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Campaign For Special Torture Prosecutor Takes Change.gov Site By Storm

By Ari Melber, TheNation.com. Posted January 9, 2009.


The votes are in, and the top-ranked question -- out of 70,000 submitted to Obama's site -- asks for an investigation of torture and spying.

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A whopping 70,000 questions poured into Change.gov over the past week, in response to the Obama transition team's call for citizen queries to the President-Elect. After votes from about 100,000 people, the top ranked question asks Obama whether he will appoint a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture and illegal surveillance by the U.S. government. I've been working with activist Bob Fertik to organize support for the question, and several progressive bloggers urged readers and Obama supporters to vote for it last week. Digby, who has written extensively about the Bush administration's abuse of the rule of law, recently reported on the progress:

I wrote a post about [an] initiative spearheaded by Ari Melber of The Nation and Democrats.com to ask President-elect Obama if he will appoint a special prosecutor to investigate war crimes in the Bush administration over at Change.gov. (In a previous round, it was the sixth most asked question...) This time, through their efforts, it's number one. This is particularly important, since the press has only asked Obama about this one time, last April. And a lot has happened since then, most obviously the fact that Vice President is all over television admitting to war crimes as if he's proud of it.

Then The New York Times picked up the news:

[T]he number one submission on the popular "Open for Questions" portion of the site might seem more than a little impolitic to [President Bush]: "Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor -- ideally Patrick Fitzgerald -- to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping," wrote Bob Fertik of New York, who runs the Web site, Democrats.com.

Though the Obama team has promised to answer some of the top questions as early as this week, they have not said whether they will respond to Mr. Fertik's, which has received more than 22,000 votes since the second round of the question-and-answer feature began on Dec. 30. The site logged more than 1.5 million votes for 20,000-plus questions ... The second highest-ranked submission, which is about oversight of the nation's banking industry, is several thousand of votes behind the query about a special prosecutor. Mr. Fertik's question has been pushed to the top, in part, by a coalition of liberal bloggers ...


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See more stories tagged with: torture, barack obama, the nation, jonathan turley, bob fertik, patrick fitzgerald, eric holder, change.gov, democrats.com

Ari Melber is a regular contributor to The Nation magazine and writer for The Nation's Campaign '08 blog, and a contributing editor at the Personal Democracy Forum. He served as a Legislative Aide in the U.S. Senate and was a national staff member of the 2004 John Kerry Presidential Campaign.

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View:
Well...
Posted by: Quannah on Jan 9, 2009 8:38 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I can't wait for this answer.

This will be very telling as far as how serious Obama is concerning the rule of law. He better think this over carefully. There are about 100 million people waiting...

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» I CAN wait Posted by: ProgressiveManiac
» RE: I CAN wait Posted by: Quannah
Preemptive strike on Iraq?
Posted by: DavidGeorge on Jan 9, 2009 11:51 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The preemptive strike on Iraq with the trumped up WMD charges - wasn't that a War Crime?

Frankly I'd like to see a reduction in such weapons, but many countries have WMD including the US, UK and Israel so why couldn't Iraq have them too even though they didn't?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

No, We Won't
Posted by: AlexLawyer on Jan 10, 2009 12:42 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Obama and Congress aren't about to let that happen. For one thing, Bill Clinton could be implicated for outsourcing torture and forced disappearances. Details of congressional complicity, some of which are already known, would be headline news. And Obama's hawkish foreign policy could eventually put him in harm's way, too.

It's a great shame, since regaining the respect of our allies, undoing our negative image amongst our potential enemies, restoring the rule of law and validating the humanity of the victims require it. We also must now either sit in shameful silence or speak out with shameless hypocrisy in the face of evil elsewhere, ceding the moral high ground to more civilized nations.

Yes, we can, but no, we won't.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: No, We Won't Posted by: mbruton
yeah sure
Posted by: schnoggi on Jan 10, 2009 1:12 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'm not even waiting for his stupid answer. He showed his ass on his lame response to the tsunami of anti-drugwar adamants, and he's stocking the pond with sock puppets (Gupta? oh piss off), so, I think I'll be booking my ticket out of this tar pit like real soon. Thanks for the tease, Smoothie McSameOld, but I think I'm gonna zip up and see you later...from far, far away.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: yeah sure Posted by: Lauren
Shill of the Ruling Elite
Posted by: douglashoyt on Jan 10, 2009 2:26 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am always disappointed but never shocked by the stupidity and gullibility of the American public.

