Friday Questions for Diane, June 27, 2008

Former UN ambassador John Bolton told the London Telegraph that Israel will attack Iran after U.S. elections but before Bush Cheney leave office.

Between executive orders and portions of defense spending bills, could the Bush administration claim martial law is necessary if the U.S. attacks Iran? Could that be this administration's "October Surprise"?

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.

Friday Questions for Diane, June 20, 2008

08.0620 - Yesterday, on NPR’s Fresh Air, Philippe Sands, international lawyer, Director of the Centre of International Courts and Tribunals, and author of Torture Team: Rumsfeld’s Memo and the Betrayal of American Values, told Dave Davies that the interrogation techniques that the Bush Cheney administration has used, which have by now been well documented to have been torture, 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, try to claim will have no affect in the rest of the world.

So even if Nancy Pelosi ignores the evidence and continues to say that impeachment is off the table, the rest of the world is obligated to hold these people accountable, with no time limit.

Friday Questions for Diane, June 13, 2008

1. Congressman Kucinich’s 35 Articles of Impeachment include the charge of that Mr. Bush "willfully corrupted and manipulated the electoral process of the United States" and failing to protect the civil rights of African-American voters and others" and impeding "the right of the people to vote and have their vote properly and accurately counted, citing, among many issues, the continuing inappropriate purging of voter registration roles, particularly in urban minority areas, and the failure to count provisional ballots.

Meanwhile, Mark Crispin Miller, from NYU, with his new collection of essays, Loser Take All, by various authors, is aggressively speaking out to inform the public about the evidence that our election results are completely at risk.

How do we get the media to investigate and report on this?

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In his dissent to yesterday’s Supreme Court decision regarding detainees, once again Antonin Scalia has said something that reveals his prioritizing immediate partisan ideology and lack of concern for the broader principles and integrity the Supreme Court should represent. Six weeks ago, in an interview with 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl, he revealed the irrational logic he must use to defend torture, nitpicking over the meaning of the word "punishment".

Given his increasingly anti-Justice stance – and the premise that the Supreme Court is untouchable, is there no way to keep these people accountable to higher principles?

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What must we do to stop Bush and Cheney from attacking Iran? We cannot assume that an air strike will not lead to other country's responding against the U.S. for its ongoing bullying.

Shining the Blues -- With Diligence

It is actually more possible than ever before for this kind of whole-nation response.

All that is needed is:

1. Thorough reporting on the hypocrisy, lies, and damages of this Republican Bush Cheney administration, and how the same people and entities are working to put McBush, er, McCain in the front-man position (and crushing any of the maverick tendencies that once gave him credibility).

2. Diligent attention to make sure that all eligible voters are allowed to vote and that their votes are counted. This means that we not only need to make sure voters are registered AND that there are frequent checks in every state to make sure that voter registration lists include all new registrations and that no names are removed without documented evidence that the voter is no longer a legal voter in that precinct.

It's that simple. If the people know the truth about who has taken over the Republican party, and how they have thwarted the principles Americans believe make this country great -- and the election results reflect the choice of the majority of this informed citizenry. . .

All 50 states will shine BLUE next November.

So, now we know our job, right?

Friday Questions for Diane, June 6, 2008

Regarding Senator Clinton as Obama’s veep, I would like to shine a light on the McCain campaign’s hiring of Timothy Griffin. Mr. Griffin was one of those chosen to replace the fired U.S. Attorneys – he was the one known as “Karl Rove’s assistant” and he was specifically put in Arkansas, the better to dig up Clinton dirt. He also resigned suddenly on the day investigative reporter Greg Palast turned over Griffin’s emails from the RNC full of voter caging lists to House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Jr.
Isn’t it clear that Rove is drooling over the concept of Clinton ruining the Obama ticket?

Here's someone who could further energize Obama's ticket and would fit in perfectly with his announced intention to not accept lobbyist money: ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.

That would be a powerful and deeply satisfying Democratic ticket.

Bobby, we hardly knew you. . .

“Our brave young men are dying in the swamps of Southeast Asia.

Which of them might have written a poem?

Which of them might have cured cancer?

