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POPSDangerous Opinions Are nearly half of Americans out of touch with the civilized world? Read this and judge for yourself.
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POPSCase Review: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld Stevens addressed the issue of whether military commissions can try conspiracy charges. He argued that military commissions are not courts of general jurisdiction, which are able to try any crime; that the court has traditionally held that offenses against the law of war are triable by military commission only when they are clearly defined as war crimes by statute or strong common law precedent (cf. Quirin). Finally, he found that there was no support in statute or court precedent for law-of-war military commissions trying charges of "conspiracy," either in the Geneva Conventions, in the earlier Hague Conventions or at the Nuremberg Trials. On June 5, 2007, Hamdan and Canadian youth Omar Khadr, had all charges against them dismissed.
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POPSHyper-Patriotism in "Christian America" I have pride in this country. I also see its flaws and make an effort to change them. We live in a global society and holding the belief that we're somehow exceptional clouds reality to such an extent that correct decisions become increasingly difficult to adopt.
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POPSIs Bagram Obama’s New Secret Prison?
What has happened to the Geneva Conventions? This omission of screening on capture - which has applied at Bagram ever since - came about because, under instructions from the highest levels of government, the military was obliged to shelve its plans to hold competent tribunals under Article 5 of the Geneva Conventions, despite the fact that they had been pioneered by the US, and had been used successfully in every war from Vietnam onwards. Held close to the time and place of capture, these tribunals (as opposed to the CSRTs, which mockingly echoed them), comprise three military officers, and were designed to separate combatants from civilians seized in the fog of war, in cases where it is not obvious that prisoners are combatants (when they are not wearing a uniform, for example), by allowing the men in question to call witnesses. During the first Gulf War, around 1,200 of these tribunals were held, and in nearly three-quarters of the case, the men were found to have been wrongly
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POPSRed Cross Says: Guantanamo Prison Better
More good news and positive change from the USA Obama Administration. When I read a few years ago, during the growing nightmare of the Bush years, that the Red Cross was being hindered in access to Gitmo prisoners, I was disgusted. It was incredible --- impossible -- hard to believe that an American (U.S.) military and/or government would so deprive prisoners and snub international law....but that was an image of Americans fed by non-stop propaganda war movies...and certainly perhaps more true in World War 2, not now. Denying access to the Red Cross!? -- The military also hid some prisoners and some info when the Red Cross was around -- it was a disgrace, a loss of all honor (if there is any honor fighting a one-sided war started with deliberately fabricated lies) Good for Obama. It seems he's also on track to live up to the promise to have the prison closed by the start of next year. National health care plans now in the spotlight and he once again lead the fight for impro
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POPSChristian views on torture The POW added that he read the crucifixion narrative of Jesus differently now, "I appreciated His stripes once I'd got my own."
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POPSThe Buck Stops Elsewhere in response to a lawless Supreme Court decision that twisted both statutes and the Geneva Conventions beyond recognition. Bush’s counterterrorism work can be regarded as ineffective only from the standpoint of the ACLU, whose metric is the quantum of due process accorded to terrorists who recognize no law or treaty. Obama declared on Thursday that the civilian courts were “tough enough” to convict terrorists. The problems are that the criminal-justice system cannot apprehend many terrorists (only 29 terrorists, mostly low-level, were prosecuted during the eight years of attacks leading up to 9/11), and that the few trials it manages become intelligence troves for the many thousands of terrorists remaining at large. Bush’s counterterrorism policies, particularly as supplemented by Congress in the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 and the above-mentioned Military Commissions Act of 2006, afforded captured alien combatants an unprecedented degree of due process —
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POPSBrutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama Since taking office, Obama has: 1. Reconstituted the Military Commissions. 2. Denied detainees Constitutional and Geneva Conventions protections. 3. Praised torturers and murderers as dedicated public servants and vowed to violate US law to protect them from prosecution. 4. Expanded Bush's State Secrets legal theory. 5. Continued illegally spying on Americans. 6. Continued to use USAPATRIOT Act powers and not called for repeal. 7. Retained Gates as Secretary of Defense despite his tainted record. 8. Promoted General MacChrystal to commander in Afghanistan despite his tainted record. 9. Continued contracts with abusive, fraudulent private contractors. 10. Concealed evidence of war crimes. 11. Increased illegal attacks on Pakistan. 12. Increased drone attacks, with a horrific civilian death and injury rate, in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. 13. Not banned white phosphorus or cluster munitions. 14. Escalated the Afghan war. 15. Adopted Bush's Iraq war plan. 16. Threatene