For months and months, information was in the press about Mr. Obama's voting record. That record did not show any "change we can believe in."

The Congress will not ask, nor will the Obama administration investigate war crimes.

This is the Same Old Shit from the ruling elite and you idiots voted for it again.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» As opposed to what? Posted by: chuckjs
» Kucinich Posted by: sliver
» RE: Kucinich Posted by: Lauren
» RE: Kucinich Posted by: liturgy82
» RE: Kucinich Posted by: morph999
» RE: Kucinich Posted by: douglashoyt
» RE: As opposed to what? Posted by: Lauren
Second Only to Economic Plan
Posted by: Purple Girl on Jan 10, 2009 5:18 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Had the Repugs and their lap dog Dems not run the economy into the ground, Prosecution for High crimes would be number one on my list of priority "To Do" list.
Really how long can conviction take? Plenty of audio & video evidence has been accumulated (follow the dots over the last 30 yrs) and Even confessions from Dick & W of Not Serving the Will of the People, "So", "So What" (Rule ONE in a Democracy- Break ONE and You are eligible for Charges of Treason)
We can not Sweep these High Crimes Under the national rug. It would only embolden those who wish to continue their Crimes and Provoke those who have suffereed from these crimes.
I was pleased to hear Other countries were beginning to formulate Cases against Bush's Organized Crime syndicate. If We fail to Punish these Blood thirsty meglomaniacs, then we have effectively condoned their crimes, and it will be US, the citizens, who will suffered the consequences. Let's be honest 9/11 was an attack on the Military industrial complex (Blood for Oil militia) which has been helping to fuck over the people of these Oil rich countries. While their 'royals' live in palaces, their citizens are starving. And the Assholes who've kept these SOB from being executed Fly OUR flag outside their HQ's for all to see and despise. Reason why I blame 9/11 on the Corps and their 'royal' masters...majority of 9/11 atttacks were native sons of Saudi arabia and Binny was an old benefactor of convert support during the Afghan/USSR conflict. This is not a coincidence, It an Organized Crime sydicate Scam!Binny didn't bite the hand that fed him, he was repaying a debt he owed to his Mentors- Cheney,Rummy and Wolfie (and maybe even John McCain's for his assistance to their 'Freedom Fighter' organization- Loved the Boots ah John?).9/11 will not be resolved until the truth about those in the Miltiary, Politics and Industry in the US who helped spur it on.
We don't just have 8 yrs of high crimes to prosecute but at least 30!

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» RE: Second Only to Economic Plan Posted by: WingedGryphon
» Please do your homework . . . Posted by: dustdevil
ProgressiveType
Posted by: progressivetype on Jan 10, 2009 5:46 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am no Pollyanna, but I say what the Chinese say, "Anything worthwhile is hard". All you have to do is DO something, Join something, There are more of us than there are of "them."

Doesn't matter that 9/11 was an inside job, USA has lost its moral compass, the common wealth has been robbed. Doesn't matter that Obama has just used Clinton retreads (including the repugnant Adm Blair to head Nat'l Intel)...others have struggled against far more powerful and pervasive thugs and NOW it's our turn.

Civic duty calls, join your local DTC or another 3rd party group, do more. Our forefathers and mothers died for the gifts we must now struggle to protect.

We are the ones we have been waiting for, another world is possible

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: ProgressiveType Posted by: peacefullaim1
Moron Nation's Marie Antoinette 'Left'
Posted by: lorenbliss on Jan 10, 2009 6:15 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am not surprised by these results; they prove what I have believed for years: that the Moron Nation “Left” is a sham Left, a fad Left, the sort of charade-Left Marie Antoinette might have organized for decadent games in the gardens of Versailles.

Obviously the majority of the Change.gov respondents -- call them Obamanoids -- are too yuppie-bourgeois comfortable (or too morally imbecilic) to give a damn about real humans suffering genuine afflictions. Just like Barbara Bush, they do not want to trouble their “beautiful minds” with the oppression imposed by the economic vampirism of late-stage capitalism.

