No America, justice has not been done

This didn’t always need explaining– lynching and body snatching are INJUSTICES. There used to be an understanding of what “taking the law into your own hands” meant. Killing someone outright doesn’t bring them to justice, and I’m not alone to assert that killing someone -even after a trial- is premeditated murder. We’re not hearing any such voices on the media unfortunately. Even in the days of mob lynching, the crowd once drained of its blood-lust would sober to the crime it committed, often masked. That said, the press has always responded with statements of pitiable glee. In Colorado, even the most gruesome lynchings, race-related and otherwise, prompted congratulatory editorials from the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Rocky Mountain News and the rest. However, political leaders were usually more careful not to be celebrating extra-judicial revenge killing.

Today even world leaders seem to be piling on with attaboys. Dispiriting really.

The facts emerging from bin Laden’s killing just get worse and worse. If Osama was indeed in a military-secured compound, a whole secured zone apparently, what reason could possibly be given for why every usual method would not be used to bring him into custody? Where was he going to go? Did we need to kill his entourage like we did Saddam Hussein’s sons? The fact that this raid is purported to have been planned for months makes the assassination all the more purposeful.

And then we learn his body was buried at sea, which the media uncritically recite is “in accordance to Islamic tradition” even as Muslims refute it. Besides of course suggesting that today’s raid was only Kabuki theater for disposing of OBL’s ten-year-dead corpse, conveniently making the body disappear makes dark humor of mocking Habeas Corpus. Where already America disregards the fundamental right of a trial of your peers.

Bin Laden’s colleagues are denied the jury of peers and instead judged through kangaroo military tribunals, patently illegal by international law. Lynching of course dispenses of even that formality.

But lynching victims of the earlier times were not deprived of their bodies. How dare the US declare itself judge, executioner AND God over Osama bin Laden’s remains?!

The pretext is that they don’t want a shrine made of wherever his family would have chosen to bury him. But of course, that will not be ours to decide. At the very least the site of bin Laden’s murder will already be a shrine for those in Islamabad. It will certainly be ironic if the WTC in New York City will be the most significant memory of Osama bin Laden’s deeds and become ground zero for his enormous fame worldwide.

Should US torturers of 15-year-old combatant Omar Khadir stay unnamed?

Extending the jurisdiction of military tribunals to civilians and adversaries is not simply unpopular, it’s illegal, and America’s kangaroo courts in Guantanamo mock even self respect. Right now we’re prosecuting Afghanistan combatant Omar Khadr, captured when he was age 15, for lobbing a grenade toward US invaders (are any of our GIs guilty of less?) meanwhile obscuring the identity of American soldiers culpable of torture and murder. Last week four key reporters were banned from Guantanamo proceedings for having revealed the name of “Interrogator #1” guilty of past episodes for abuse of detainees including a death. His name: US Army Specialist Joshua Claus.

How many of these anonymity-seeking torturers can we out on the web? From mercenaries to repentant vets, the least we can do for the memories of their victims and their captives’ loved ones is to publish their identities in public.

You might see the wisdom in protecting the confidentiality of witnesses who were victims of sexual abuse, but perps? Of course a chief problem of military tribunals in addition to permitting testimony obtained through torture is the use of unnamed accusers. Convictions obtained through tribunals will stand up so long as the USA reigns omniscient, but in the eyes of international justice, the US and its torturers remain criminals at large.

Senators Cornyn, Smith, Lieberman, Webb, McCain, not common criminals

They want war crimes trials, then book ’em. Senators John Cornyn, Lamar Smith, Joe Lieberman, Jim Webb and John McCain have mouthed off against bringing accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to trial in US civilian courts. They want Mohammed and his fellow detainees tried by military tribunals, which have already been condemned as violations of international law. So has voting to support the attack on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, secret prisons, etc.

Forget the presumption of innocence. Said Cornyn:

“These terrorists planned and executed the mass murder of thousands of innocent Americans. Treating them like common criminals is unconscionable.”

Added Lieberman, they–

“are war criminals, not common criminals … not American citizens entitled to all the constitutional rights American citizens have in our federal courts.”

