CCR: Bush Torture Indictment

Done In Our Names!!

Support Bush Torture Indictment & Help Ensure Accountability

Synopsis

On February 7, 2011, the ninth anniversary of the day former president George W. Bush decided the Geneva Conventions did not apply to so-called “unlawful combatants,” CCR released a Bush Torture Indictment. The Indictment provides a strong factual and legal basis to hold Bush accountable--in any of the 147 countries which have ratified the Convention Against Torture (CAT)--for having authorized torture . Learn about it, tell others, and help us build pressure to secure accountability for torture by top U.S. officials.

Description {continued}

CCR: Bush Torture Indictment -

Here are some of CCR's related docs in PDF below, the first link is the PDF of the above:

* Preliminary Bush Indictment 7 Feb 2011.pdf

* Bush Exhibits List.pdf

* Bush Denunciation Letter 7 Feb 2011 English .pdf

* Bush Denunciation Letter 7 Feb 2011 French.pdf

* Bush Denunciation letter 7 Feb 2011 Spanish.pdf

All of the above and more can be found at the CCR website of the Indictment where you can also add your support to their ongoing efforts on this and other important issues.

And over at the Veterans Today website Gordan Duff has written another of his takes of these events that have surrounded the former president and his crimes.

GORDON DUFF: BUSH “BLOOD MONEY” TOUR CANCELLED : Veterans Today

February 6, 2011 - FORMER PRESIDENT FACES “WIKI-ARREST”

Former President George “W” Bush has been forced to cancel a highly paid speaking engagement to an Israeli group in Switzerland. Bush was going to be arrested as a war criminal. He is now fighting extradition. This will not be reported in any American mainstream media. {continued}

China Leading the Green Economy, America Screwed

China, and others, are now rapidly becoming what America once was, leaders in innovation and forward advancement while the detractors here, no longer captains of industries nor innovative experienced work force to be envied, slam on the brakes and grip onto what is or has been in our downfall.

China Leading the Green Economy while America's Democracy is Being Undermined

February 6, 2011 - America could be screwed in the 21st century according to US Energy secretary Steven Chu. China is responsible for more than 20 percent of high tech exports while the US is responsible for 15 percent. China is the leader in clean and efficient travel with almost 6 thousand miles of high speed rail under construction while the US has none. China is also bettering America when it comes to innovation. {continued}

Reaganomics Sucked Wealth Up, Did Not Trickle It Down

Ahhh tis fitting the 'great communicator?s' {though is better then little bush and the sarah} 100th falls now. Well into the legacy of collapse, forecast even back then, he left in his wake. Though he doesn't shoulder all the blame, the switch was done by those around him and actually running the show at that time. But as they try and make him once again into a 'god' the tepublican congresses of the 108th and 9th, with the help of the previous admin, sealed his legacy of corporate and economic failure while those now calling themselves teabaggers not only supported the previous in every move, and the billions here there and yes even lost, they now are trying to do the rovian shuffle and rewrite the history to wipe out the previous {strange how many jumped to claiming to being libertarian at the end} and their total support, and lay blame on the present!! Lost from his era was the real republican conservative, since the newt and bugman they've become the now tepublicans, live long and drink that laced tea, the rush, beck and sarah types are enjoyin the wealth of grifterhood!!

February 6, 2011 - Michael Hudson on Reagan Centennial: Creating an economy for predators is not respect for a "free market"

The bush Faced A Torture Complaint, hides under bed!!

Bush trip to Switzerland axed over torture protest fears

February 5, 2011 - The United Israel Appeal scrapped a plan to showcase President George W. Bush at a Feb. 12 gala in Geneva amid reports that human rights groups were poised to protest and file a torture complaint.

The charity, also known as Keren Hayesod, notified the former president on Friday morning "that the event has been called off," a Bush spokesman, David Sherzer, said Saturday.

"We regret that the speech has been canceled," Sherzer said. "President Bush was looking forward to speaking about freedom and offering reflections from his time in office."