Which of them might have played a World Series, or given us the gift of laughter from the stage, or helped build a bridge or a university?

Which of them could have taught a child to read?

It is our responsibility to let these men live . . . It is indecent if they die because of the empty vanity of their country.”

Robert F. Kennedy

June 3, 2008 - A Change We Can Celebrate

Questions for Diane's Guest, David Iglesias

It was just a year ago that American BBC reporter Greg Palast handed over to House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr. copies of emailed voter caging lists sent by Timothy Griffin at the RNC. On that same day, Mr. Griffin suddenly resigned as the replacement U.S. Attorney in Arkansas. Would you please explain to the audience the significance of this, especially since the U.S. press failed to report the story. Also, are you aware that Mr. Griffin recently joined Senator McCain’s team?

(Also, would you please encourage Diane to break down the wall that keeps Greg Palast’s award-winning reporting away from the Americans who need to hear it?)

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The White House is so defiant on the U.S. Attorney scandal. Is it because it has been caught in the cookie jar of election theft? Wouldn’t that take the wind out of the claimed Bush foreign policy goal of "spreading democracy"?

Friday Questions for Diane, May 30, 2008

Are you aware that on Wednesday, former UN Ambassador John Bolton, speaking at the Guardian Hay Festival in Wales and justifying an attack on Iran, had to be quickly escorted off the stage to avoid a citizen’s arrest for war crimes by Guardian journalist, George Monbiot, for his participation in planning, preparing and waging war against Saddam Hussein?

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Regarding Scott McClellan: Here in Salt Lake City, on Wednesday, Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower of the Pentagon Papers, spoke at the gathering protesting Bush during his visit. It was the same day that news hit about McClellan's book. He encourages such truth-telling but asked us to reflect on how many lives could have been saved if he'd told us earlier. He said he tells would-be whistleblowers: "Don't do what I did. Don't wait until the new war has started, don't wait until thousands more have died, the bombs are falling on Iran or elsewhere, before you come out with documents and tell the truth."

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Regarding HBO's Recount. One important thing they got wrong. It wasn't ABC that called the election at 2:16 AM. It was Fox News, specifically John Ellis, the cousin of George and Jeb Bush, who later bragged in the New Yorker that he was on the phone with the two of them throughout the evening.

Wouldn't that have been an important plot point to include?

SALT LAKE CITY SAYS NO TO BUSH POLICIES

My own sign said:


BANGING MY POTS AND PANS TO STOP

• AN ATTACK ON IRAN



• ANOTHER STOLEN ELECTION



• DEPLETED URANIUM WEAPONS

Meanwhile, a similar sign was held high by my husband, Dennis TerraNova, and was picked by The Salt Lake Tribune, posted in their Gallery, and made the front page of the paper the next day:

There were four speakers on this day, Marshall Thompson, a Utah Mormon Iraq veteran, whose brief speech could change the minds of every member of the LDS Church who has made the mistake of supporting Mr. Bush; Kathy Snyder, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq; Daniel Ellsberg, the courageous consultant to the Nixon administration who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times, and our own Rocky Anderson, former mayor of Salt Lake City, outspoken impeachment advocate, and now the leader of the new High Road for Human Rights.

All four speeches are available for listening or downloading here.

Re Recount: Remiss!

When I read last week that James Baker III hosted a preview of the HBO film Recount at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, I knew that this dramatic interpretation of the 2000 election would disappoint those who long for historical accuracy.

And it did.

Not in all ways, mind you, but in some extraordinarily essential ones.

On Sunday morning, I wrote in an email that a true telling of the 2000 election had to include at least two points. An excellent telling would include a third. I finished with "Let’s see how HBO does."

Within minutes of the start of Recount, I yelled out, "NO!" That’s not right!" They blew it coming out of the gate.

The film showed that at 2:16 AM, the vote in Florida, which would be the deciding factor for the entire country, was called by ABC News for George W. Bush, immediately followed by the NBC, CBS and CNN.

