spooky

It is a good first step. Warcrimes tribunals should follow on to make
a repeat performance less likely. Bushco must be turned over to the
Hague, now.

dugg!

Go UK! Go UK!

C’mon USA! OUR USA! boosh/deadeye is so-o-o over!

i can dream, can’t i?!

I think it’s great that the brits can be our conscience on this. Americans need to hear how our allies see us.

Seems that the crew of tough foreign policy experts shit their pants during 9/11 and totally panicked- figuring that suspending habeus and torturing detainees was the only thing they could think of to assuage their fear…

Since then- they’ve been in cover and deny mode.

Fucking losers.

Morning Christie. Good to see you are over your flu. Hope the peanut is enjoying her summer vacation.

As to the point at issue, the world is watching and the Europeans, who’ve seen this movie before, understand the plot. That’s why everyone is so relieved to see someone like Obama in the Presidential race.

Keeping fingers crossed that there will actually be an election.

Thanks Christy I was wonder about the Oxdown Gazette… I have a question about that do we need to sign up for the new site or will our FDL login work??

from your fingertips to someone who can do something about it. Please.

Waving ((((((( wave )))))))to our govt. minders.

Hi There. Why don’t you introduce yourselves and make yourselves at home.

We know you’re out there.

Thanks to C-Span I was finally able to catch up with part of Nadler’s hearings featuring Feithless last week. My the lad got squirmy tryin’ to avoid spitting out the trooth.

Good on Nadler and the other Dems on the committee.

More please.

;->

Good summary from Nate at 538 on senate races:

With races like Maine and North Carolina becoming more difficult for them, the prospect of Democrats controlling 60 seats has dimmed slightly and now rates at about 14 percent (or 8 percent if Joe Lieberman is not counted as a Democrat). In order to achieve the 60-seat threshold, the Democrats will need to win all five races that we presently classify as “tilt” or “lean”: these are Alaska, Mississippi, Oregon, Kentucky (where Bruce Lunsford has dumped a bunch of his own money into the race) and Minnesota. The Democrats face a decision point soon as to whether to try and consolidate their efforts in those states, or to try and put something exotic like Texas or Idaho into play.

Jus Cogens!

Investigate, convict, imprison the criminal bastards. To the Hague with them all.

Way OT: Site for voter Fraud. This stuff may be heating up with naming names. Let’s hope…and soon.

http://www.velvetrevolution.us/Video/Spoon-Int.wmv

Speaking of the UK, I heard a one-call clip from George Galloway’s talk show. They’ve got clueless people there too. Guy came up with Rethug talking points about Iran and Galloway, in his wonderful style, chewed him up and spit him back out. Programmer on my radio station didn’t say what day the show was on so I’m going through the latest shows. Galloway’s show is 3 hours and the last 2 are put up on the web. I’ll find it. Sooner or later. We sure could use some Galloway’s in Congress. If nothing else it’d liven the place up a bit.

Feel better?

This is the level to which we have sunk.

After years of the Cheney/Addington torture agenda, and marginalizing anyone who stood up for the rule of law, we have landed on the non-extradition list. Shameful.

It certainly is. Seems the U.K. is coming out of its George Bush/Tony Blair funk. Good for them. Was it John Dean, or Turley (obviously I forget) who said that there may come a point at which Bush administration officials may find that they cannot leave the U.S. for fear of being arrested for war crimes?

It seems that that may be closer to becoming a reality. I fell awful for the bastards, I really do don’t.

RevDeb @10 – Troublemaker! *g*

If you were a citizen of another country and were accused by the United States, which asked for your extradition, wouldn’t you want your home country to have put the United States on the no-extradite list? I know I would.

I think both have alluded to it, Turley most recently on KO.

BINGO !

this is a serious smackdown of Poodle Blair

ps – signed by Ashcroft and Plunkett, NOT Powell and Frost

2003 Treaty, ratified in Congress, law in 2004

“Under the new treaty, the allegations of the US government will be enough to secure the extradition of people from the UK. However, if the UK wants to extradite someone from the US, evidence to the standard of a “reasonable” demonstration of guilt will still be required.

No other EU countries would accept this US demand, either politically or constitutionally. Yet the UK government not only acquiesced, but did so taking advantage of arcane legislative powers to see the treaty signed and implemented without any parliamentary debate or scrutiny.

