US: 10 Steps to Restore Moral Authority (Human Rights Watch)

[cal04]

Congress should adopt a 10-step plan to reverse the Bush administration’s detention and interrogation policies, a coalition of human rights, civil liberties and religious groups said in a letter sent today to the Congressional leadership.
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First on the agenda is the restoration of access to courts for detainees to bring habeas corpus challenges – the age-old protection against the arbitrary exercise of executive power. Among other things, the coalition also calls on Congress to enact legislation that would stop renditions to torture; permanently ban the use of secret prisons; and prohibit the use in any adjudicative proceedings of evidence obtained through coercion and abusive interrogation practices, including in the newly authorized military commissions.

“For the last five years, the Bush administration has ignored the rule of law,” said Jennifer Daskal, US advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “It has authorized abusive interrogations, indefinite secret detention without charge, and rendition to torture – all practices Washington condemned when carried out by others.”

Congress should follow the 10 steps laid out in the letter, Human Rights Watch said. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it is good policy – one that would restore the United States’ reputation as a nation that respects human rights and the rule of law.

“The new Congress now has the chance – and the mandate – to right the wrongs of the past five years and restore Washington’s moral authority at home and abroad,” said Daskal.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/02/22/usdom15386.htm

The letter to Congressional leadership detailing the 10-step plan
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/02/22/usdom15383.htm

[Warpy]

1. First has to be the removal of Blivet and Cheney from office

trying and jailing them. This country is finished unless we can manage to do this. The rest of the world will never trust any country who lets these lunatics go free.

It would be a great help to have the racketeering their party has engaged in be exposed, at the very least.

Everything else will have to follow that.

[Demeter]

2. And Their Minions, Enablers and Cheering Sections

Gonzales, Rice, the Supremes and their lesser judges, and the rest of the GOP legislators. Sorry guys, but the Party's over.

[yurbud]

3. The only question open for debate should be whether the trials are here, the Hague, or in Iraq