This “Prosecute the Torturers” Issue isn’t Going to Go Away (Part I) January 10, 2009 Bob Fertik posed a question on the Obama transition website:
Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor -- ideally Patrick Fitzgerald -- to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrant-less wiretapping?
The next most popular issue/question appears to be this on Palestine:
“What will President Obama do to bring about an independent Palestinian state and bring an end to the violence in the West Bank and Gaza?”
See the Change dot gov site's context at end of this post: These two questions are named as the most popular on the site (perhaps this may indicate at least that many Americans DO care much more than the US Congress does and more than the major media may show. What manner of strange & destructive pseudo-democracy is this?)
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According to firedoglake, SEVENTY THOUSAND PEOPLE VOTED for the torture item - making it far and away the number one question posed to the incoming administration. (later there appears to be some condensation of this number - and possibly a new answer? however, the original may well have been 70,000 - at any rate, these appear to be the top listed questions/issues of discussion/vote... with some interesting comments on firedoglake)
Let's hope that a similar number have & will be voting/discussing on various sites & influential places regarding bringing an end to the bloody/inhumane violence in Gaza and elsewhere and for independent Palestinian/Israeli states!
Go here for the context on this site. Following this item are comments worth viewing along with this - one of the most important comments for the torture item - on firedoglake....(look up related & similar items within the Geneva material have direct application to the current Gaza crisis):
The Geneva Convention provides:
Chapter IX. Repression of Abuses and Infractions
Art. 49. The High Contracting Parties undertake to enact any legislation necessary to provide effective penal sanctions for persons committing, or ordering to be committed, any of the grave breaches of the present Convention defined in the following Article.
Each High Contracting Party shall be under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches, arid shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts. It may also, if it prefers, and in accordance with the provisions of its own legislation, hand such persons over for trial to another High Contracting Party concerned, provided such High Contracting Party has made out a prima facie case.
If the Obama administration is to fulfil its promise to abide by the Geneva Convention, it has an affirmative duty to seek out and prosecute those who have committed war crimes. The Convention language is unequivocal. Let us hope that Obama will carry out his legal responsibility.
LOOK here for one place to go which ties together BOTH the torture question and the GAZA question - and to read more on the above section of the Geneva Conventions might be here and read end of first page:
"...the wilful killing, torture or maltreatment, including biological experiments, the wilful causing of great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and the extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly." WELL DOESN'T THIS APPLY TO ISRAELI/US METHODS?
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See Obama's transitional site for original context of these two most popular questions with their answers: Change dot gov -- here which include the following...
“Previously Addressed Questions”
These popular questions have been answered previously by top officials or in the prior edition of “Open for Questions.”
“Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor (ideally Patrick Fitzgerald) to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?”—Bob Fertik, New York City
Vice President-elect Biden, 12/21/08: “[T]he questions of whether or not a criminal act has been committed or a very, very, very bad judgment has been engaged in is—is something the Justice Department decides. Barack Obama and I are—President-elect Obama and I are not sitting thinking about the past. We’re focusing on the future… I’m not ruling [prosecution] in and not ruling it out. I just think we should look forward. I think we should be looking forward, not backwards.”
“What will President Obama do to bring about an independent Palestinian state and bring an end to the violence in the West Bank and Gaza?”—Katherine, Virginia
President-Elect Obama, 1/5/09: “I am not backing away at all from what I said during the campaign that starting at the beginning of the administration we are going to engage effectively and consistently in trying to resolve the conflicts that exist in the Middle East. That is something that I am committed to—I think it is not only right for the people in that region, most importantly it is right for the national security of the American people and the stability that is so important to this country. So on January 20th you will be hearing directly from me and my opinions on this issue. Until then my job is to monitor the situation and to put together the best possible national security team to hit the ground running once we are responsible for national security.”
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Let's never forget that WAR = Torture and that No War is Holy...!
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