Nope, sorry it doesn’t work that way. Our constitution protects the rights of everyone under US jurisdiction. Not to mention the detainees are “alleged” criminals as well.

The senators are perhaps influenced by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s media monicker: the self proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. That’s a rather inflated attribution based on a confession extracted after an apparently record setting series of water boarding torture sessions.

Unless Attorney General Eric Holder plans to conduct the 9/11 trials under wraps, with the sound off like the kangaroo court lynching of Saddam Hussein, this news could be the most significant development the 9/11 Truth Movement will ever get.

Next step, join the ACLU in urging Holder to try all War on Terror detainees in US civilian courts. This isn’t about keeping American citizens safe. As the Senators rightly miserly point out, this is about according the detainees sufficient rights that they might win an inconveniently fair trial.

Operation Lead Ass Cast

israeli military court
‘The Israel Defense Forces announced on Wednesday that an internal investigation has determined that no civilians were purposefully harmed by IDF troops during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip. The inquiries were performed by five IDF colonels who were not involved in the fighting in Cast Lead’, but are now dug deep in the trenches of Operation Lead Ass Cast.

Obama to close Gitmo year from now

aclu obama close gitmo
Yesterday Barack Obama suspended the GWOT military tribunals and announced the closing of Guantanamo Prison Camp, eventually. Care to explain to those still being detained without charges, why it’s going to take a year?

Many progressives are applauding Obama’s bold moves, and today Obama proclaimed that the US does not torture. Are the Gitmo prisoners still maintaining a hunger strike? Are their jailers responding by feeding them against their will, using gastric tubes? That’s torture. If Obama hesitates to roll back the policies which sustained Guantanamo, the responsibility is going to be his own.

Pentagon tortures 15 y/o POW, loses ‘confession’ tape, but still wants to enter it into ‘trial’!

Former Gitmo prosecutor rips military trials, calling interrogators’ practices ‘despicable’ The 15 y/o taken as POW in Afghanistan was tortured, his torture obtained ‘confession’ video taped by his interrogators, and yet now ‘the confession’ is being entered in by the US government-military as supposed evidence against the juvenile POW at their military procedures. All this taking place at its own illegal US government sponsored Kangaroo Court trial for the young man, though the US military claims that they have actually lost the taped confession!

Even Kafka couldn’t have come up with this totalitarian scenario and yet this is the standard of ‘Military Justice’ that will be used to try yet more US soldiers being brought into Fort Carson for ‘trials’. They don’t seem to be planning to charge anybody for crimes of torturing POWs, Barack or no Barack? How is that the case in our alleged democracy?

Free the US GIs that have resisted taking part in these wars waged in such illegal manner. Mohamed was tortured repeatedly at Gitmo, post his Afghanistan taped ‘confession’ obtained from torture. What were they hoping to find from this kid POW? Some Americans that mistakenly entered into the US military don’t want to take part in this sort of illegalities. That’s a crime? They should be honored for helping chip away at this Pentagon torture machine.

Ralph in Kangaroo Land

Kangaroo courtshipRalph Kohlmann presides over Kangaroo Land, Cuba (Guantanamo). Try finding anything much about this Marine Colonel though? He’s top secret!

Recently, Judge Marine Colonel Kohlmann has been warning Kangaroo Land captives that, even as their own lawyers, they can’t see or challenge classified evidence until their trial. Hard to defend oneself from getting the death penalty without knowing what the Pentagon claims is ‘evidence’ if you can’t actually see the ‘evidence’ against you, one would think? But this is military law (JAG) and that is the law of the land in Kangaroo Land, Cuba.

For more info on Kangaroo Land. Strangely, the Miami newspaper has pulled the complete article! I wonder if the Pentagon had anything to do with that? The Pentagon does run happenings in Kangaroo Land, Cuba after all.

Try 9/11 plotters tell Guantanamo judge of legal woes over at the LA Times perhaps? Interesting place, this Kangaroo Land… where torture is law, and law is torture.