The United Israel Appeal did not respond to an emailed request for an explanation on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. But the Associated Press, citing a Swiss newspaper report, said charity officials were worried protests could turn violent at the speech by the 43rd American president.

snip

"The message from civil society is clear," it said in a statement. "If you're a torturer, be careful in your travel plans. It's a slow process for accountability, but we keep going." {continued}

War, Love and Hope

Soldier fights way back from brink

Pieces life together with husband by her side

Photo by John Wilcox: National Guard Sgt. Brienne Travers, severely injured in Afghanistan, is recovering at Walter Reed Medical Center — with husband Sgt. Joe Sullivan by her side.

February 1, 2011 - As a child growing up in Norton, Brienne Travers believed what her father always told her.

“He would say, ‘Bre, God never gives you more than you can handle.’ ”

Her faith was tested last August.



Sgt. Travers, a 13-year veteran of the National Guard’s 379th Engineering Company, was part of a night convoy on a mission to build combat outposts in Afghanistan’s Logar province. The vibrant 31-year-old nurse, who doubles as a heavy equipment operator in the Guard, was at the wheel of a new $1.4 million MATV vehicle — basically a Humvee on steroids — when a Taliban sniper’s rocket-propelled grenade ripped through the cab of the 18-ton gun truck.

Hers was the first truck hit in the Aug. 3 ambush.

“My husband, Joe, says if I was a couple of inches taller I would’ve been decapitated,” Bre said in a recent interview. “I guess the rocket just missed taking my head off.”

It struck just above the door frame on the passenger side and tore across the driver’s compartment, hurling shrapnel into the right side of her face, shoulder and jaw, destroying half of her teeth and shattering the palate in her mouth. {continued}

Reaganomics

Reaganomics Was Pro Business, Not Pro Free Market

February 5, 2011 - Yves Smith on Reagan Centenary: President Reagan broke unions and intervened in the market when big business required it

Those Rumored Green Jobs

Without those investments and doing what this Country was once known for and envied, up until some thirty years ago, advancing. We already should have been the leader in these types of societal {world} directions as we once were in others. There will continue to be highly experienced trades workers, engineers and architectural professionals sitting and giving up on even waiting. Train all you want but nothing beats higher education to quality like actually doing while learning from the already experienced.

The Root: Trying To Find Those Rumored Green Jobs

Pedro Armestre /AFP/Getty Images: People show their green painted hands during a protest on the global day of actions against climate change in 2009 in Madrid. U.S. President Barack Obama proclaimed this week "Innovation Week" to bring awareness to his clean-energy agenda.

February 4, 2011 - Cynthia Gordy is The Root's Washington reporter.

Proclaiming it "Innovation Week" at the White House, President Obama has ramped up his clean-energy agenda recently. From the Monday launch of a program designed to spark entrepreneurship in high-growth industries, to Thursday's tour of labs at Penn State where researchers are developing more energy-efficient buildings, the president keeps talking the good talk on investing in new technologies to create jobs.

It's a familiar theme by now for Obama, who's been pitching energy innovation since the 2008 campaign trail. His landmark Recovery Act put billions of dollars toward green solutions. He has, time and time again, called on Congress to pass clean-energy legislation. One of his earliest appointees was a special adviser for green jobs to help create new career paths in weatherization construction and renewable power sources — jobs that would allow low-income, trained workers to advance to the top of their trades.

Two years later, though, there hasn't exactly been a nationwide influx of wind turbines, retrofitted buildings and smart grids. So where are all those green jobs? {continued}

War News Radio: Learning Experience

From Swarthmore College

February 4th, 2011 - This week on War News Radio, we hear about the training of Afghan soldiers. Then, we speak with an Afghan journalist who studied at Swarthmore College. Next, we take a look at the role of foreign correspondents in today's media. Finally, we talk to a Sniper who served in Iraq.

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Reagan Celebration Hides Brutal History

February 4, 2011 - Wilkerson and Parry on Reagan centenary: Many of today's catastrophes traced to Reagan's Presidency

Green, How About UltraGreen

NASA research center goes ultragreen

Feb 03, 2011 - Ceiling panels that cool the air? Windows and shades that open automatically? A constant LCD display of energy use? These are some of the nifty features in NASA's new lunar-shaped office building that opens this spring in Moffett Field, Calif.

