I got this in my email this morning:
Dear DreamWeaver,
Voters for Peace is part of a coalition of groups seeking a special prosecutor to investigate alleged crimes committed by the Bush-Cheney administration. See statement below.
While we are looking forward to the closing of Guantanamo and steps to end torture by the U.S. government, we also need to uphold the rule of law. The United States is a nation that holds that no one is above the law. And, if war crimes were committed during the last seven years, accountability is required unless the nation is to become complicit.
This week, the first prisoner was released from Guantanamo since President Obama was elected. This British resident claimed he was brutally tortured at a covert CIA site in Morocco for 18 months. He was finally freed from Guantanamo after nearly seven years in U.S. and British captivity. Britain's Attorney General has opened an investigation into whether there was criminal wrongdoing on the part of Britain or a British security agent from MI5, who interrogated him in Pakistan. Several lawsuits are underway in the United States against a Boeing subsidiary that allegedly supplied planes for rendition flights to Morocco and for the disclosure of Bush-era legal memos on renditions and interrogation tactics. Shouldn't Attorney General Holder do the same?
Also this week, the International Commission of Jurists issued a report on counter-terrorism tactics and their impact on human rights. The highly respected Commission held 16 hearings in 40 countries in all parts of the world. The report described what it called "shocking" evidence of violations of law in the name of the "war on terror" that undermine human rights. The Commission pointed to "notorious counter-terrorism practices such as torture, disappearances, arbitrary and secret detention, unfair trials, and persistent impunity for gross human rights violations in many parts of the world." While acknowledging the need to respond to terrorism, the report notes that established law is "being questioned and at times ignored, not only by regimes whose record for doing so is well known, but also by liberal democracies that used to be in the forefront of promoting and protecting human rights" - a reference to the United States.
The world knows the U.S. government has violated international law in recent years, some Bush administration officials were open about such violations. How does the U.S. demonstrate adherence to the rule of law without investigating allegations of such violations and holding responsible those who have ignored the law?
Please urge a special prosecutor to examine these crimes as a key step to getting the United States on track to following international and domestic law. You can contact President Obama at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ and let him know your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Kevin B. Zeese
Executive Director
GROUPS REQUEST SPECIAL PROSECUTOR FOR BUSH, CHENEY
Statement on Prosecution of Former High Officials
We urge Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a non-partisan independent Special Counsel to immediately commence a prosecutorial investigation into the most serious alleged crimes of former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Richard B. Cheney, the attorneys formerly employed by the Department of Justice whose memos sought to justify torture, and other former top officials of the Bush Administration.
Our laws, and treaties that under Article VI of our Constitution are the supreme law of the land, require the prosecution of crimes that strong evidence suggests these individuals have committed. Both the former president and the former vice president have confessed to authorizing a torture procedure that is illegal under our law and treaty obligations. The former president has confessed to violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
We see no need for these prosecutions to be extraordinarily lengthy or costly, and no need to wait for the recommendations of a panel or "truth" commission when substantial evidence of the crimes is already in the public domain. We believe the most effective investigation can be conducted by a prosecutor, and we believe such an investigation should begin immediately.
Drafted by The Robert Jackson Steering Committee
http://afterdowningstreet.org/robertjackson Signed By:
Center for Constitutional Rights
http://ccrjustice.org The National Lawyers Guild
http://nlg.org American Freedom Campaign Action Fund
http://americanfreedomcampaign.org High Road for Human Rights Advocacy Project
http://www.highroadforhumanrights.org
Voters for Peace
http://votersforpeace.usAfter Downing Street
http://afterdowningstreet.org Democrats.com
http://democrats.com Gold Star Families for Peace
http://cindysheehansoapbox.com Ann Wright, retired US Army Reserve Colonel and US diplomat
Delaware Valley Veterans for America
http://delvalvets4america.org Wisconsin Impeachment / Bring Our Troops Home Coalition
http://impeachwi.com Backbone Campaign
http://backbonecampaign.org CODE PINK: Women for Peace
http://codepink4peace.org Velvet Revolution
http://velvetrevolution.us Justice Through Music
http://jtmp.org Progressive Democrats of America
http://pdamerica.org Brad Blog
http://bradblog.com Cities for Peace
http://citiesforpeace.org National Accountability Network
Northeast Impeachment Coalition
http://neimpeach.org Republicans for Impeachment
http://republicansforimpeachment.com Op Ed News
http://opednews.com Marcus Raskin, cofounder of Institute for Policy Studies, member of editorial board of The Nation, member of the special staff of the National Security Council in Kennedy Administration
The Progressive
http://progressive.org Peace Team
http://peaceteam.net Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
http://afterdowningstreet.org/vips Defending Dissent Foundation
http://defendingdissent.org Grassroots America
http://grassrootsamerica4us.org Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored
http://projectcensored.org Peace Action
http://peace-action.org Grandmothers Against the War
http://grandmothersagainstthewar.orgTell a friend about this campaign
VotersForPeace is a nonpartisan organization that does not support or oppose candidates for office.
