Hey, US lawyers, why not do the same… This sounds like something the National Lawyers Guild might be interested in!

Today in Vancouver, Lawyers Against the War filed torture charges against George W. Bush under the Canadian Criminal Code.

The charges were laid by Gail Davidson, co-chair of Lawyers against the War–LAW, under provisions enacted pursuant to the U.N. Torture Convention, ratified by both Canada and the United States.

The charges concern the well known abuses of prisoners held by US Armed Forces in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba. The charges were accepted by the Justice of the Peace and referred for a hearing to decide whether Bush should be required to appear for trial.

The Attorney General of Canada’s consent is required within eight days for proceedings to continue, and the question of Bush’s diplomatic immunity will have to be resolved by the court.

More coverage

No Comments »

Instead, sue the ‘criminals’ 

Environmental lawyer and nephew of JFK says legal action against polluters is best bet

Delegates to the United Nations Climate Change Conference need not waste time trying to bring the U.S. onside in current discussions on reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, U.S. environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged yesterday.

"I don’t think the Bush administration is going to move on anything," he said from White Plains, N.Y., where he helps run the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University.

"They’re so tied in with the oil and coal industry, they’re still arguing global warming is a hoax. It’s like the Flat Earth Society."

No Comments »

The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to halt the scheduled execution of convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams, the Crips gang founder who became an anti-gang activist while in prison and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

This leaves Gov. Schwarzenegger as the last chance to stop the execution, scheduled for Dec. 13.

No Comments »

As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations" troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

This while Bush and Rumsfeld continue to blather about building freedom, openness, and democracy in Iraq. But then, the Bushies paid to plant stories here in the States too. Their hypocrisy is apparently endless.

No Comments »

1) The Official Secrets Act is much harsher than any comparable law the US has. Brits are subjects, not citizens, and they have no Constitution. Plus, once a trial is ongoing, the press is severely limited as to what they can say.

2) Why does Blair always bow to Bush? I dunno either sometimes think Bush has some major pressure hold on Blair. Because Blair seemingly always buckles. "The Senator from England", he’s been called, and he’s certainly not lacking in compliance and obedience either! The question is, why? What’s in it for him?

3) The bombing memo does exist. A member of Parliament told BlairWatch that he has read it. This directly contradicts Bush’s denials.

4) Al-Jazeera has sent a letter to Blair asking for an explantion. This issue will not go away.  The more they try to kill it, the bigger it gets (except for the comatose US mainstream media that is.)

5) There’s hints of much more in the memo besides the bombing threat, esp. concerning Fallujah. Something damning enough that the Official Secrets Act is being invoked to block it from being printed. Of course, this just makes people want to read it even more.

Coverage: 

Blair Watch, leading the way

Don’t Bomb Us - A blog by Al Jazeera Staffers

DailyKos post

Mediachannel.org: War on the Media: "Don’t Bomb Us"

The Washington Note

3 Comments »

New evidence is emerging that the top Democrat on the Senate committee currently investigating Jack Abramoff got political money arranged by the lobbyist back in 2002 shortly after the lawmaker took action favorable to Abramoff’s tribal clients.

Doncha just love that. Congress is investigating itself for corruption. The escalating Abramoff investigation is threatening to topple ranking Democrats as well as Republicans.

From a conservative blog: 

Now, all of a sudden, the Democrats have become very, very silent. Those that have commented claim no knowledge of Abramoff’s involvement with the six Indian tribes that donated tens of thousands of dollars to their campaigns between 1999 and 2004 through Abramoff’s recommendations. While the biggest winner in this handout festival was Republican Conrad Burns ($141K), one-third of the largest recipients were Democrats. Here’s a list of a few of them:

Rep. Patrick Kennedy: $128K (A Kennedy needs money?)
Senator Harry Reid: >$40K   (Senate Minority leader)
Senator Tom Daschle: >$40K
Rep. Dick Gephardt: $32.5K

Reid got $66,000, it appears.

The Abramoff web touched members of both parties. For example, the leadership fund of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., received $66,000 in Abramoff-related political contributions from 2001 to 2004; Reid wrote a letter in 2002 to Interior Secretary Gale Norton opposing a tribal casino that was also opposed by one of Abramoff’s clients.

The corruption is everywhere and omnipresent. Serious fireworks are coming. Expect more Randy Cunningham’s going down in flames, going to prison. At least I hope so. We need legislators who are beholden to the people, not to their corporate keepers.

No Comments »

Front page, LA Times

Writer Barbara Becnel has made clemency for Stanley Williams a global cause celebre.

During a jailhouse visit in 1993 to research a book on gangs, writer Barbara Becnel discovered that Williams, who is scheduled to be executed Dec. 13, had renounced his gang past. Over the next two years, Becnel shed her doubts about the co-founder of the Crips and helped him work to persuade youths to avoid gangs.

She arranged for Williams to speak by telephone to youth and criminal justice groups, and edited his series of children’s books. Death penalty opponents also took up his cause, pushing him into the limelight by nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Prize for literature, prestigious nominations that are surprisingly easy to make.

Eventually Becnel negotiated a deal for the movie "Redemption," which starred Jamie Foxx as Williams.

Now Becnel is spearheading a campaign to persuade Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to commute Williams’ death sentence to life in prison without parole. Schwarzenegger has scheduled a closed clemency hearing for Williams for Dec. 8. 

Tookie.com

SaveTookie.org

No Comments »

There’s some great music here, all free and legal to download.

Hoodhype: Urban, hip-hop

Indigenous Peoples Music

Nahenahe.Net. Hawaiian Music

Tartan Podcast. Scottish indie music

1 Comment »