Guantanamo Bay, the failed extradition of Lofti Raissi and US contempt for the International Criminal Court make this decision to remove relevant UK safeguards all the more alarming”

are ya listening Barack ?

they both have said it at one time or another.

Trouble? Me?

Just telling it like it is.

Off to take NDFG and Al the Spook siteseeing around Austin. :)

correction: Blunkett

Perhaps the folks in the UK have been watching the progress of the Gitmo trials . . . from the WaPo:

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — Nearly seven years after President Bush declared an “extraordinary emergency” that empowered him to bring terrorists before military judges, Osama bin Laden’s former driver went on trial Monday in the first test of whether that system can dispense fair and impartial justice.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan, accused of ferrying weapons for al-Qaeda, faces court proceedings unlike any the United States has seen in decades. They will unfold before a military commission — the first since the end of World War II — with a jury of uniformed officers and rules that give great deference to the prosecution. Evidence obtained from “cruel” and “inhuman” interrogation methods is admissible in certain circumstances, as is hearsay evidence.

Unlike a civilian trial, even if the defendant is acquitted of conspiracy and material support of terrorism charges, he probably will not be released. Hamdan has been designated an “enemy combatant” by the military, a status that prosecutors said would be unchanged by an acquittal even if international pressure mounts for his release.

Emphasis added.

I’d say that qualifies as “court proceedings unlike any the United States has seen in decades.” I’m just guessing, but I’ll bet they’re unlike any the UK has seen either — and they don’t like it any more than we do.

Christy,
Thanks for this! Perhaps even Bush and Cheney will start to realize how shameful their behavior has been (I can dream, can’t I?)

On another front, I have a request: With the upcoming hearings on Friday by the House Judiciary Committee that may or may not be about impeachment, I have been trying to find out just what investigative powers an impeachment inquiry has that ordinary congressional investigations don’t have? For example, I understand that it would have enhanced subpoena powers. Just exactly what does that mean, and what is it based on?

This is important public information for the debate on whether the HJC should actually vote to formally open impeachment hearings. If there are no enhanced powers, then what’s the point? If there are enhanced powers, then better arguments for a formal impeachment hearing can be made by the public to their representatives.

And on a third subject, why, precisely, does it seem that Speaker Pelosi hates the Constitution? She must be held accountable. (You don’t need to answer that!)

Bob in HI

I would like to see a movement to recind Jesse Helms’s 2002 American Service-Members Protection Act, aka The Hague Invasion Act. Per the Wikipedia:

The American Service-Members’ Protection Act (ASPA) is a United States federal law introduced by US Senator Jesse Helms as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act and passed in August 2002 by Congress. The stated purpose of the amendment was “to protect United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the United States government against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which the United States is not party”.

It authorizes the President to use “all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any US or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court”. This has led opponents of the act to call it The Hague Invasion Act.[1][2]

The Act prohibits federal, state and local governments and agencies (including courts and law enforcement agencies) from assisting the Court. For example, it prohibits the extradition of any person from the United States to the Court; it prohibits the transfer of classified national security information and law enforcement information to the Court; and it prohibits agents of the Court from conducting investigations in the United States.

On another front, I have a request: With the upcoming hearings on Friday by the House Judiciary Committee that may or may not be about impeachment, I have been trying to find out just what investigative powers an impeachment inquiry has that ordinary congressional investigations don’t have? For example, I understand that it would have enhanced subpoena powers. Just exactly what does that mean, and what is it based on?

By definition, and impeachment inquiry suspends executive privilege.

Now, after all of the subsequent revelations, we see why Bush&Co were so anxious to unsign President Clinton’s December 31, 2000 signature on the treaty to create a permanent war crimes tribunal.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/20…..nt3903.htm

United States “Unsigning” Treaty on War Crimes Court

(New York, May 6, 2002) – The Bush Administration’s decision to effectively withdraw the U.S. signature from the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court is an empty gesture that will further estrange Washington from its closest allies, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter.

Great analysis of the situation Blind Panic was their reaction despite America’s strength they really did mistake weakness for strength and strength for weakness.
This is the first time I have really seen that saying put into practice.

damn wigwam – forgot about that one.

bobschact – cursory googling shows – subpoena power under impeachment is immune to claims of Exec Priv or State Secrets – will try to find confirmation (if these damn lawyers would quit wandering down arcane paths)

Horrible. Shameful. I’m glad other nations are moving against the policies of this criminal Bush Cheney Administration.