But that is simply not the case. History has shown that the first call at 2:16 AM came from Fox News – conveniently omitted by HBO. The person who made that call was John Ellis, the son of former President George H.W. Bush’s sister Nancy, first cousin of both Texas Governor George W. Bush and Florida Governor Jeb Bush. He later reported to The New Yorker how "cool" it was to be on the phone with his two powerful cousins, going over the numbers all night and into the morning, until the moment the numbers showed that George had won and Ellis made the fateful call for Bush. Though Ellis claimed he had done the calculations, the actual election projection expert at Fox, Cynthia Talkov, sitting with him, has since reported that Ellis simply gave the call on Jeb’s say-so.

Some may remember this tidbit from the beginning of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911, but the detailed review of this moment and its consequences can be found in David W. Moore’s book The News Media and Theft of the 2000 Election, and recently adapted as the opening article "Because Jeb Said So: What Really Happened on Election Night in Florida" in the outstanding book of essays edited by Mark Crispin Miller, Loser Take All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008.

So, on my first point, the HBO film utterly failed.

My second point was the riot at the Stephen P. Clark Government Center on November 22nd, where the Miami-Dade Canvassing Board was attempting to complete a review of over 10,000 disputed ballots. While the film showed that a particular group entered the building, got past the police, and then became actively accusatory, aggressively intimidating, and succeeded in causing the 3-person Board to quit the recount, Recount did not do justice to the truth. The identity of these thugs was left to a throw-away line about Republican operatives flown down in an Enron jet from Denis Leary’s character, Michael Whouley over a drink in a bar. It didn’t event warrant a response from Kevin Spacey’s Ron Klain.

But in truth, the identity of those people has long been documented, especially those featured in an infamous photograph, and many went on to positions in the Bush/Cheney White House or even more profitable jobs with lobbying firms and government contractors.

One would think that the celebration of the success of these efforts, a Thanksgiving banquet in Ft Lauderdale, complete with Wayne Newton singing "Danke Schoen", would have added an entertaining nuance to the film’s story.

As for the third story element I’d mentioned, it was entirely missing. The truth would have been much better served if we could have seen the upset long-time employees of Sequoia Voting Systems, responsible for the production of perfectly successful punch card ballot cards for decades, who were suddenly ordered by the newly-sold company to change the parameters for certain Florida precincts, for the first time, to adjust for humidity, and who witnessed the acceptance of sub-standard paper products that their experienced quality-control managers had rejected. For this revelation, we have Dan Rather and HDNet to thank.

As for James Baker, and his win for the "best man", it was James Doty, a lawyer from his law firm in Texas, Baker Botts, who had written the contract for W’s highly profitable purchase of the Texas Rangers using the money he got when he suddenly dumped his Harken Oil stock. It was also that same lawyer, newly hired by Papa Bush’s appointed head of the Security and Exchange Commission, Richard Breeden, another Baker Botts lawyer, who closed the investigation into George W. Bush’s sudden dumping of that same Harken Oil stock, sold after discovering that the company was failing but before reporting to stockholders the corrected Profit/Loss statement.

It was also James Baker who brought Papa Bush to the Carlyle Group, and the investment income that has multiplied well with government and military contracts.

In the film, Baker recounts why he became a Republican, how a good friend called him up and asked him to join his campaign for Congress knowing that Baker needed to step away from his grief over the death of his first wife, and that friend was none other than George H.W. Bush. How touching. How ironic. Because of James Baker III's actions, there are now families who grieve over the deaths of up to a million Iraqis and Afghanis and over 4,000 American soldiers – to say nothing of the victims of the mismanagement that caused the deaths after Katrina, the high rate of suicides in the U.S. military, and the untold number of victims of policies that have corrupted the EPA, OSHA, MSHA, etc., etc., etc.

So, in retrospect, is the much-publicized telling of the story of an historical decision -- using respected actors and an occasionally daring network, without revealing key plot points that reveal the dark misuse of power, scheming and theft -- still useful?

Or is it simply another manipulation of the media through the dark misuse of power, scheming, and theft to confuse the public and neutralize doubt just months before the next attempt to do it again?

On Memorial Day, let us honor those who have died serving our country by remembering that far too many have died because of the dark side of leadership that sends the military to fight based on lies that hide the real motivations of profiteering and ego.