Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Indictments Are In Order

Final confirmation came in a one-two punch over 48 hours: On June 17, a Senate report confirmed that the executive branch had regularly transferred prisoners among various locations so that "illegal combatants" could not be seen by the Red Cross. The next day, Physicians for Human Rights released a lengthy report confirming extensive and systematic physical torture of prisoners at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and Kandahar. The report specifically said the torture was too routine and systematic to be the work of bad apples, and called for the appointment of a prosecutor to check on Defense Department and White House behavior. There is no room in this to even be glib or droll. We need to see war-crimes indictments of George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld (and perhaps Robert Gates?)

5 comments:

Ruth said...

This is all I've been thinking of all week, and everyone I meet I ask, "is it possible, will someone hold them accountable? Will it happen?" Everyone I've talked with says "no, it won't happen. No one cares."

Could we go do a citizen's arrest?

I'm serious, I am not interested in them riding into the sunset next January, unless it's in the direction of Gitmo or Abu Graib.

Sharon said...

I don't hold out much hope for congress but perhaps groups willing to work outside of the political infrastructure like this one (big question mark):

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_war_crimes_conference_to_convene_0622.html

Sharon said...

That should read:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_
war_crimes_conference_to_convene_
0622.html

Loring Wirbel said...

Sharon, Raw Story, Truthout, Indymedia, etc. are the best venues for getting news any more, as far as I'm concerned. What's sad is that there was just a story on NPR this AM that journalists in Iraq are claiming that their employers, both broadcast networks and newspapers, aren't running their stories on the war because it's not considered relevant any more. If we all pretend something doesn't exist....

Loring Wirbel said...

And the Andover conference itself might be like Winter Soldier 2008 or Winter Soldier 1971 hearings - covered in the independent progressive press, but totally ignored by mainstream media.