Thank you for this, Christy. It is great news that the EU has banned extradition of detainees to countries where they will be/may be tortured. I trust with a new administration, we will successfully pressure it to do the same. We as a country must redeem ourselves.

Liberty will reign in America! John Adams

And on a third subject, why, precisely, does it seem that Speaker Pelosi hates the Constitution? She must be held accountable.

Nancy Pelosi knew of Bush’s war crimes from the beginning, and upon becoming House Speaker, she unilaterally suspended the Constitution’s only mechanism for halting presidential criminality. After WW II, we executed General Yamashita for failing to exercise his responsibility/authority to prevent war crimes.

uh, isn’t that why we decided to invade and occupy afghanistan? because extradition to a third country wasn’t good enough for us?

McBush apparently has only ONE foreign policy question “To surge- or not to surge”.

It’s all about the surge- and the surge is over- so should be McBush.

It’s about time. Glad it’s the UK taking a lead with Canada. This is a bit of a contrite response in light of the UK response to Nazi resisters in WWII, I mean that in a good way – contrite spirit. (My grandmother and great grandfather were in the Nazi resistance and recalled the lack of help from Great Britain when the resistance asked for help.) I might also add that the UK was complicit with torture, so perhaps this stand saves their arse as well.

So, perhaps past deeds and the international community realizing how out of control our policy is from the top and how impotent our congress is to stop it, has finally driven this forward motion of pressure on the US.

This news gives me hope in light of this news which hit TalkLeft in 2002:

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2002/12/27/506/48965

http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/icc/swissicc.html

Please note, we began to seek these pacts just prior to waterboarding. Also note the date on the ICC Switzerland account, August 13, 2002 and India signed in Dec. 2002. (Need to get Marcy to add this information to her Torture Timeline. The dates of our seeking such pacts is quite amazing in terms of the torture timeline and implicates known crimes being committed.)

Goodness, if this point, landing the democracy which once was the global champion for human rights on the non extradition list, does not start impeachment or a realization that the global community needs us to carry out justice against those who have committed high crimes and misdemeanors, then our democracy means nothing and we will not be trusted again.

First Canada and now the UK is the British Commonwealth or some other group coordinating their actions? This seems like Obama’s trip might have had some results.
Just what country was Rove visiting again this might be his last safe trip out of the country.

On September 12, 2001, the entire world was in our court.
We had unprecidented goodwill and sympathy.
It took a concerted effort to piss that all away.
Mission Accomplished

Actually this has far greater repercussions that just the UK. It extends to the whole European Union and those States that wish to become member states of the EU as well. Previously the restrictions were denying extradition of individuals that might face the Death Penalty (which I suppose might include Roman Polanski, according to the current Supeme Court majority).

But now it will include anyone that might be involved in terrorist groups that might receive “enhanced interrogations”.

McBush to spend the next three months getting his MESSAGE across:

“I was in favor of the surge and Obama was not- I’ll lower yer taxes and Obama will raise em”

That’s it- the guy has nothing else to say..

Why not buy a ten second ad and show it a million times?

fyi – Here is a Map reflecting UK Extradition Signatories -

we now join all those gray countries

Wow! Thanks Peter. Per Article VI of the Constitution, Senate-ratified treaties are “the supreme law of the land,” alongside of acts of congress and the Constitution itself. I recommend that among the first acts of the next Congress should be the Senate ratification of Clinton’s signature on the treaty to create the ICC. Congress should then recind the Hague Invasion Act, and extradite. Bush can’t pardon himself from International Law.

Naomi Wolf believes that there is a real sexual undertone in this. I have to agree. Who was the republican congressman who could stop talking about the womens’ underpants on the men’s heads?

Women’s underpants? MMM- don’t know- same guy who was fascinated with man/dog sex?

looking back now, i don’t know why any of us (especially me) had such high hopes for pelosi. for a long time she’s been a faux progressive.

don’t forget what she did to howard dean for suggesting that we should be more even handed on the israel / palestinian conflict? (michelle goldberg via glenn greenwald)

On Sept. 10, 34 Democratic members of Congress, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, wrote Dean an open letter. “American foreign policy has been — and must continue to be — based on unequivocal support for Israel’s right to exist and to be free from terror …” they wrote. “It is unacceptable for the U.S. to be ‘evenhanded’ on these fundamental issues … This is not a time to be sending mixed messages; on the contrary, in these difficult times we must reaffirm our unyielding commitment to Israel’s survival and raise our voices against all forms of terrorism and incitement.”

or what she did to russ feingold for daring to suggest that bush should be held responsible for his violations of the fisa law – with something as small as a censure resolution? jane from march 2006:

Although Nancy Pelosi is not a member of the Senate, she decided to pipe up and discipline Russ Feingold for daring to challenge the hegemony of the GOP:

“I think that things are going well for the Democrats right now,” Pelosi told reporters Thursday, alluding to recent data showing that a plurality of poll respondents would prefer a Democratic-controlled House.

