of 9/11 on the Bin Laden's Most Wanted Web page, Tomb said, “The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Osama Bin Laden's Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11.”


LAST STAND

A retired four-star general, who ran a major command, said, “The system is starting to sense the end of the road, and they don’t want to be condemned by history. They want to be able to say, ‘We stood up.’ ”


Pentagon sees Iran bombing as unsuccessful: report

Top Pentagon officers have told the Bush administration that bombing Iranian nuclear facilities would probably fail to destroy that country's nuclear program, the New Yorker magazine reported on Sunday.

The senior commanders also warned that any attack launched if diplomacy fails to end the standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions could have "serious economic, political, and military consequences for the United States," the article said, citing unidentified U.S. military officials."A crucial issue in the military's dissent, the officers said, is the fact that American and European intelligence agencies have not found specific evidence of clandestine activities or hidden facilities; the war planners are not sure what to hit," according to the report.


LAST STAND

Inside the Pentagon, senior commanders have increasingly challenged the President’s plans, according to active-duty and retired officers and officials. The generals and admirals have told the Administration that the bombing campaign will probably not succeed in destroying Iran’s nuclear program. They have also warned that an attack could lead to serious economic, political, and military consequences for the United States.

“An event like this doesn’t get papered over very quickly,” the former official added. “The bad feelings over the nuclear option are still felt. The civilian hierarchy feels extraordinarily betrayed by the brass, and the brass feel they were tricked into it”—the nuclear planning—“by being asked to provide all options in the planning papers.”


With 'Another Hitler' At The Helm This Independence Day, Look Back At The First One For Clues As To Who Really Controls Bush

However, even though Chick is staying out of sight, he shouldn't be forgotten and neither should some of his top stories be forgotten, stories like Hitler's loyalty to the Vatican and Jesuit Fr. Alberto Rivero's first hand recollections of the evilness inside the Society of Jesus.


Israeli bombing could cost US

Israel's bombing of Gaza's main power plant could end up costing its closest ally, the US government, because it partly insured the project for up to $48 million, officials involved in the project said on Saturday.


Olmert orders army to ‘use all force – spare no one’


Israel defeated at UN Human Rights Council

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday accepted a resolution according to which human rights violations committed by Israel in the territories will be discussed on a permanent basis in all of the Council’s meetings.


Amnesty International accuses Israel of war crimes

Amnesty International on Friday accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza and the Palestinian militias of violation of fundamental principles of international law by kidnapping Corporal Gilad Shalit and killing settler Eliyahu Asheri, urging the international community to act.


The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism

But it was also clear that an all-round increase in wealth threatened the destruction -- indeed, in some sense was the destruction -- of a hierarchical society. In a world in which everyone worked short hours, had enough to eat, lived in a house with a bathroom and a refrigerator, and possessed a motor-car or even an aeroplane, the most obvious and perhaps the most important form of inequality would already have disappeared. If it once became general, wealth would confer no distinction. It was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth, in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while power remained in the hands of a small privileged caste. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable. For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.


'94 ballot 'loophole' focus of DeLay case

Citing his move to Virginia, GOP wants to field a new candidate

The same "loophole" that played out in that 1994 race is at the heart of the federal court battle between Democrats and Republicans about whether the GOP can replace former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay on the November ballot for the 22nd Congressional District.

Republicans have told U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks that the state law that allows political parties to replace ineligible candidates — such as not living in their district — applies to DeLay's move from Sugar Land to Virginia.

Democrats claim DeLay's move is a facade and his eligibility as a congressional candidate is determined by the U.S. Constitution, not state law.

Sparks is expected to rule this week.

The replacement of party nominees for legislative and district offices is not unusual. The Texas Secretary of State's Office reports that it occurs somewhere in the state almost every election cycle.

But this apparently is the first time either party in Texas has tried to replace a nominee for federal office.