Dubbed NASA's "latest mission on Earth," the building showcases innovations engineered for space travel. It has, for example, a forward-osmosis system that treats greywater (from restroom sinks and showers) and reuses it to flush toilets and urinals.

"They installed that system on the space station," says Steve Zornetzer, associate center director of NASA Ames Research Center, where the building is located, just south of Palo Alto. So, he asked, "Why can't we use that on planet Earth?" {continued}

Battle Lines on Clean Energy

There should be no 'battle lines', this isn't really about climate change, but that would be one of the better benefits of as others have recognized and are moving in that direction. We once would have jumped right in and led the World in development and innovation etc., that's what grew this countries economic and leader roll in the World that Everyone Envied, that is no more and hasn't been for the past some three decades which have been completely different then the first three of my life. One doesn't even need to believe in Climate Change, what they are doing is locking the brakes on what once was and now others are quickly grabbing the lead in. We've lost experienced trades, others now have those, we've lost experienced working minds that developed and built the idea's and advancements we once produced. Just look around it's not hard to see what has happened, it ain't what our folks and gran folks worked so hard to build, that's all gone and many like it that way, especially those who hoard the wealth!!

Drawing Battle Lines In the Clean Energy Standard Fight

February 3, 2011 - In case you weren't sure if the President was serious about investing in clean energy, yesterday, President Obama took time out of dealing with the crisis in Egypt to privately meet with the head of the Senate energy committee about drafting legislation to set a minimum level of clean energy that power companies must produce.

And today, he delivered a speech in Pennsylvania touting the plan for a "clean energy standard" as well as promoting other initiatives -- some of which a don't require congressional approval -- to improve energy-efficiency in buildings.

One on hand, this is heartening. There is no prospect of passing essential comprehensive carbon cap legislation in the current Congress, so the fact there is some bipartisan appetite for raising our low-carbon energy production gives hope that we can keep moving forward with cutting emissions until the political dynamic shifts again.

President Obama made a significant concession in his proposal which makes many environmental advocates cringe -- including non-renewable sources nuclear power and relatively cleaner coal. Under that broader definition, 40% of our electricity is already "clean" and Obama's plan would double that by 2035. {continued}

Kids of soldiers

Battle Reality of War at Home

Andrew Leckel, 8, left, and his sister Abby, 6, play at home after school. A photograph of their parents, Maj. Eric and Heidi Leckel, is between them. CRAIG SCHREINER — State Journal

February 1, 2011 - Andrew Leckel already was waking up with nightmares about his father’s second yearlong deployment in Iraq. One day he came home crying because his first-grade classmates had inadvertently fueled his fears by talking about soldiers being killed in the war.

His mother, Heidi Leckel, says her son’s experiences underscore the need for parents, teachers, neighbors — everyone — to be more aware of how hard the long-running wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are hitting children of soldiers.

Andrew and his sister, Abby, 6, are two of 14,500 Wisconsin kids, from toddlers to teens, who didn’t sign up for battle, but still must surrender their parents for months at a time, and face the fear of losing them forever.

“The kids deserve a lot of praise and a lot of credit,” Heidi Leckel said. “If I decide I don’t like this life, I can divorce my husband. They can’t. They were born into it. Nobody ever asked the kids, ‘Is that something you want — to have your father in the military?’” {continued}

Doing Good While Doing Well:

Once upon a time, and yes it does seem like a fairy tale even though not long ago, we had a very vibrant economy and extremely experienced workforce especially in the many trades that are needed for innovation and expansion. To move into the new directions of a society, no more are there 'captains of industries' and we let others produce our wants and needs as they instead have become the ones advancing into the obvious direction and growth! we have billionaires and multi-millionaires but alas none are 'captains of industry' nor innovative and inventive while suppressing the workers innovations and inventive qualities!

