June 2014 Archives

and the 505th day of the Guantanamo hunger strike. 

A scene from Guantánamo Bay: The Hunger Strikes.

"..the deliberate and systematic scourge of torture continues to be used by brutal and repressive regimes to control populations, extract information, stifle dissent, and suppress emerging movements... Countries who are parties to the Convention Against Torture, including the United States, should be urged to fulfill their legal and moral obligations to provide survivors "as full a rehabilitation as possible" and to fully and promptly investigate all credible allegations of torture and cruel treatment."

 -- Curt Goering, Center for Victims of Torture

Fight Impunity

Even by U.S. standards, it takes some big stones to justify attacking a nation that never attacked, or threatened to attack, you, then pretending that you know about weapons of mass destruction, then getting caught lying and then not only not apologizing and immediately withdrawing but doubling down (the "surge")...

When you broadcast every day that an isolated Middle Eastern dictatorship is a totalitarian beast bent on reducing America to ashes and irradiated rubble, when you appease lawbreakers like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and John Yoo, when you say that antiwar activists would literally destroy the country if they could, to score cheap political points, you can't profess surprise when some people decide that war is the only means of forestalling the disaster you have warned them about.

The damage done by 'moderates'

The University of California welcomed 'torture memos' author John Yoo's return to academia in 2004 and continues to refuse investigation of misconduct charges against the professor. We demand application of ethical standards former dean Christopher Edley chose to ignore.

Yoo's rulings caused immeasurable suffering: thousands have been subjected to torture, tens of thousands incarcerated, tens of millions spied upon, and over 600,000 deaths have been attributed to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Despite repudiation by peers, and rejection of his work at the Office of Legal Counsel by the same (Bush) regime that hired him to legalize the unconscionable, Yoo continues to be given credence, advocating for militarization of outer space, a lethal strike on Iran, and the current president's killer drone program.

A university that allows a war criminal to teach constitutional and international law courses to the next generation of lawyers and judges under prejudice of 'academic freedom' is protecting war crimes.

It is our responsibility to call out criminals and enablers alike.