Posts by David Swanson

David Swanson is a co-founder of After Downing Street, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com.

Why Are Two Top Torture Lawyers Working for Obama?
Posted by David Swanson, After Downing Street on June 29, 2009 at 10:00 AM.

We've heard of John Yoo and Alberto Gonzales, and maybe even Jay Bybee. Some of us recall John Ashcroft, Michael Mukasey, and even David Addington. William Haynes, Stephen Bradbury, and Douglas Feith occasionally make the news. If I had any say about it all 40 of these facilitators of torture would be universally known -- plus the eight more that readers of this article will call to my attention and angrily accuse me of trying to cover for by only being aware of 40. I would also make universally known the fact that two of the worst now work for President Barack Obama.

Even if you haven't read them, you probably know that the Justice Department under Bush-Cheney produced memos pretending to legalize torture, gruesome memos stipulating exactly how many times a particular victim could "legally" be tortured with a particular technique. John Yoo and Jay Bybee wrote the worst of these memos. But the memos take the form of responses to inquiries from a guy named John Rizzo. Yes, Mr. Rizzo, you may slam that guy against a wall. No, Mr. Rizzo, you may not drown that one unless you have a doctor present. And so on. The memos are all headlined thus: "MEMORANDUM FOR JOHN A. RIZZO."

So, Yoo and Bybee didn't invent the torture techniques out of their own sadistic imaginations. They replied to Rizzo's requests for "legal" permission to use detailed techniques. What if those requests from Rizzo had been turned into news headlines, rather than the Justice Department's responses? Would activists then be focused on demanding Rizzo's, rather than Yoo's, removal from one of our prestigious institutions of higher learning? That's actually a very easy question to definitively answer, and the answer is no. Rizzo doesn't work in academia: he is still, until he retires this summer the top lawyer at the CIA.

Retirement is what counts as accountability these days in Washington. Future consiglieri are hereby put on notice: you back torture and death squads and drone strikes and you'll be forced to retire with the LA Times printing a profile on your great influence and wonderful taste in expensive suits. Rizzo served as top lawyer at the CIA for years, without the title, because the Senate wouldn't approve him. Serving as the "Acting So-and-So" is what now counts as compliance with the Constitution. Senators are hereby put on notice: you fail to confirm an appointee, and he or she will get the job without the title

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Vermont Town Votes to Arrest and Indict Bush, Cheney
Posted by David Swanson, After Downing Street on March 5, 2008 at 5:20 AM.

Brattleboro, Vt., voted today in support of a measure calling on the town's police force to arrest and indict Bush and Cheney. The vote was 2012-1795.

Marlboro, Vt., passed a similar measure at its town meeting today at which the vote to indict Bush and Cheney was 43-25-3. That's 43 in favor and 3 abstaining. Thus Marlboro beat Brattleboro to it by a few hours. In Brattleboro, the indictment question was on the primary ballots for both parties.

Here's a kit for other towns to use: http://afterdowningstreet.org/indictkit

Here is background on Brattleboro's indictment ballot initiative, written prior to the vote:

When citizens and voters go to the town meeting and primaries in Brattleboro, Vermont, on Tuesday, there will be a question on the back of all ballots, and a circle to mark Yes and one to mark No:

"Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities, and shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro police, pursuant to the above mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecuted or extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them?"

A public forum was held Sunday in Brattleboro to discuss the upcoming vote. Kurt Daims, the Brattleboro citizen who drafted the measure, was there, along with leading New England activists for peace and justice, including U.S. Senate candidate from Maine Laurie Dobson who is seeking indictments of Bush and Cheney in Maine as well.

If this thing passes on Tuesday I know a lot of cops around the country who are going to be jealous of the Brattleboro police force. I'm thinking of all the police officers I've seen arrest activists in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, but accept impeachment t-shirts from them and hide them under their hats. Here is an opportunity for law-abiding and law-upholding working men and women to arrest the biggest criminals of our age, and the two men most responsible for the human and financial costs we and others have suffered these past seven years. Who wouldn't want to be in on this?

Now, I know what you're thinking. If we just wait one more year, only a couple of more hundred thousand Iraqis and some hundreds of US troops will die, we'll only launch at most one more foreign war beyond the ones we're running now, our actions might not provoke an attack in this country, we'll still have several years left in which we can try to reverse global warming if we hurry, the millions of American families about to lose their homes to foreclosures will only have one winter to brave and it may be a warm one, and then a completely unreliable and probably fraudulent election will give us in 2009 a new president who - if we're lucky - won't be that crazy old senator who wants to stay in Iraq for 10,000 more years, and if we're really lucky future presidents will go ahead and obey laws even though they're not required to anymore . . . so what are we getting all excited about? Right? Admit it, that's what you're thinking, isn't it?

How could you not be when THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION IN HISTORY is forecast as imminent every day for two straight years every four years? Seriously, raise your hand if you do not know which presidential candidates are married, how many kids they each have, what their religions are, or if you could not rank them by age, height, or hair color.

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Cleveland Corporate Media vs. Kucinich
Posted by David Swanson, After Downing Street on February 26, 2008 at 11:28 AM.

Cleveland, Ohio's corporate media has passionately opposed the progressive populist efforts of Dennis Kucinich for decades. This week marks the climax of its most ferocious crusade to remove him from Congress.

Unable to be confident of motivating enough Democrats to vote against Kucinich in Tuesday's primary, Clear Channel right wing radio station WTAM (these guys http://www.wtam.com/pages/personalities/#newsstaff ) is openly encouraging Republicans to participate in the Democratic primary and vote against Kucinich.

My advice to such infiltrators is to take care or they may get stuck with a Republican nominee who believes the world is more than 6,000 years old. Don't risk it, folks. Vote for Huckabee!