VotersForPeace.US
2842 N. Calvert St.
Baltimore, MD 21218
443-708-8360
_______________________________
after posting this yesterday responding to unhappycamper's post, (and it was suggested I do an original post on the subject)
(I think we need to make it uncomfortable for Obama to want to stay in the wars by Prosecuting Bush Cheney and crew)
From: activist.thepen@gmail.com
Subject: Easy New Lookup Page: Contact Your State District Attorneys To Prosecute Bush and Cheney
Date: January 26, 2009 10:56:20 AM PST
To: dreamweaver
The Best Way To Light A Fire For Federal Prosecutions of Bush And
Cheney Is To Get Collateral State Actions Going
After weeks and weeks of unbelievable work, we have completed
compiling a database of the current contact information for every
state district attorney, for EVERY county in the country. And we have
put it all together into an easy one click lookup function to help
organize contacting your nearest state prosecutor, to call on THEM to
step up to the plate, to stand up for justice and accountability, by
prosecuting George Bush and Dick Cheney for their crimes.
In particular, renowned former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi has laid
out a compelling case for charging both Bush and Cheney with the
premediated murder of American service men and women, for starting a
war with Iraq on patently false pretenses. By using this new lookup
page you can instantly get the mailing address, phone, fax, and in
many cases also the email of your local prosecutor. This action is SO
critical we have dedicated our entire main site homepage to it.
Local Prosecutor Lookup:
http://www.peaceteam.net IMPORTANT NOTE: We are not asking anyone to file a "formal" criminal
complaint yourself. Common sense tells us that a state prosecutor
will only act, in the exercise of their OWN discretion, if they
believe there is a non-frivolous case to bring. But by speaking out,
we can let them know there is community support for them to do so.
There are nearly 3,000 county level state prosecutors in the country.
And these are often VERY politically sensitive elected positions,
where citizen pressure can have huge impact. Indeed, if you look at
current members of Congress, a large number of them started out as
district attorneys. Who among these 3,000 has the courage to take on
the urgency of pressing these historic charges, and perhaps then
replace some of the partially inflated punching bags that many
members of Congress have allowed themselves to become?
To hear the Sunday morning Washington chucklehead pundits talk about
it, whether to prosecute war crimes or not (as if it were optional)
is an inside the beltway political decision. Oh really? Well maybe
our United States of America is a little bit bigger than their little
beltway.
Attorney General Holder is already coming under enormous pressure
from rabidly lawless Republicans, for just simply declaring what any
first year law student would have to say to keep from getting
flunked, that torture is a CRIME. And if Bush and Cheney ordered
torture, as they have recently brazenly admitted on TV, they MUST be
prosecuted. End of story.
But we cannot ONLY rely on getting an honest attorney general who
will do his duty (though we must have that too), nor can we rely much
on the mostly whiny weenies in Congress to finally put together an
investigation with teeth. NO!! The critical move NOW is to drum up
collateral actions at the state level, as counselled by Bugliosi, and
that will help force the hands of everyone else.
Imagine what it would be like if we found just ONE crusading state
prosecutor to respond to the call of destiny. Imagine what it would
be like if a DOZEN or more suddenly sprang into action, because of
our many letters, and phone calls, and faxes and emails. We can open
up an whole new third front, and keep it open.
We were still packing up more "Convict Dick & W" caps as we were
listening to the presidential inauguration last Tuesday. Then we got
out the first large shipment last Wednesday. And with that we
officially inaugurate the Bush and Cheney conviction movement.
Thank you for your patience. Researching thousands and thousands of
websites (where many counties have none at all), cross-checking the
best available lists, many incomplete and out of date, against hard
to find local election results, took a massive amount of energy to
create the new local prosecutor lookup function. But we had to make
it the number one priority, and now it's done, and it works like a
dream.
Local Prosecutor Lookup:
http://www.peaceteam.net So after you use the local prosecutor lookup at the page below, you
can also request one of the new "Convict Dick & W" caps from the same
page, complete with a little embroidered cowboy hat on the "W". Yes,
a tiny cowboy hat for a very small man, the Cowboy from Connecticut,
our first presidential felon to be, George Bush. It's perfect.
Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.
If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
http://www.peaceteam.net/in.htm usalone294b:68342
_______________________________________________________________
Now, how is that going? I ordered my hat.
And there is this site:
http://prosecutegeorgebush.com /
Where you can also get a DA list.
"What activity makes one an Activist?"
(edit to correct spelling.)
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