Witch-hunt To Persecute Warriors on Terror - Lawfare Against America

Witch-hunt To Persecute Warriors on Terror - Lawfare Against America
Useful Fools

Forget bipartisanship. Forget the ability to protect our citizens from terrorists.

Some activists have revenge in mind...unprecedented attacks on former officials and citizens who assisted the government.

They plan to create a whole new legal minefield which can be used to hound anyone whom they dislike. Even if you think that Bush or someone should be prosecuted (which I find absurd), the tactics of these people should bring universal condemnation.

Some of these tactics can be easily used to effectively suppress dissent or otherwise leverage the personal power of activists in government positions to injure those with whom they disagree.

This effort is a neo-fascist attack on the rule of law and on our nation.

Oddly, professor Benjamin Davis argues strongly for the "rule of law." It would appear he favors the tyranny of the law. The Soviets had the rule of law also.

From Benjamin Davis, Pitt Law Prof, excerpted, emphasis added, and fisked:

two hundred people from the United States and abroad gathered...for the...Conference on the Planning for Prosecution of High Level American War Criminals sponsored by the Massachusetts School of Law.

How many of our tax dollars went directly or indirectly to support this travesty? It was sponsored by a state university.

Impeachment of Bush-Cheney

...the impeachment...was very much on the table at the conference. In particular, it was noted that the time remaining for the Bush-Cheney administration is about the same time as it took for the impeachment of President Clinton. Moreover, the idea of a post-January 2009 impeachment of Bush and/or Cheney was raised so that they would be barred from any Federal office (such as work on federal commissions etc. that prior-Presidents and Vice-Presidents have done) if the impeachment were successful. Beyond Bush and Cheney, a suggestion was made to impeach Judge Jay Bybee of the Ninth Circuit because of his enabling of torture in the now infamous Bybee-Yoo "torture memo."

Impeachment? Didn’t we try that once before recently, with poor results? Impeachment after the officials are out of office? That seems blatantly unconstitutional, which is of course of no interest to these folks.

Local, state and federal criminal prosecution

Local efforts such as the Brattleboro, Vermont, ordinance that calls for the arrest on sight of Bush and/or Cheney...

So towns should now enforce "international law"? Applied broadly, this approach would create a minefield of the "United States", making it the "Disunited Children," where people would never be free to travel for fear their actions elsewhere - even across the world - could lead to their arrest and prosecution in some random little burg.

I’m sure the leftist elite would then have good reason to avoid “flyover country,” as their freedoms would be at risk, at least if I have any say!

...to charge Bush and Cheney with murder of U.S. soldiers who have died in the Iraq and Afghanistan war under state law....A candidate for Attorney General in Vermont...if she were elected she would consider opening state murder prosecutions against Bush and Cheney.

State prosecution for the actions of federal officials? What next? Will Californians send commandos to France to bring Sarkozy back for prosecution on charges of political incorrectness?

One strategy...was having hundreds of local DA’s of the 2700 in the United States start those prosecutions in municipal courts.

This is a form of guerrilla lawfare against the US government. It is a form of illegal prosecutorial persecution of American citizens.

These state criminal prosecutions would put pressure or make it easier for a federal district attorney to...open federal criminal complaints against United States high-level civilians and/or generals for murder and torture and/or cruel inhuman or degrading treatment [and speaing with a Southern accent, etc]....potential crimes [include] obstruction of justice, criminal use of classified documents, etc and the other crimes that typically catch high-level civilians was encouraged in an effort to find ways to vindicate international law rules through the domestic courts

In other words, this would not be a legal tactic, since the courts have no jurisdiction. Rather it would be a harrassment and agit-prop operation, conducted by officers of the court funded by the taxpayers.

The use of common law courts … as a means to turn revisionist international law theory to the advantage of those seeking prosecution by asserting customary international humanitarian and human rights law violations as common law applicable in state courts prosecutions. The Federal Assimilated Crimes Acts could also make federal charges on customary international law grounds a possible avenue for criminal prosecution.