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POPS Pelosi's Tortured Press Performance by Mark Steyn
One of the few U.S. commentators to pick up on the Afghan schoolgirls story* was Phyllis Chesler, who wrote about it under the headline "The High Cost Of Western Idealism." America and its few real allies fight under the most constrained and self-imposed rules of engagement ever devised, and against an enemy that rejects every basic element of the Geneva Conventions. Perhaps we are so rich, so smart, so advanced that we can fight with one arm and both legs tied behind out back and still win – eventually. Along the way many innocents will suffer. But better that than that a Gitmo detainee with a fear of insects should have a caterpillar put in his cell. Watching the Democrats champing at the bit last week, I thought perhaps we could cut to the chase and handcuff Cheney and Pelosi to a radiator in the basement of a CIA safe house somewhere. But on reflection this would be an unacceptable level of torture. It would be ungallant to say for whom. © MARK STEYN
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POPS"Why Does O'Reilly Hate Our Troops and American Values?" When she very reasonably explained that you can't talk about the Iranian situation without talking about how the US treats it's own captured prisoners, Bill ends up losing it and accusing her -- a 29 year Army veteran -- of hating America. When did serving your country and demanding it abide by the Geneva Conventions become "hating America"? And when did cutting the mic of an Army veteran and accusing her of "hating America" become loving America? Thanks for the civics lesson, Bill. .... SilentPatriot Sunday Apr 01, 2007.
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POPS"First Genocide of the 20th century". Forgotten! Unable to achieve a conclusive victory through battle, Trotha ordered that captured Herero males were to be executed, while women and children were to be driven into the desert. Leutwein complained to Bülow about Trotha's actions, seeing the general's orders as ruining any chance of a settlement and intruding upon the civilian colonial jurisdiction. Having no authority over the military Trotha, the chancellor could only advise William II that Trotha's actions were "contrary to Christian and humanitarian principle, economically devastating and damaging to Germany's international reputation". The German Empire defended its actions on the world stage by saying that the Herero could not be protected under the Geneva Conventions defining human rights because Germany claimed the Herero were not true humans, but "subhumans" ... Wikipedia
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POPSSpain Considering Torture Related Charges Aganist Bush Administration Officials
Con't: The move represents a step toward ascertaining the legal accountability of top Bush administration officials for allegations of torture and mistreatment of prisoners in the campaign against terrorism. But some American experts said that even if warrants were issued their significance could be more symbolic than practical, and that it was a near certainty that the warrants would not lead to arrests if the officials did not leave the United States. The complaint under review also names John C. Yoo, the former Justice Department lawyer who wrote secret legal opinions saying the president had the authority to circumvent the Geneva Conventions, and Douglas J. Feith, the former under secretary of defense for policy. The court case was not entirely unexpected, as several human rights groups have been asking judges in different countries to indict Bush administration officials. One group, the Center for Constitutional Rights, had asked a German prosecutor for such an indict
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POPS* U.N. rights envoy sees grave Israeli war crimes A couple of other threads appeared this week due to revelations by an Israeli soldier(s) about cold blooded murder being done in the last Israeli invasion of Gaza. This clip, though, is about a U.N. human rights envoy asking for a U.N. investigation of war crimes in this most recent invasion. I'm glad to see that the issue of starving to death over a million and a half people to death in the Gaza Strip is no longer being ignored by international authorities. Israel, though, nor the USA accept the authority of the International Criminal Court set up by the United Nations. Plus, war crimes are mainly filed against those who lost the war, not the winners. Who knows if this will lead to any justice, stop the killings, invasions, ongoing seizing of Palestinian land, collective punishment, apartheid, etc. But at least the issue is not being so ignored. At the end of the day we need to keep electing better leaders because they are the ones with the power to make war or pe
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POPSTales From Torture's Dark World "Perhaps one should start with the story of the first man to whom, according to news reports, the president’s “alternative set of procedures” were applied"
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POPSLawyer Says Gitmo Abuse Has Worsened The piece goes on: "According to my clients, there has been a ramping up in abuse since President Obama was inaugurated," said Ghappour, a British-American lawyer with Reprieve, a legal charity that represents 31 detainees at Guantanamo. "If one was to use one's imagination, (one) could say that these traumatized, and for lack of a better word barbaric, guards were just basically trying to get their kicks in right now for fear that they won't be able to later," he said. How do you stop this and make sure it never happens again? Prosecute these thugs, something Obama seems unwilling to do .
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