Will Companies and Organizations Step Up to the Challenge in the New Green Economy?

02 February 2011 - Problem: Changing the US and other countries in the world to create a green-based economy, while phasing out fossil fuels.

Solution: It will take more than government programs and incentives. Companies and other organizations need to embrace the change and can prosper in doing so.

This week's Solution column is inspired by an article and video by Robert Bell Ph.D., professor of management and chair of the Department of Finance and Business Management, Brooklyn College, City University of New York. He is the author of "The Green Bubble: Waste Into Wealth: The New Energy Revolution" Abbeville Press, New York, 2008. {continued}

Iraq War Inquiry: Timeline

In the right sidebar I have a number of links to many of the articles and reports, many also with backlinks, as well as in the archives of posts. My main interest was direct testimony of what was happening here, civilian and military counterparts, in the U.S. and that administration, plenty came out, as well as reading between the lines. The U.S. admin. and pentagon were the lead and the Brits followed in what they did. Have and will do same with any other Inquiries and hopefully those to come!

It all brings up the need, which should already have happened, of much more then an Inquiry here in the U.S.. The World waits while we don't do Accountability for what was done in 'Our Names' and continues!

Timeline - Britain's inquiry into the Iraq War

Feb 2, 2011 - Here is a timeline of the main events in Britain's public inquiry into the Iraq war:

June 15, 2009 - Prime Minister Gordon Brown announces an inquiry in a move seen as an attempt to heal the rifts in his Labour Party caused by the decision to join the invasion of Iraq six years previously.

November 24 - The five-member inquiry team, headed by former civil servant John Chilcot, begins its hearings.

November 26 - Christopher Meyer, ambassador to the United States between 1997 and 2003, says that George W. Bush and Blair appeared to have "converged" on "regime change" in Iraq after talks at the U.S. president's Texas ranch in 2002. {continued}

Restricting Regulations on Greenhouse Gases

More of the steps backwards and holding a once advancing economy and society in the free fall that came with the new century! We now follow others, no longer a leader on many issues! Making the koch brother types extremely happy with the incoming billions!

Repubs to restrict US enviro agency

Feb 02, 2011 - Republican leaders in the House of Representatives intend to try to prohibit the U.S. environmental agency from regulating greenhouse gases, officials said, in a sharp challenge to the Obama administration.

Officials said legislation to be offered Wednesday would nullify all of the steps the Environmental Protection Agency has taken on the issue, including its finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health.

In addition, it seeks to strip the agency of its authority in attempts to crack down on emissions from factories, utilities and other sources. Numerous House Republicans already have introduced legislation that would hamstring the agency from moving forward with regulations to reduce heat-trapping pollution.

The efforts mark yet another arena in which newly empowered Republicans are moving quickly to challenge the administration since the party took over the House and gained seats in the Senate. {continued}

U.S. Slowed Justice for Genocide Perpetrators

U.S. Opposition to International Criminal Court in 2004-2005 Held Up Peacekeeping, Slowed Justice for Genocide Perpetrators

New Book Analyzes Disconnects Between Save Darfur Movement, U.S. Policy, the United Nations, and Events on the Ground in Sudan

Rebecca Hamilton's "Fighting For Darfur" draws on 150 Interviews, First-hand reporting, and dozens of Freedom of Information releases

Documents provide blistering assessments of policy failure, humanitarian disaster

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 335

February 1, 2011 - The U.S. government’s opposition to the International Criminal Court held up deployments of peacekeeping forces in Sudan and slowed the eventual indictment of Sudanese leaders who perpetrated genocide in Darfur, according to the new book, Fighting for Darfur, by Rebecca Hamilton, and documents she obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, posted today by the National Security Archive.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations predicted a “train wreck” on Darfur policy in January 2005 because the U.S. “has been adamant that it will not agree in any way to support or give legitimacy to the ICC,” and the European Union and other allies disagreed, thus “hamper[ing] efforts to advance US priorities in peacekeeping operations” and leading to “an awkward and ultimately political untenable position” for the U.S.