So why, she implied, should Democrats risk spoiling the mood?

She rebuffed the call by Sen. Russ Feingold, D- Wisc., to censure Bush for ordering National Security Agency surveillance of al Qaida contacts with persons in the United States without seeking warrants from a court.

“I have no idea why anybody would censure someone before they have an investigation,” she said.

Dana Rohrbacher

hi ya gal!

Try that for yourself, what is a blog for by the way? Enlighten me.

Bush just said, “I’m fired up”….

Their stratergy….morph into Obama to try to steal his thunder….

Condi LOOKS as if she might get off on a little light torture between friends.

You beat me to it. The real “gulp” is to examine the GNP index for the countries in grey. We are in sad company.

Thanks for getting the map up.

Question! Weren’t Rove’s transgressions domestic in nature and wouldn’t this be outside the scope of some international review

Wouldn’t you love to see an Obama/W debate? Shoutdown? W cannot even stutter fast enough. Thanks for that image.

Chances are that when Darth watches the “Passion of the Christ ” he takes notes with one hand and does a Pee Wee Herman with the other hand. Fear, Terror and Pain seem to make them feel powerful/sexy/in control?

John Bolton lobbied for the privilege to sign the short letter withdrawing the US from the International Criminal Court.

The British and Canadian decisions are further international recognition that the US tortures. Many in the US Congress have acknowledged that the US engages in torture. Yet they refuse to pursue impeachment. The question is why? Ongoing support of torture or CYA. You decide.

Gosh I am getting tired of “a noun, a verb, and surge”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi would bring to the office a level of left-wing liberalism that will be unprecedented. In the National Journal’s 2005 ideological ratings, which were based on scores of votes, Mrs. Pelosi was ranked more liberal than 91 percent of her House colleagues on economic issues, 96 percent on social matters and 82 percent on foreign-policy issues. Here are her relative rankings (economic, social, foreign) for 2004 (93, 88, 81), 2003 (92, 89, 70), 2002 (88, 84, 90) and 2001 (94, 83, 93).

Until she received a 95 percent liberal rating in 2005 from the Americans for Democratic Action (the nation’s pre-eminent liberal organization), Mrs. Pelosi had racked up five consecutive years (2000-04) of 100 percent ratings. Her lifetime ADA rating is 96 percent. Last year, the American Conservative Union gave her a 0 rating. Her lifetime ACU rating is 3 percent.

Washington Times

I suspect that Pelosi had a lot to do with Obama’s about-face on FISA matters. Perhaps that was the cost of getting her and others to declare the nomination process a done deal.

Seconded. “Feithless” – how apt. I love the part where Feith presented himself as a defender of Geneva. What a guy.

Yeah- wonder if voters will get tired of it too- the fuckin surge is OVER.

New Blue Texan

Speaking of the UK, I heard a one-call clip from George Galloway’s talk show. They’ve got clueless people there too. Guy came up with Rethug talking points about Iran and Galloway, in his wonderful style, chewed him up and spit him back out.

YMMV and OT but when I hear the BBC doing economic reporting I think I’m listening to a spokesman from the Bush White House. It’s all free trade and leave the financial markets alone, blah, blah, blah.

I want Cheney, Addington, Yoo, Rumsfeld and the rest of that crew. These are the guys who have spent the last 20 years planning this little empire of evil. Kristol, the Kagans, Perle, the rest of that bunch shortly thereafter. Shrub comes last. He needs to see that the price for being a spoiled, easily led asshole is steep indeed. Let him sit and ponder as the brains, and I use the term loosely, of the operation go down before him.

A guy can dream, can’t he?

The Blue One from Texas is upstairs with Senator McCain (R-Czechoslovakia).

Wish I could spell Check o slovakia

Weren’t Rove’s transgressions domestic in nature and wouldn’t this be outside the scope of some international review

The doctrine of Universal Jurisdiction applies to war crimes (e.g., torture) and crimes against humanity (e.g., starting a “war of aggression”). For example, Israel’s apprehension, trial, and execution of Eichman was for crimes that occurred before Israel was a state.