Of course, leading the charge against Kucinich is the Cleveland Pain Dealer. Oops, I mean Plain Dealer. Having savaged Kucinich for years in reports and editorial for, among other things, failing to raise more money, the Pain Dealer attacks him in its latest anti-Kucinich editorial (the third in the past week) for having raised too much money: http://tinyurl.com/yv46uv

Here's the headline: "Editorial: Kucinich's far-flung fans fatten his finances"

Here's the text:

"Dennis Kucinich can't plead poverty anymore. Since posting an Internet video warning that 'corporate interests are converging on Cleveland to knock me out of Congress,' Kucinich has raised $700,000 to defend his hold on the underrepresented people of the 10th District. Not surprisingly, most of his biggest donors live in other people's districts. Other people's states, in fact. Maybe viewed from Newton, Mass., or Hanapepe, Hawaii, Kucinich looks pretty good. Maybe when you see Cleveland only during playoff games, it seems just fine. But people like spiritualist Marianne Williamson of Nipomo, Calif., really ought to try living here. Then maybe they might understand why a lot of the people who are actively investing in Northeast Ohio's future have also given money to challenger Joe Cimperman. They're not out to silence Kucinich. They just want someone in Washington willing to help push a very big rock up a very steep hill."

The Pain Dealer fails to note that Cimperman himself doesn't live in the district he is seeking to represent, and says nothing about the corporate sources of his massive funding. But Kucinich has for six terms represented the people of his district and city and state better than just about any other group of constituents is represented in Washington. And he has done something else that every member of Congress is supposed to do: he has represented the people of the United States of America.

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Halliburton Gang Rape Victim Continues to Be Denied Justice
Posted by David Swanson, After Downing Street on January 14, 2008 at 2:03 PM.

What does one say to a young woman gang raped by men paid by us to work for a company from which our vice president profits, men who have yet to be charged with any crime, a company yet to make amends in any way, and a presidential administration effectively granted immunity by our representatives in Congress?

I'm going to interview Jamie Leigh Jones on Tuesday evening, January 15th (8 to 9 p.m. ET), and she'll take questions from the audience. You can listen and participate at http://www.thepeoplespeakradio.net and I certainly hope you will, because I have absolutely no idea myself what I can say to her. What excuse can any of us offer? What words can convey the depth of our shame? What can we commit to doing to help her and others like her?

Jones was hired at age 19 to work for Halliburton in Houston, Texas, and the next year was sent to Iraq to work for Halliburton. She says that she was drugged and raped by numerous coworkers in Baghdad, and was then confined by Halliburton armed guards to a shipping container, denied food, water, or medical help.

Jones used a borrowed cell phone to contact her father, who in turn contacted Representative Ted Poe (R, TX) who contacted the State Department, which freed Jones from Halliburton's shipping container. U.S. Army doctors performed an examination that discovered evidence of vaginal and anal rape, but the sexual assault kit disappeared after being turned over to Halliburton and was later recovered missing some pieces of evidence, including doctor's notes and photographs of Jones' bruises.

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Cheney Denies Being Human
Posted by David Swanson on August 29, 2007 at 9:37 AM.

This post, written by David Swanson, originally appeared on After Downing Street

Every corporate media outlet in the country believes a story that Democrats.com reported months ago is the top news of the day. Here's the Los Angeles Times version:

BREAKING NEWS: Sen. Craig denies being gay

"I am not gay," Sen. Larry Craig said twice during a 10-minute statement today following news that he had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after being arrested at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on suspicion of lewd behavior in a men's restroom in June.

Numerous major media outlets did not report the following:

BREAKING NEWS: Cheney denies being human

"I am not human," Vice President Dick Cheney said twice during a 10-minute statement today following news that he had refused to comply with subpoenas, created and advocated for the "Unitary Executive Theory" which is used by the White House to defy laws duly enacted by Congress and thereby justify dictatorial action, played a key role in setting up illegal spying programs, coordinated a campaign to obstruct the investigation conducted by Patrick Fitzgerald, organized a campaign of retribution against whistleblower Joseph Wilson that included the outing of a covert CIA operative, led efforts to institute the routine use of torture, spearheaded a campaign to manipulate pre-war intelligence, created a secret Energy Task Force which operated in defiance of open-government laws, directed massive no-bid contracts to his company, Halliburton, profiting from the same illegal war he had defrauded the American public to launch, and threatened an aggressive attack on the nation of Iran.

Instead, the LA Times reported:

"I did nothing wrong at the Minneapolis airport and I regret the decision to plead guilty," the Idaho Republican added. He said he had "overreacted" to the stress of the moment and did not consult with family or an attorney. The revelations of the arrest and guilty plea, first made by John McArdle in the Roll Call newspaper yesterday, threw the conservative world of Idaho politics into turmoil.

Not a single media outlet in the nation reported:

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U.S. Plans to Attack Iran Revealed
Posted by David Swanson on August 28, 2007 at 10:30 AM.

This post, written by David Swanson, originally appeared on After Downing Street

Detailed Pentagon plans for a military attack on Iran are far more extensive than has been reported in the U.S., according to top British military analysts. There have been occasional news reports on various strategic bombing options - both conventional and nuclear - but this is the first comprehensive look at the full range of Pentagon plans.

A new report obtained by RawStory.com concludes that the United States has made major preparations to attack Iran, and that such an attack will likely target much more than just weapons or nuclear facilities.

Raw Story's article breaking this story and including expert responses to the report is HERE.

The report as a PDF is HERE.

The authors are Dr Dan Plesch and Martin Butcher. Dr Plesch is Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies' Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy. Martin Butcher is an international consultant on security politics.

Excerpts:

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