accountability

Torture Accountability Letter 8 - How Will The World Trust Us If We Don't Investigate

Bill Egnor — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:51:59 -0800

Happy Monday. Welcome to the Dog’s letter writing campaign for torture accountability. This campaign is designed to keep the issue of accountability under the law for the Bush administrations torture program alive. Here is how it works, every Monday the Dog writes to one of the decision makers on the issue of torture accountability. You get involved (and increase the impact) by either cutting and pasting the letter over your own signature or just writing your own letter. The Dog even provides e-mail links so you can cc the letter to all the decision makers.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

This week we are back to writing the Attorney General, as he has the final say as to whether comprehensive investigations will accrue or not.

Dear Attorney General Holder:

I write you once again to urge your action on the issue of the Bush Administration’s apparent torture program. The legal reasons why you should act are clear. Torture is both a Federal and International crime. Under the International Conventions Against Torture, any signatory has the obligation to investigate every credible allegation of torture.
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Torture Accountablity Letter 7 - OPR Report

Bill Egnor — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:51:24 -0800

Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s letter writing campaign for torture accountability. Last week was not a good week for the cause. The release of the Office of Professional Responsibility report with the conclusion that Mr. Yoo and Judge Bybee showed only poor judgment in their ginning up of legal cover for torture is a travesty. The Associate Attorney General David Margolis overrode the two previous versions of the report which called for them to be referred to their local Bar Associations for professional misconduct. Instead they are very mildly admonished and let go their merry way.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

There is still an avenue to pursue and that is House and Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. The Dog would love to tell you this was going to be a place where things will be different, but the reality is that it is likely to be a lot of smoke and very little fire. However giving up is not an option, at least for this dog. So lets take all the shots we can and keep this issue alive.

Today we will be writing to Judiciary Chair Conyers, below is this weeks letter:

Torture Accountability Letter 6 - AG Holder, Aren't You Angry?

Bill Egnor — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:55:20 -0800

Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s on-going campaign for torture accountability. The purpose of this series is to keep the issue of accountability under the law for torture alive. To do this every Monday the Dog writes a letter to one of the decision to makers who could move the issue of torture accountability forward. You get involved by sending your own letter, you can use the one the Dog writes, just pasted over your signature, or you can write your own. The point is to have some notice given that not everyone has forgotten about the issue of torture war crimes in the glare of HCR and the new season of American Idol.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

This week we are going to write to the Attorney General, as he is the single person that can really get the ball rolling with full-scale investigations. There will be copies to the President, the Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader of the Senate, Judiciary Chairs Leahy and Conyers and ranking Judiciary Committee Member Rep. Jerry Nadler.

This week’s letter:

Dear Attorney General Holder;

I write you this week to ask a simple question; doesn’t it make you angry that you are being made a patsy by war criminals?
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Torture Accountability Letter 5 - How Can There Be Justice For KSM?

Bill Egnor — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:46:44 -0800

Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s letter writing campaign for torture accountability. This series is a small attempt to assure the issue of accountability under the law for the apparent Bush administration torture program is not forgotten by those responsible for the investigation and prosecution of such acts. The way this series works is as follows; every Monday the Dog writes a letter to one of the decision makers involved and send copies to the rest. You get involved by either cutting and pasting the letter over your own signature or buy using it as inspiration for your own letter. The Dog even provides the e-mail links and where we are writing members of Congress who use filter the way to get past the filters.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

This week we will be writing the Attorney General (the fact is he is the sole person who can start and follow through with investigations) with copies to the President, Speaker of the House Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Reid, Judiciary Chairs Leahy and Conyers and Rep. Jerry Nadler of the House Judiciary Committee.

This week’s letter:

Dear Attorney General Holder;
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Torture Accountability Letter 4 - Chair Conyers, Call A Hearing

Bill Egnor — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:04:00 -0800

Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s letter writing campaign for accountability under the law for the apparent torture program of the Bush administration. The point of this effort is to keep the issue of accountability alive. We all know there are other critical issues, and the President and many in the Congress would rather deal with those than an issue that is going to be as divisive as this one.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

Torture Accountability Letter 2 - Sen. Feinstein, Where Is That Report?