And FWIW propagandists were tried and convicted at Nuremberg.

Court rules that the titty fine for Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction was illegal! Hooray!

I share your dreams.

Sorry OT, but have we covered this yet?

‘The Bush administration is up to its old tricks again, quietly putting ideology before science and women’s health. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is poised to put in place new barriers to accessing common forms of contraception like birth control pills, emergency contraception and IUDs by labeling them “abortion.”‘
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..14064.html

Hello! It was so cool to meet you guys. What fun!

I agree. Galloway’s show is on commercial radio and is strictly call in and he covers everything.

I don’t know that anything Rove has done might not have had international implications but I would not put it past him.
If a foreign country has any dirt on him though now is the time to nab him while he is off U.S soil.
For Example when Rove leaked Valerie Palme’s name as a American Spy I bet all her associates in her CIA front company were questioned at the very least about them being spies.
Maybe some of her associates disappeared if so thats Rove’s fault and if they disappeared in another country.

Votes before January 2007 don’t mean anything because Pelosi could vote on the liberal side of a bill knowing that the Republicans had the votes to pass it anyway. Even after the Democrats came into the majority such lists don’t mean much. Pelosi is a queen of the structured, cosmetic vote where “liberals” can vote against secure in the knowledge that a sufficient number of Blue Dogs will side with Republicans to pass whatever Bush and the Republicans want. The real question is how many pieces of liberal legislation has she seen enacted into law. Answer: damn few.

I agree. Hope he gets FISA back where it needs to be soonly.

She has a liberal voting record…perhaps she’s a closet fascist- I don’t know.

I frankly didn’t expect the dems to get any significant legislation passed between the gooper filibusters and the Clusterfuck vetoes.

I don’t really have a strong opinion about Pelosi one way or the other- but thought her voting record might be relevant.

As far as I am concerned Pelosi is as responsible for everything bushco has done because of her refusal to protect and defend the constitution. She is definitely a Blue Dog in sheep clothing. She will go down in history as turning a blind eye to the biggest criminal ever to occupy the white house. If we are going to take this country back from the criminals she must go as well.

You give too much credit. Getting scared shitless is BETTER than what they really did: consciously selected a path that was antithetical to everything this country supposedly stood for. Of course it is and always has been a lie that the USA has stood for liberty, justice, human rights, etc. This has NEVER been the case. I mean, c’mon!

What Cheney and his minions did was simply bring to just beneath the surface from where it was once more deeply buried. Afterall, what Cheney, et al, promulgated was nothing less that what we have been promulgating in country after country after country for the last 40 or so years. The School of the Americas taught all this stuff to foreign nationals for use in their own countries against their own people! Now, Cheney has simply brought those techniques to the fore for America to use on anyone it wants AND has setup a situation whereby these techniques can be swiftly used against American citizens in the United States proper.

There is nothing here that wasn’t always there under the surface. Now it has risen from the depths to be just beneath the surface, ready to come out as NORMAL US practice universally.

Some people who should have known better did act out of panic…but they were acted upon by cold, dead, monsters who knew EXACTLY what they were doing (Cheney, Hadley, Addington, Yoo, Gonzales, Rummy, etc), who merely took advantage of the situation.

Hope some American Olympians make some symbolic statement concerning the U.S. being a state that sanctions torture.

I’m hoping she is indicted by the War Crimes tribunal at the Hague as a co-conspirator to sanctioning torture. Democrats that allowed this policy to move forward are as culpable as Republicans whose mother’s milk is anti-democratic authortarianism.

I have long demanded that if it is now OK for the US to do what the Japanese did during WWII (torture, some of the techniques are identical) then the Congress MUST officially exonerate the Japanese that we imprisoned or executed for torture. An official apology must be provided to the surviving families of these falsely convicted Japanese “patriots” and their families given reparations.

If it isn’t a crime for us to do it, then it was not a crime for “them” to do it. Period.

Word! We can also add Jello Jay and Jane Harman to that list. These complicit assholes should all go down.

Nancy Pelosi deserves an Oscar for the speech she gave after the Protect America Act passed. You’d think she was running for president of the ACLU or something the way she protested the infringement on civil liberties. But the plain and simple fact is that it would never passed had she raised a finger to stop it.