So now they will find a loophole through which international law can be used to prosecute US citizens by our own government!

Foreign and international prosecution

The participants analyzed the status of and possibilities for foreign prosecution of U.S. high-level civilians and/or generals in foreign domestic courts under universal jurisdiction...

Universal jurisdiction - does that include Cuba, Russia and Libya as the adjudicators? Universal, nonsense! This is a typical trans-national progressive folly.

...One of the more interesting tactics described started with over 200 citizens going to their local police stations in England and reporting a crime had been committed - referring to the Iraq War or torture. The police have a duty to investigate and this is a manner in which the ordinary citizen in England could get the wheels of justice rolling.

As to international prosecution, the participants discussed the possibility of referrals to the International Criminal Court of United States high-level civilians and/or generals based on crimes committed in countries which adhere to the ICC. It was noted that prosecutors in a number of foreign countries have based their politically motivated dismissals of complaints against high US officials on the mistaken notion that the accused would be prosecuted in the US (the principle of complementarity) as well as on incorrect theories of immunity. The view discussed at the conference was that domestic U.S. efforts and foreign and/or international efforts for criminal prosecution should go forward at the same time so as each can help the other advance as fast as practicable.

Right...use that same tranzi ICC against our officials. This should make anyone nervous.

State licensing complaints

Complaints to state licensing authorities for psychologists and lawyers were examined as a means to sanction those who are considered to have broken the law and betrayed their professional oaths.

...Just in case anyone would be tempted to help their government in the future!

Political will for prosecution

Many people were shocked by the tactics used by police against demonstrators at the Denver and St. Paul political conventions. It appears that room for dissent in the United States has been significantly narrowed. Notwithstanding this state of affairs, ideas for action to build the political will for criminal prosecution of American war criminals abounded. A march of lawyers on the Justice Department - taking inspiration from the lawyers in Pakistan - was suggested to assert the need to take back the Justice Department and have it now enforce the law instead of flout it. Creative methods of demonstrations by diverse groups to encourage criminal prosecution were discussed. T-shirt campaigns, support of local and national candidates, a plethora of ideas blossomed in the discussions.

Does this sound like the ’60s leftists? Only the paranoid or historically challenged can believe that "room for dissent" in the US has been "significantly narrowed."

And note the implicit equivalence of the US and Pakistan.

To help in thinking about 17 specific directions in which efforts could go, it was proposed that a Central Committee be created to try to coordinate the diverse activities related to developing more political will and developing the criminal prosecutions. Participants at the conference are reaching out to persons and organizations who have been fighting to support the rule of law the past eight years in civil cases or in political action, in order to help all aspects of the effort to criminally prosecute these high-level civilians and generals. The Central Committee has already held its first telephone conference and links are being developed with all organizations and persons of goodwill who will support this effort.

While many thought that prosecutions would now have to wait until the next administration, none thought that a future Republican of Democratic Administration could be counted on to pursue criminal prosecution. The need for citizens to take up the call and pressure the powers at the local, state and national level to take up criminal prosecution and/or impeachment was acutely felt.

Here it is again. Old fashioned leftist thinking and tactics. The 60’s live again. I’ll bet these radicals imagine themselves as carrying the mantle of the civil rights movements. In fact, they are staining it.

It became abundantly clear to all present that “the whole world is watching” efforts in the United States to bring U.S. high-level civilians and/or generals to justice through criminal prosecution. These ordinary citizens appeared willing to take up the challenge - even if it takes years - of building the political will and getting the successful prosecutions completed. We must remember that there is no statute of limitations for murder and for many international crimes. Rather than despair, the participants recognized that they need to be determined, disciplined, and prepared to deal with agents provocateurs used by brilliant adversaries in this effort.

Yes, we must destroy our country in order to save it’s image! Right.