The documents include bleak assessments of the humanitarian tragedy in Darfur over years of policy failure, beginning with a 2004 cable reporting on Secretary of State Colin Powell’s trip to Sudan and meeting with the Sudanese head of state Omar al-Bashir, who would be indicted by the ICC in 2009 for crimes against humanity, and in 2010 for genocide. Powell himself would publicly pronounce the Darfur tragedy a “genocide” in September 2004, but the lack of coordination and support for this position within the U.S. government meant little tangible followup occurred, according to the book.

By 2007, the documents show, the U.S. national envoy for Sudan would brief the Deputy Secretary of State that “the GOS [government of Sudan] is continuing large-scale population displacement, but apparently they are not killing people when they destroy villages.” {continued}

Climate Change and National Security

TEDxPentagon: topic of climate change

Rear Admiral David W. Titley, Oceanographer and Navigator of the Navy (Photo: U.S.Navy)

31 January 2011 - As we continue our recap of the TEDxPentagon event, we move from Army technology to the hot topic of climate change.

In the video, Oceanographer for the U.S. Navy, RADM David Titley, discusses climate change and its impending ramifications on national security. Listen as he details some of the top facts and figures you should know about climate change and your future, explained in terms that even the most unfamiliar with science would be able to understand. {continued}

On the Bush Torture Record

Robert Redford and Ellen Barkin Join Doug Liman at Sundance Event Shining Spotlight on Bush Torture Record

31 January 2011 - On Saturday, Robert Redford and Ellen Barkin joined director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Fair Game) and an all-star cast at Sundance Film Festival to perform “Reckoning With Torture: Memos and Testimonies From the 'War on Terror.'" The event, presented by the American Civil Liberties Union, PEN American Center and Sundance, featured readings of formerly secret government documents. The production was filmed for a documentary Liman is directing to raise awareness of the scope and human cost of the United States’ post-9/11 torture program.

Redford and Barkin joined actor America Ferrera; writers Sandra Cisneros, Annie Proulx, Marilynne Robinson, Esmeralda Santiago, George Saunders and Naomi Wolf; documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney; former interrogation insiders Jack Rice and Matthew Alexander; and other surprise guests to perform the readings. The texts are drawn largely from over 150,000 pages of formerly classified government documents obtained by the ACLU in a lawsuit that the New York Times has called “among the most successful in the history of public disclosure”; they include secret legal memos that sought to justify torture, e-mails written by FBI agents who witnessed torture at Guantánamo, interrogation logs, transcripts of military tribunal proceedings and moving statements and affidavits by U.S servicemen and women who objected to the abusive interrogations. {continued}

Revolution at Sundance

I am here in Park City, Utah, for my first encounter with the Sundance Festival; I had expected starlets in ski boots and parties in which people said 'Darling' and perhaps many worthy little films with artistic merit, but -- my mistake, probably due to the grudging reluctance on the part of print journalists like myself to yield respect to a medium that seems to get all the glamor and sometimes go an inch deep -- I had not expected subversion, analysis or, even, revolutionary ideas.

But thirty-six hours into Sundance at the time of this writing, I have to say: we seem at one of the few nexuses left in the US for brave journalistic critical thinking. Sundance this year is packed with substance, and documentarians especially are tacking head-on issue that US print journalists, especially those who work for corporate-owned media, have abashedly refused to tackle. The two main themes in the festival -- to my amazement, given that the mainstream pop-culture world seems to have dismissed feminism and closed its eyes to threats to freedom -- seem to be gender rebellion -- and civil liberties.

I am here as part of an event put together by PEN -- the organization that defends writers' freedom of expression -- and the ACLU: on Saturday we staged 'Reckoning with Torture', an ensemble piece based on real documents related to US torture that the ACLU acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request. The parts were read by a lineup of writers and film actors, including Sandra Cisneros, Annie Proulx, and America Ferrera. A former US military interrogator and former CIA agent, Jack Rice, read with us as well. The piece was directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Fair Game). I am pleased to say I read the part of George Bush. {continued}