The hope we and this nation had for change we could believe in, and which we still hope will not die, has been diminished by the reality of petty politics, with the “Party of No” and its raucous Teabagger mutation blocking social change for America’s improvement. We really want to be able to write columns about Americans who take care of each other, about leaders who concentrate upon fixing the social problems. But we know that’s only an ethereal ideal. So, we’ll just have to hope that the waters of social justice wear down, however slowly, the jagged rocks of haughty resistance.
January 12, 2010 | Filed under
Commentary |
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Compare Tony Blair’s latest confession to mass murder with Bush’s. The BBC has just aired an interview of Blair in which he was asked whether he would have attacked Iraq even if he had known there were no “weapons of mass destruction” there. Blair replied: “I would still have thought it right to remove him.”
December 15, 2009 | Filed under
Commentary |
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Much has occurred today with regards to Guantanamo Bay and many decisions are yet to come. But there is another milestone worthy of note: Today marks the eighth anniversary of the creation of the legal foundation for the prison and the second-tier justice system established to try terrorism suspects there.
November 13, 2009 | Filed under
Nation |
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The 15th anniversary of the U.S. ratification of the United Nations Convention Against Torture passed last week with little fanfare and virtually no press attention from the mainstream media here. But according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), “U.S. policy continues to fall short of ensuring full compliance with the treaty.” For example, the organization said that an appendix to the Army Field Manual (AFM) can still facilitate cruel treatment of prisoners and detainees at home and abroad.
October 27, 2009 | Filed under
Torture |
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Former General Services Administration (GSA) Chief of Staff David H. Safavian was sentenced today to one year in prison on charges of obstruction of justice and making false statements in connection with the investigation into the activities of former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
October 16, 2009 | Filed under
Law |
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A month ago, rulings made by District Court judges in the habeas corpus appeals of prisoners held at Guantánamo seemed, for the most part, to confirm that the courts were uniquely placed to deliver justice to the prisoners after their long years of imprisonment, largely without charge or trial.
September 11, 2009 | Filed under
World |
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The Obama administration said the administration would begin posting some of its visitor logs online following a protracted legal battle.
September 4, 2009 | Filed under
Nation |
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The CIA said in court papers late Monday that it intends to withhold hundreds of pages of documents related to the Bush administration’s torture and detention policies on grounds that disclosing the information will threaten national security.
September 1, 2009 | Filed under
Torture |
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In hopes that it may be of some assistance to Eric Holder, John Conyers, Patrick Leahy, active citizens, foreign courts, the International Criminal Court, law firms preparing civil suits, and local or state prosecutors with decency and nerve is a list of 50 top living U.S. war criminals. These are men and women who helped to launch wars of aggression or who have been complicit in lesser war crimes. These are not the lowest-ranking employees or troops who managed to stray from official criminal policies. These are the makers of those policies.
August 18, 2009 | Filed under
Commentary |
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House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers may call Karl Rove and Harriet Miers to testify publicly before Congress sometime in the fall about their role in the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and what President George W. Bush knew about the plan and when he knew it.
August 17, 2009 | Filed under
Politics |
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