Bush Administration Losing Control of Media: Fresh Air Breaks Through

Fresh Air Breaks Through With Phillipe Sands - the International Human Rights Lawyer Senate Republicans tried to Silence!

Did you hear NPR’s Fresh Air on Thursday, June 19th

If you did, you heard that for the rest of their lives, those who authorized, ordered and/or assisted with the decision to use the interrogation techniques that have been found to be TORTURE – which means Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and a team of lawyers that includes Addington, Bybee, Haynes, Yoo and more – cannot step outside the United States without being vulnerable to arrest and prosecution for war crimes.

It appears there is accountability beyond Pelosi’s table, with no time limit.

Dave Davies, sitting in for Terry Gross, interviewed Phillipe Sands, international human rights lawyer, British Queen’s Counsel, Director of the Centre of International Courts and Tribunals, Professor of International Law at University College London, and most recently author of Torture Team: Rumsfeld’s Memo and the Betrayal of American Values.

This was a lot more than a "driveway moment."

After a review of the evidence of Torture, particularly in relationship to Mohammed al-Qahtani, often referred to as 911's 20th highjacker, Sands used the example of Augusto Pinochet’s arrest in London decades after his reign of terror in Chile as the precedent for the detention of former heads of state.

He explained to Davies that these interrogation techniques fall within a universal jurisdiction of international crimes against humanity which any country has an OBLIGATION TO PROSECUTE if a person who was complicit in authorizing or ordering the crime to be committed shows up in that country – OR to EXTRADITE for such prosecution – even decades later – and that any immunity or pardoning that Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, and their lawyers are currently trying to put in place will have absolutely no affect in the rest of the world.

Can we hear this? Bush/Cheney, and so many on their teams, cannot travel abroad without the possibility of being arrested – for the rest of their lives.

Hear that? It’s the truth busting through.

You should also know that Sands testified before the House Judiciary Committee on May 6 and the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 10th. Republican Senator Thad Cochran made an obnoxious attempt to shut down that Senate Hearing, but failed.

This is billions of points for our side, the side of knowing the truth.

And so we point it out. . .


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Archie commented: Isn't it wonderful, as every American knows, that there is absolutely nothing of value to see and do outside the U.S. so why would any of these august gentlemen ever want to leave?

I replied:

So Much for Dubai - Well, it does blow the escape to Dubai, which has no extradition agreement with the U.S., where Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld and their law team would have run into Halliburton CEO David J. Lesar, who conveniently and abruptly moved to a new corporate in Dubai in May 2007, just as investigations into Halliburton contracts, accounting and more were ramping up. Without testimony from the CEO, Halliburton remains unaccountable.
And that's the way these guys -- august or slimy -- like it.

See, the more Americans recognize what has occurred, the greater the possibility that we, like many current Republican candidates, seek to distance ourselves from Bush/Cheney and their policies, and define our principles by facilitating justice.

That means indictment for those who have broken laws.

That threat made David Lesar hop a plane.

But Mr. Sands, speaking up and speaking out, may well have grounded that planned plane for the Torture Team.

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Originally published at OpEdNews.com June 23, 2008.