In an article here, Bruce Fein claims that Pelosi threatened to take Conyer’s chairmanship away if he opened an impeachment inquiry.

Damn right!

That legislation never had to come to the floor in the first place. I can’t even stand to watch her speak. Looking at and listening to her and bush is all the same to me. Can’t stomach it.

She has a liberal voting record…perhaps she’s a closet fascist- I don’t know.

I frankly didn’t expect the dems to get any significant legislation passed between the gooper filibusters and the Clusterfuck vetoes.

To be fair, I didn’t expect her to pass a lot of new legislation but what I did expect was Pelosi and the Democrats to mount a credible opposition to Bush’s policies. For Iraq, this meant only funding our forces there to leave. Instead what we saw was a Congress that not only funded Bush’s war but the surge. One which went out of its way to pass the worst possible bills like the FISA Amendments Act. In addition to this, she attacked those as selise pointed out above who tried to do something. And of course, she attacked the Democratic base dismissing them as “advocates” and not “leaders” like herself.

Indeed. While I could definitely live with getting nothing passed until Bush was gone, what I cannot stomach was the abject collapse before Mr 28% as if he were indeed President for Life Bush. Nothing would have been better than giving Bush what he wanted time after time after time. Nothing would have been better than resurrecting the comatose FISA amendment nonsense and given Bush a SUPER gift.

Pelosi had more than enough power to hold the line until the next Prez is elected. Instead, she and her minions (Hoyer, Reid) decided that there was practically not enough time to give Bush the biggest and best parting gifts possible. The Dem Congress started out in the shitter with “impeachment is off the table” and proceeded, in bursts of handle-grabbing, flush itself down into the sewer of craven collapse, obsequiousness, and collaboration.

So Condoleeza Rice and George Tenet were informed that they had an innocent man and still detained him? Then they dropped him on a hillside where?!? That’s enough to make my head explode. And *what?!?* is any government– yes *you*, Swedish security services– doing aiding and abetting the CIA and its Halliburtonish cohorts? Why didn’t the Swedish government ask for *evidence* before they picked up an innocent man, *before* the CIA ruined his life with extraordinary rendition?!? Did the Swedish and other governments fall for the “ticking time bomb” scenario, or did they assume a Muslim was guilty before proven innocent? I really, really wonder. /rant off.

Many of the things that Pelosi passed, e.g., telco immunity, Bush was unable to get through congress when the GOP controlled it. Pelosi is indeed a fascist, who did everything she could to further Bush’s agenda.

I am truly sickened. The British government should have ordered a “blunt warning” regarding torture way back when. Instead we Blair the Enabler.

We have put together a letter to send to Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo of the International Criminal Court asking for an investigation of the U.S. government on charges of torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners under its control. We further asked him to consider the role of Congress, which has an obligation under treaties to investigate, prosecute, and punish violators of Geneva and CAT (it is the prosecuting body for the president et al.).

The al-Bashir indictment and arrest warrant last week put to rest many of the arguments that are often heard out here in blogland about jurisdiction: no, the Security Council does not have to initiate investigations, and yes, they can indict sitting heads of state in countries which have neither signed nor ratified the Rome Statute. A lot has to do with the fact that the crimes are also crimes under treaties those countries have signed. As for travel arrangements, there is one that people often overlook: the treaties require bilateral extradition for torture, systematic torture and all the rest.

At any rate, we put the letter, which has a click for signing enabled, up on Humanity Against Crimes, if people would like to add their names. There are provisions to sign privately, which means that your name would go on the hard copy that goes to the Hague, but not display publicly on the internet.

We are also hoping that those with more credentials, spec. lawyers and physicians and so forth, will write letters of their own. The last investigation opened on U.S. behavior (in Iraq) was the result of 240 requests. It was ended because there was no evidence of a “plan or policy”. That situation has now changed.

This needs more play to ensure more signatures.

I signed it openly and proudly.

This isn’t going to end til the world community has our equivalent of the Nuremburg trials and the peacekeepers come in and empty all the prisons and force Americans to see what we’ve allowed. And I don’t just mean Guantanamo and our secret prisons overseas. I also mean our prisons where we are holding immigrants (illegal and iegal) and children. Sadly, I don’t see it coming.

If I were George I would consider this my final crowning achievement. Think of it: America, the United States of America on the non-extradition list for torture, after only 7, or is it 8, (time flies by so quickly when one is having fun in the bubble) short years.

What other ignominious heights are there left to scale?