People of all ages including families with children are being flung into (permanent) homelessness, and we are now so hungry the nation’s food banks cannot feed us. But the Obamanoid majority doesn’t care.

Elderly and/or disabled people like myself are being exterminated by a deliberate policy of euthanasia by neglect and abandonment -- the reason Medicare coverage is downsized every year -- and now Obama is hinting at slashing present-day Social Security stipends as well. The poor in general -- the fastest growing class of people in the U.S. -- are being slain the same way, the deadly purpose behind the fact the U.S. is the only industrial nation in which health insurance is not a civil right, the reason why health insurance is (and will remain) unaffordable. But the Obamanoid majority believes themselves immune to these horrors.

The U.S. working class hasn't had a real raise -- defined as an increase in disposable income -- since 1973. But the Obamanoid majority fancies themselves above such concerns.

We have the worst mass transit in the civilized world -- yet Obama's save-capitalism-at-any-cost recovery plan spends billions on highways with not one penny for transit expansion -- never mind our enslavement by Big Automotive and Big Oil is ever more financially ruinous even as it is the major source of the toxins destroying our national environment. But the Obamanoid majority does not utter a single word of protest.

Indeed all that motivates these Marie Antoinette “leftists” is the opportunity to rant about their vexation with George Bush -- a president who, after all, is hardly worse than any of the other despots who have been figureheads for the ruling class since the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy on 22 November 1963.

Meanwhile those of us with genuine grievances are simply shoved aside: 70,000 pleas to Change.gov for “change we can believe in” and more than half are utterly, even viciously indifferent to the real issues of health care, jobs, housing, public transport and education.

Which proves -- as nothing else I have ever seen -- the now-obviously everlasting success of the post-World-War-II purge. Begun moments after the last round was fired -- the Joe McCarthy episode was but the tip of a stake that impaled the entire nation -- it not only eradicated Marxism but nullified all other forms of socialism with guilt by association. And then it locked the nation into a permanent state of political idiocy by the most cunning act of psycholinguistic manipulation ever accomplished: it made “intellectual” and “nonconformist” synonyms for “subversive” and so engendered the most savage anti-intellectuality in human history, closing the nation’s mind forever.

We are not just Moron Nation, but -- inescapable trapped in the infinitely worsening economic circumstances of the present -- a hopelessly failing state as well.

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Hold The Presses
Posted by: QQOblivion on Jan 10, 2009 6:33 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In the news regarding torture:

Members of Congress, most notably Democrats, overwhelmingly OPPOSE prosecuting those who were involved in carrying out torture against "war on terror" detainees.

Maybe that is because Congress itself had a hand in drafting America's pro-torture policies!

Congress is truly made up of war criminals. It really is.

-

But wait a minute, get this. Charles Taylor Jr, the son of the former Liberian president, has been sentenced to 97 years in prison for charges that include torture by a court in Miami.

You see, there is a 1994 US law that states that those who commit torture overseas can be tried in the US. (I am not sure if the Jr Taylor is a US citizen, but I think he is.)
So, all that Bush administration bull -- that those who committed torture at Guantanamo and at other American-run torture sites are immune from prosecution because the war crimes happened out of American jurisdiction -- is moot according to US law, apparently!
Can someone who knows about this law answer why it would not apply in the case of Guantanamo and other torture-sites? I think it does apply.

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change.org is a scam
Posted by: kellysgarden on Jan 10, 2009 7:22 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The incoming government won't even address the charges of torture if they don't wish to.

All of the suggestions and questions to change.org concerning the 9/11 attacks have been removed. They will continue to remove, change or ignore whatever does NOT already fit their designed intentions.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Obama's website must have "changed" since this article was written...
Posted by: scotty_perey on Jan 10, 2009 7:48 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Following the link at the opening of this piece, I just went and looked for that question on the change.gov "forum." If it's even still there, it wasn't listed in the top twenty. Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but I checked twice. Did anyone else have the same experience? Thanks...

