ACLU petition - Demand Accountability for Torture

[slipslidingaway]

"In response to an ACLU lawsuit, the Justice Department just released four key memos about the Bush administration's illegal torture program.
Read the memos here.

To restore America's commitment to human rights, we must demand a thorough criminal investigation.

Tell Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate the detainee abuse."


https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=Nat_Petition_SpecialProsecutor&s_src=UNW090001ACT&s_subsrc=flyer&JServSessionIdr009=sjsqqdlqw2.app25a


"An Open Letter to Attorney General Eric Holder

It is time to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate who knew about and authorized the Bush administration’s torture policies. If the evidence warrants, prosecutions should occur.

Nobody is above the law -- that includes high-ranking government officials. And we must look back to make sure this never happens again in order to move our country forward.

Please appoint an independent prosecutor to restore credibility at home and abroad and to give us an America we can be proud of again.

Signed,
"


Greenwald - UPDATE II

"...Obama did the right thing by releasing these memos, providing all the information and impetus the citizenry should need to demand investigations and prosecutions. But it is up to citizens to demand that the rule of law be applied."


Also...

"FDL has a petition urging Eric Holder to immediately appoint a Special Prosecutor to determine if criminal proceedings should commence."

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/Prosecutor

[leftstreet]

1. K&R - but it's sad that we should even have to do this

Isn't anybody in charge?

[Taverner]

2. Isn't anybody in charge? Yes, the CIA

They have been in charge since Dulles and Angelton started that agency

[LakeSamish706]

4. So there is probably something to the Secret Government outside of the...

elected Government in this country then.

[slipslidingaway]

6. :)) n/t

[Taverner]

7. The CIA has always operated on their own terms

Whether it was Operation Mongoose in the 60's and 70's or their support of Pinochet in Chile - they make their own rules.

Now, if we can reign them in without all of us dead - we might have something

[Taverner]

32. I'm not sure it would be called a secret government as much as a rogue agency

They have black budgets, accountable to no one

They set policy

They took out JFK, RFK, Jacobo Árbenz, Salvador Allende and countless others.

They could take out Obama - and make it look like he slipped in the shower

[slipslidingaway]

5. Thanks and I agree that people should do their jobs....

that started with Congress a few years ago.

:(

[peacebird]

3. k&r - will the justice department take action even if we all sign? What will it take?

I just don't see Holder enthusiastically leading the charge here.....

[slipslidingaway]

8. It is worth a try, otherwise the next batch of criminals will haunt

the next generation IMO.

[peacebird]

13. agreed. I signed the petition and forwarded the link on to everyone....

Let us hope that the trickle becomes a raging river that washes this evil away.

[slipslidingaway]

14. So true, we need a raging river!!! n/t

[stillcool]

26. Bombarding the Congress..

with letters and phone calls might help. If 1% of the American people could do that it might make a difference. Who knows? It's never been done, has it?

[Canuckistanian]

9. Done

Special Prosecutor NOW

[slipslidingaway]

11. Thank you :) n/t

[Nite Owl]

10. Did both

and passed on

[slipslidingaway]

12. Thanks ...."and passed on" Important ! :)) please forward to people

on your email list etc.

[slipslidingaway]

15. shameless kick for a fifth n/t

[chill_wind]

16. You got it. Done, thanks. K & R.

eom

[slipslidingaway]

18. Thank you :) nt

[ThomWV]

17. K&R

[slipslidingaway]

20. Thanks, you had the most popular thread on DU this afternoon :)) nt

[SemiCharmedQuark]

19. Thanks for posting

[slipslidingaway]

22. And thank you! n/t

[slipslidingaway]

21. Update III from Greenwald...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/radio/2009/04/16/aclu/index.html

"UPDATE III: My interview with the ACLU's Jameel Jaffer can be heard by clicking PLAY on the recorder below. Jameel (a) calls for a Special Prosectuor on behalf of the ACLU and (b) emphasizes that nothing said by Obama or Holder today should be understood to foreclose criminal prosecutions. For all the reasons Jameel describes, I agree with that assessment, and Marc Ambinder reports that senior Obama officials told him (anonymously, of course) that nothing Obama or Eric Holder said today was intended to foreclose prosecutions. Russ Feingold made a similar point.


Needless to say, I vehemently disagree with anyone -- including Obama -- who believes that prosecutions are unwarranted. These memos describe grotesque war crimes -- legalized by classic banality-of-evil criminals and ordered by pure criminals -- that must be prosecuted if the rule of law is to have any meaning. But the decision of whether to prosecute is not Obama's to make; ultimately, it is Holder's and/or a Special Prosectuor's. More importantly, Obama can only do so much by himself. The Obama administration should, on its own, initiate criminal proceedings, but the citizenry also has responsibilities here. These acts were carried out by our Government, and if we are really as repulsed by them as we claim, then the burden is on us to demand that something be done.


More than 250,000 Americans attended protests yesterday (ostensibly) over taxes and budget issues. If these torture revelations are met with nothing but apathy, then it will certainly be reasonable to blame Holder and Obama if they fail to act, but the responsibility will also lie with a citizenry that responded with indifference.


Finally, it should be emphasized -- yet again -- that it was not our Congress, nor our media, nor our courts that compelled disclosure of these memos. Instead, it was the ACLU's tenacious efforts over several years which single-handedly pryed these memos from the clutched hands of the government. Along with a couple of other civil liberties organizations, the ACLU (with which I consult) has expended extraordinary efforts to ensure at least minimal amounts of openness and transparency in this country, something that was necessary given the profound failures of these other institutions to do so."

[chill_wind]

23. Ponder that notion for history's keeping:

"Finally, it should be emphasized -- yet again -- that it was not our Congress, nor our media, nor our courts that compelled disclosure of these memos. Instead, it was the ACLU's tenacious efforts over several years which single-handedly pryed these memos from the clutched hands of the government."

[slipslidingaway]

24. Thanks for pointing that out, it really is a sad statement on the

state of our current affairs.

Torture memos, spying, state secrets and Bagram all happening at the same time.

[slipslidingaway]

25. kick n/t

[slipslidingaway]

27. kick n/t

[chill_wind]

28. .

[bdamomma]

29. kick

[Nite Owl]

30. Kicking

for late nighters.

And give the ACLU a few $$$ if you can they are the ones that have always been out there fighting for our rights. The repukes would just love to see this organization go down.

[slipslidingaway]

31. kick n/t

[Hell Hath No Fury]

33. Done and kicked.

[earth mom]

34. K & R!

:kick:

[slipslidingaway]

35. kick n/t