Today's Headlines: VARIOUS - Especially on RIGHTS
The following may all be found at Democracy Now! dot org
Health Care as a Human Right: here
Also find an important new item on saving the Wilderness
More:
* Rice, Ashcroft Approved Torture in July 2002
* Report: Obama Rejected Investigative Commission on Torture
* Report: CIA Prisoners Still Missing
* Judge Upholds Habeus Corpus for Gitmo Prisoner
* Obama: Days of US Inaction on Energy Crisis “Now Over”
* White House Withholds Endorsement on Bill Capping Emissions
* IMF: Global Economy to Shrink 1.3%
* Freddie Mac CFO Found Dead in Apparent Suicide
* Red Cross: “Hundreds” Killed or Wounded in Sri Lanka Fighting
* Taliban Fighters Seize Control of Pakistani District
* Israeli Military Finds No Fault in Gaza Attack
* Clinton Vows Continued US Boycott of Palestinians
* Internal Displacements Rise in Colombia
Be sure to read: Amy Goodman’s New Column, “Torturers Should Be Punished”
The door to justice is open just a crack. After the release of four Bush-era Office of Legal Counsel memos that authorized “harsh interrogation techniques,” President Obama said there should be no prosecutions. Though he may occupy the most powerful office on Earth, there is a force more powerful: committed people demanding change. Torturers should be punished. Listen to this Column or READ filed under Weekly Column here
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Senate Armed Services Committee Report Underscores Need for Prosecution
CONTACT: press@ccrjustice.org
On April 22, 2009, the Senate Armed Services Committee issued the declassified version of its full report on the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody, particularly in Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan. The report’s Executive Summary was released in December, and the release of the full 250-page report provides yet another striking example of the approval and authorization of torture and war crimes at the highest levels of the Bush administration. It further illustrates the severe harm that government officials and private contractors have done to men, women, and children held in U.S. custody through the use of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The report makes clear that these crimes were not committed by a “few bad apples,” but that officials at the highest levels of the Bush administration, including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Department of Defense General Counsel William Haynes, planned and authorized torture and war crimes. Furthermore, it vividly illustrates just how integral the psychologists, physicians, and lawyers were to our government’s policy of torture, This bipartisan senate committee joins the chorus of voices offering proof that these professionals played key roles in designing illegal torture tactics, supervising and ordering their implementation, and then providing medical and legal cover for criminal activity.
Coming on the heels of the release of torture memos written by former Department of Justice attorneys Jay Bybee (now a federal judge), John Yoo, and Stephen Bradbury, as well as the numerous documented revelations of the involvement in torture, war crimes, and other criminal activities of former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, former CIA Director George Tenet and many other high-ranking officials, including former President Bush himself,, this report only adds urgency to the need for action. The senate’s investigation has yielded even more evidence of the urgent need for a full investigation, the appointment of a special prosecutor, and criminal prosecutions of those officials responsible for torture and war crimes. We cannot allow high government officials to violate the law and the Constitution with impunity. We must demand that our justice officials hold them accountable for their crimes. We must send a clear message to both future officials and to the victims of torture that these actions are criminal and that the United States will prosecute those who ordered torture to the fullest extent of the law.
The Center for Constitutional Rights reiterates its call for prosecutions of Bush administration officials and for torturers and war criminals to be held accountable for their actions. CCR’s website on prosecutions and accountability has resources and information about the need for prosecutions.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has made the report available on its website. It may be downloaded here.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.
ALSO BE SURE TO SEE THE FACT SHEETS ON TORTURE & NEED FOR JUSTICE AT CCRJUSTICE DOT ORG
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