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#1 Question .....NO ANSWER THIS TIME..NOT EVEN "NO"
Posted by: picket on Jan 10, 2009 9:16 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There were 9 topics in round two questions. Under the NATIONAL SECURITY topic the #1 question was:
"Our current war on drugs is failing America. Billions of dollars are spent on a losing campaign. Our prisons are overflowing with people that don't deserve to be there, What is the government going to do in an effort to fix this major problem?" AP..Seattle, Wa

Sorry, AP...BUT they can't ignore us forever??? Do not give up the fight against the "unequal" justice under the law in this good ole USA !!!!

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stormy7
Posted by: STORMY78 on Jan 10, 2009 10:17 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If Obama is really the man of change, he better appoint a special prosecutor to go after the Bush Administration for war crimes. Both Cheney and Bush have admitted to committing them.
Accountability is warranted.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: stormy7 Posted by: morph999
The film that will put BUSH BEHIND BARS!!!
Posted by: grahamhgreen on Jan 10, 2009 9:47 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
VISIT: http://thetorturer.com

• “Shocking, compelling… intense...”
Thom Hartmann, Air America Radio

• “My best character since ‘Uhura’”
Nichelle Nichols

• "By far the best film (at the AFM 2008).”
Charlie Fagin – American Film Market Projectionist

• “About time.”
An Army Wife

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Change.gov purged the question. Here is the letter from the site
Posted by: itzamirakul on Jan 14, 2009 3:56 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
-----Original Message-----
From: Kyle Hence
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Sent: Mon, 1 Dec 2008 1:18 am
Subject: Idea for New 9/11 Investigation Purged from Change.org -- New Idea, more forward looking, now accepting votes!

PLEASE POST AND FORWARD THIS WIDELY

Dear friends and colleagues,

This afternoon the following letter (see below) was sent to all those who voted for the idea of a new investigation of September 11th over the past 5 days. At the time this idea was purged from change.org, there were over 680 votes, and it was the top rated idea on the entire site, by double. It rocked to the top in just 72 hours.

The claim of the site managers which includes MySpace reps (owned by News Corps) is one of reserved right to exorcise any content they deem is not in keeping with the spirit of the project. I am arguing that any such Commission would also make vital policy recommendations and that any such commission would assemble brilliant minds and respected persons who would, we hope finally do justice for what happened on 9/11 and set out a prescription that puts accountability and transparency where it should be in a representational Republic, first and foremost always. And which sets forth protective policies and international law that will insure full and open investigation are the norm following any terrorist attack, with a mind to beware of false-flag terrorism a'la Gladio or Operation Northwoods.

I am seeking to have the original idea, with some new language reactivated on the site. Now is not the time to sit back and do nothing when this sort of censorship is taking place.

So I want to encourage you to vote here for this more forward and proactive idea:
http://www.change.org/ideas/

And stay tuned to see if the original idea is restored to the site:
http://www.change.org/ideas/

Since this is about US foreign policy please only vote if you are an American citizen. I am concerned that the project sponsors will use the foreign vote as another excuse to purge their so-called open marketplace of ideas from their social networking exercise. Also, please focus on facts and do not use the comment function just to voice your own personal conclusions or speculation even before our hoped for Commission has convened and conducted its investigation, etc.

Thank you.

Kyle F. Hence

Hello ,

We wanted to send you a note about an idea you recently voted on in the Ideas for Change in America competition titled "Conduct a new, independent investigation into the attacks of September 11, 2001"

We support calls for truth and transparency in our government on every subject and welcome you to directly petition the new administration about this matter, which you can do at http://change.gov/page/s/ofthepeople. However, this is unfortunately outside the scope of the Ideas for Change in America project, which aims to offer specific policy solutions rather than investigations into past government action. As such, it is not eligible to enter the second round of the competition.

We understand that good people may disagree with our vision. But this is a private effort not connected to the Obama campaign or transition team, and we reserve the right to keep the competition and its content aligned with the stated mission and overall spirit of the project.

Thank you for your understanding. As mentioned above, we welcome you to directly petition the Obama administration about your proposal at http://change.gov/page/s/ofthepeople. And we hope you continue your work to advance change.

Best,

- The Ideas for Change in America Team

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