Judge Coronel Ralph has been at work in Kangaroo Land for some time. Strange though, there is hardly any info about the guy on the INTERNET. Go figure? Here in this article, read what ‘Muhammad’ had to say about the Ralph back in 2006 ...Lawyer pleads Fifth in dramatic hearing at Guantanamo Bay

And that’s about it in info for this shadow ‘judge’, Marine Coronel Ralph, executioner, judge, and jury of Kangaroo Land, Cuba. Wikipedia can’t find nothing on the guy either! Does it make you proud to be an American?

Take a close look at Kangaroo Land! This is how our country runs ‘legally’
with shadow ‘judges’ , shadow law, and Kafka on hand, in Kangaroo Land, Cuba.

Wallaroo courts you say?

Wallaby wants no part of GitmoBush’s attempts to try his “unlawful combatants” in military tribunals were cut down, finally, by the Supreme Court. So what’s our Judge Roy “Dubya” Bean to do?
 
Bush wants to have Congress redesignate his kangaroo courts as something other. As what? Wallaby courts? Wallaroos?

Wikipedia defines a Kangaroo Court as:

A kangaroo court is a ‘judicial’ proceeding that denies proper procedure in the name of expediency; a fraudulent or unjust trial where the decision has essentially been made in advance, usually for the purpose of providing a conviction, either going through the motions of manipulated procedure or allowing no defence at all.

Wallabies are just short kangaroos. But that won’t do, will it? Wallabies and wallaroos can leap over bothersome barriers, just like Kangaroos. But minor prerequisites like Habeas Corpus and Due Process do not require shorter leaps. If the Gitmo kangaroo tribunals couldn’t do it, why does Bush think another marsupial can?

Is there no penalty for assailing our constitution with the same challenge? There are laws against frivolous lawsuits, why not frivolous laws? And by frivolous I do not mean inconsequential. Civil rights are abridged, innocent people are imprisoned and laws are effectively flouted.

Thus do Bush & Co laugh all the way to the bank, and back, filling their pockets to and fro. Laws do not protect anyone if the perps have all the lawyers.

The Colorado Springs 2005 bid committe

The Colorado Springs 2005 hosting bid to host the upcoming U.S. war crimes trials has been officially accepted by INTERNATIONAL WAR CRIME TRIALS .US! We now approach phase II. We must continue to raise awareness for the trials and widen the circle of Colorado Springs citizens who support the calls for reconcilliation to international law.

1.
How can we bring the International War Crimes Trials to Colorado Springs? The advent of hosting war crime trials will be a reality if John Kerry wins the US elections in November 2004.

Kerry has already expressed his intention to make the United States a signatory to the International Criminal Court, at which point the indictments can begin.
President Bush has stated that his objections to ratifying the ICC were to protect American soldiers from facing charges in international courts. But this reason is disingeneous because the prosecution of common soldiers is not the purpose of the ICC.
It is not the intent of the ICC to prosecute regular crimes of war in those cases which already fall under the jurisdiction of military tribunals or domestic courts. As we can see from the ABU GHRAIB cases, the US government has every intention to prosecute the common soldiers it holds responsible for those abuses.

The unique capability of the International Criminal Court is to indict heads of state and otherwise unassailable diplomats, functionaries, administrators and conspirators.
Preparations have already begun with the IWCT to document the charges, gather the evidence, and prepare the briefs. Efforts are well underway in Japan, Greece, Turkey and Belgium to organize the extra-judicial tribunals to supplement the ICC staffs.

Colorado Springs must act as early as possible to offer our city as a potential US host to the trials!

2.
The first objective of the COS2005 bid project is to make the concept of international law more tangible in American minds. Today when someone hears a protester denounce President Bush as a war criminal, it sounds like so much rhetoric.

But the charge is more than an opinion or an academic argument. The war of aggression which the U. S. pursued against Iraq is a war crime by any number of international laws. As a result there is an inevitable legal action coming against the U. S. for waging an illegal war. International law is not hyperbole.
Criticisms between presidential candidates might be political, but charges of war crimes are out of everyone’s hands. No one is exempt from prosecution for war crimes, and there are no statutes of limitation.