Bill Egnor — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:43:12 -0800

Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s on-going letter writing campaign for torture accountability under the law. For those who have not seen this series before, the way it works is as follows; every Monday the Dog writes a letter to the decision makers urging them to follow through on accountability for the apparent Bush Administration torture program. You get involved by either using the letter as the starting place for one of your own, or cutting and pasting it over your signature and sending it off.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

Most weeks the letter heads to the Attorney General, but the quest for accountability does not begin and end at the DOJ. Congress has a constitutional role of oversight which is also required if we are to make sure the United States does not drift to and fro on the issue of state sponsored torture. To this end, we will be writing Sen. Dianne Feinstein Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence this week. There will copies to the President, the AG, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, Judiciary Chairs Conyers and Leahy and Rep. Jerry Nadler a senior member of the House Judiciary

Dear Senator Feinstein;
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Torture Accountability Letter 1 - Until There Is Accountability There Will Be Torture

Bill Egnor — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:51:13 -0800

Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s letter writing series torture accountability. The point of this series it to keep the issue of accountability under the law for the state sponsored torture program of the Bush Administration alive and moving forward. This is a long fight, as any legal issue is likely to be, but by consistently writing the decision makers and making the case for the rule of law we make it clear there are citizens who believe the rule of law trumps all political motivation.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

For those who have not seen this series before, the way it works is simple, the Dog writes a letter on Mondays to one of the decision makers and provides the links to send this letter off. You get involved by using the letter in part or in whole and sending it off over your own signature.

This week we will be writing Attorney General Holder with copies to the President, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, Judiciary Chairs Leahy and Conyers and Rep. Jerry Nadler who also sits on the House Judiciary Committee.

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Weekly Torture Action Letter 26 - AAG Perrelli, Evidence Continues To Come Out

Bill Egnor — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:55:55 -0700

Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s weekly letter writing campaign for torture accountability. The basic premise of this series is to write those who can move the issue of torture accountability forward every Monday. The purpose is to keep this issue alive as other major issues like Health Care Reform distract the majority of the public. Here is how it works; the Dog writes a letter which you can either cut and paste over your own signature or use as the basis for your own. He also provides the links where you can send the letter. All you have to do is take five minutes to make sure this issue is not swept under the rug because the Obama Administration and the Democratic Leaders in Congress think there is no one looking.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

This week we will write to the Associate Attorney General of the United States, with carbon copies to the President, AG Holder, Deputy AG Ogden, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, Judiciary Chairs Leahy and Conyers and Rep. Jerry Nadler who is a senior member of the Judiciary Committee in the House.

This week’s letter;

Dear Associate Attorney General Perrelli;
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Weekly Torture Action Letter 22 - Thank You Sen. Feingold

Bill Egnor — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:37:53 -0700

Happy Monday and welcome to the Weekly Torture Action Letter series. This is a letter writing campaign for torture accountability. The basic idea is every Monday (yeah, the Dog knows, it is Tuesday, but the hound had to do a Labor Day post out of solidarity) the Dog writes a letter to the nations decision makers urging them to take action towards full accountability for the illegal Bush Administration state sponsored torture program. The way you get involved is by either cutting and pasting the letter over your own signature or using the topic of the letter as the jumping off point for your own. In either case the Dog provides the links to make this as easy as possible. The whole point of this campaign is to make sure our leaders don’t get distracted and forget their duties under the law to investigate and prosecute any act of torture.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

Six Months of Immunity

davidswanson — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:43:28 -0700

By David Swanson

Drafted in preparation for panel discussion at Veterans for Peace national convention August 7, 2009, on topic of "Holding the Architects of Illegal Wars and War Crimes Accountable."

Seven years to the day after the Downing Street Minutes meeting at which top British officials famously discussed U.S. President George W. Bush's intent to launch a war against Iraq whether or not any means could be found to legalize it, on July 23rd, the United Nations hosted a discussion of ways in which wars of aggression are given pseudo-legal cover. Included were remarks by Jean Bricmont and Noam Chomsky. It is not hard to imagine how different such discussions would be were the architects of the Iraq War ever held accountable for it in any way.