The concept of impending war crime trials thus become an election issue. Can we consider re-electing leaders who are guilty of war crimes, chiefly, the war crime of “crimes against the peace?”
An American voter might hesitate to endorse someone who they can imagine will go down in history as having been the bad guy in the black hat. We believe most people aspire to be law-abiding god-fearing citizens, of America, and of the world community as well.

Reprinted from ColoradoSprings2005.com

Human rights during wartime

The following is a public service message for Human Rights Day, received by Resistance in Brooklyn from political prisoner Jaan Laaman.

Human Rights During Wartime
By Jaan Laaman, Ohio 7 anti-imperialist political prisoner

The struggle for Human, civil and legal rights is always so important, but particularly now in this time of war and increasing repression. Even as they expand this ridiculous war in Afghanistan, Bush and his government are laying plans to spread imperialist war to other countries. Iraq, Somalia, Yemen and Sudan have all been singled out. Threats have been made against Liberation movements in Columbia, the Philippines and Nepal, as well as against popular leaders and governments of Cuba, Venezuela, Palestine and Libya. With no sense of shame or even irony, Bush threatens war against countries who may have some weapons of mass destruction. This from a country that without question has the largest stockpile of every form of weapon of mass destruction known to modern civilization, and a long historic record of using them against civilian populations around the world!

Domestically, with this so-called Homeland Defense, creepy and fascist sounding as that is, we’ve seen the corporate media totally cave, becoming the new cheerleaders for each new police state law and measure. The recent quickly passed federal anti-terror legislation, allowing seven-day police detention and other repressive measures, is almost certainly unconstitutional. Even more dangerous are the slew of executive branch orders enacted by Bush, Ashcroft and Ridge. Secret military tribunals, over 1100 people from across the country (including citizens and legal residents, not just overseas visitors), snatched up and detained incommunicado in federal custody, countless roadblocks and searches of vehicles, Muslim men across America being profiled and harassed, government agents and soldiers all over the place, etc., etc. Congress has NOT declared a State of War. There is no state of martial law existing anywhere in the U.S. As powerful as the presidency is, Bush and his executive department people have authority only under the Constitution and federal laws. Secret tribunals, disappearing people, warrentless searches, etc., are gross violations of American law. The corporate press may be silent about all this, but the people should not.

It isn’t overblown rhetoric to say that there is a more massive assault on Human and civil rights happening in the U.S. today than anytime since the founding of Human Rights Day over fifty years ago. Under a blizzard of waving flags, frequent “terror” and anthrax alerts to keep the public panicky, and an expanding war, a real police state apparatus is being laid down in the United States today.

Under the rubric of 9/11 and safety for the American people, rights are being stripped away across the board. For example, here in Massachusetts prisons, a new legal mail policy was just established, “due to recent national events.” Previously and based on court rulings, all legal mail was only opened in front of the prisoner, checked for contraband but not read. Now under the new policy, all legal mail is delivered to us already opened and censored, along with our regular mail. Various government agencies are jumping on the bandwagon to enact measures not even remotely related to 9/11.

As often happens, many political prisoners have been singled out and further victimized since September 11. Just hours after the plane attacks, most political prisoners in the federal system were snatched from their work assignments and thrown into extreme segregation. Many were held incommunicado for weeks and only recently have been able to contact their lawyers. People like Sundiata Acoli, Marilyn Buck, Father Phil Berrigan, Carlos Alberto Torres and Richard Williams; people who have been in captivity since the 70’s and 80’s and who don’t share bin Laden’s politics or have any connections with him, were opportunistically locked down. Some, like my comrade Richard Williams, are still in segregation in Lompoc penitentiary.

The need to powerfully proclaim support for Human Rights for all of us, in and out of prisons here in the U.S., as well as Human Rights for Afghani mothers and children and men, along with all the people of this planet is crucial. Probably most critical is the need to support all those people and nations under physical and verbal attack by the U.S. government. I wholeheartedly join with you in this, as well as salute you and your work. The struggle for Human Rights is never easy, but always so necessary.

For Peace and Justice!

12/10/01

Jaan Laaman (W41514)
Box 100
South Walpole, MA 02071