Holding Bush Accountable for His Crimes
Tomorrow is Today: the Time for Resistance is Now
By MICHAEL RATNER
01/30/06 "Counterpunch"
-- -- Opening Remarks to the culminating session of the
International Commission of Inquiry On Crimes Against Humanity
Committed by the Bush Administration, Riverside Church, New York,
January 20, 2006.
When Clark Kissinger called me yesterday and said, "You will be
sharing a platform with Harry Belafonte, I said, "Well, maybe you
want to put me on for tomorrow." But here I am, and of course I'm
proud to be in any kind of association with Harry Belafonte. And I'm
sure you're all familiar with Harry Belafonte's comments that he
made to President Chavez in Venezuela a few days ago. And if you
don't remember them, I'll repeat them. "No matter what the greatest
tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W.
Bush, says, we're here to tell you that not hundreds, not thousands,
but millions of the American people support your revolution."
Now what's remarkable about that, is not only the statement
itself but Harry Belafonte response when he was heavily attacked for
calling Bush a terrorist. As he, to his credit, has never been
willing to do, he did not retreat from the statement. And if you go
on the net you will find what he said, at the Children's Defense
Fund, a few days later about that statement to Chavez: "So I made my
remarks, they may stir up controversy, but then it's time to talk
about new definitions, new points of view." And that's what Harry
Belafonte was doing, and that is what we are doing here today, and
over the next two days, at these Bush Crimes Commissions.
The other important point about being here, at Riverside of
course, is that in April 1967, this is the place, this is the
church, where Martin Luther King openly, and notoriously I should
say, opposed the war in Vietnam. The speech was called "Beyond
Vietnam: A time to break the silence." It's a historic place for
that reason. He began that speech with these words: "A time comes
when silence is betrayal. That time has come for us, in relation to
Vietnam." And then in that speech, he lays out a 5-point program.
But the ultimate point of that program was: Remove all foreign
troops from Vietnam. Incredibly, even though it was Martin Luther
King saying that, in 1967, it took 9 more years, millions of
Vietnamese deaths, and thousands of American deaths, to do so.
We today model our conduct on that of Dr. Martin Luther King. As
he said then, we say today, "A time comes when silence is betrayal."
That time has come for us, in relationship to the war in Iraq. It is
time for us to bring the troops home now.
A people's trial, a people's commission, is not without important
precedents. Almost 40 years ago, in 1968, there was another people's
trial. It was held in Sweden and Denmark. Originally it was to be
held in France. But the French wouldn't allow it; they prohibited
it, because it was about Vietnam, and of course the French had been
very deeply involved in the subjugation of Vietnam. The witnesses at
that people's trial were well-known progressives, including
Jean-Paul Sartre. They gathered in Stockholm and Copenhagen, and
they were there to judge another human outrage in our history, the
brutal and inhuman Vietnam War. Bertrand Russell, the famous English
philosopher, was one of the key participants in that trial. In fact,
it was called the Russell War Crimes Tribunal.
Russell opened that trial, and here is what he said: "We meet at
an alarming time. Overwhelming evidence besieges us daily of crimes
without precedent. We investigate in order to expose; we document in
order to indict; we arouse consciousness in order to create mass
resistance." And so, as Russell said then, we say today: we are
putting the Bush administration on trial. We investigate in order to
expose; we document in order to indict; we arouse consciousness in
order to create mass resistance. We want this trial to be a step in
the building of mass resistance to war, to torture, to the
destruction of earth and its people. It's a serious moment. Our
country and our world are at a tipping point: Tipping toward
permanent war, the end of human rights, and the impoverishment and
death of millions. We still have a chance, an opportunity to stop
this slide into chaos. But it is up to us. We must not sit with our
arms folded, and we must be as radical as the reality we are facing.
The witnesses you will hear over the next few days are the
truth-tellers: the witnesses to the carnage this country and this
administration have wrought. This truth challenges us -- challenges
us all to act. We, particularly the American people, have not heard
or seen the truth. And if some do, in their comfort and complacency,
they often turn away. The truth is hidden. It is hidden through
cover-up language, euphemisms, legalisms, obfuscations, false
investigations, the blaming of low-level individuals: all meant to
hide the reality of the criminal involvement of high officials of
this administration: Their criminal involvement in war, torture,
global and human destruction.
Let's take a look at a few of these examples, and there are many.
The failure in this country, and the media, and pundits everywhere
we look, to look at the reality- a reality this commission will
examine. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the first example:
the war in Iraq. Supposedly, the war was to eliminate Iraq's weapons
of mass destruction. Now it is said: that was a mistake. It was bad
intelligence. The administration says it, and much of Congress says
it , the Press says it, "Had we only known - but we thought they had
weapons of mass destruction. So we must in the future get better
intelligence." As if that explains or excuses why we went to war.
But of course, that explanation -- the failure of intelligence --
and it is still the current explanation of today, by the elites,
hides the real reasons for war. It blames some negligent officials,
individuals, at the CIA, for leading us into war. All we need to do
according to them is correct that and we won't be in mistaken wars
any longer. Mistaken wars will come to an end. If you believe that,
you believe in the tooth fairy. We all know that is not the truth.
In fact, in 1967, at the speech hear at Riverside, Martin Luther
King predicted it. He said we will be marching and protesting wars
for the rest of our lives as long as we are on the wrong side of
history. And we are on the wrong side of history.
Sometimes I ask myself: why did we progressives know the weapons
of mass destruction story was a cover for war? But Congress and the
media claimed they did not? Because they -- all of them-- Democrats,
Republicans, the media -- they were all reading from the same page.
And that page is U.S. world exploitation and domination. And of
course what does the truth tell us about the war in Iraq? It tells
us that it's an aggressive war, a crime against peace, and according
to the judgment at Nuremberg, that kind of war is the most heinous
of all war crimes.
I can give you other examples: For example, the fact that they
say that they--the administration-- does not torture. Here is how
they get away with that statement. All of a sudden in this country,
torture is not torture. Or at worst it is abuse. And even that abuse
is no worse than a fraternity prank. Or if it was abuse, it was
because abusive techniques were only for use in Guantánamo. What
sense does that make? Used in Guantánamo as if that is ok-- and
somehow they migrated to Iraq? But what does "migrated to Iraq"
mean? Are they birds, like a bird migrates? Without any human agent,
torture techniques move from one place to another? Or we are told
that it is a few bad apples, but no responsibility of the
higher-ups. And yet the media has gone along with this, with these
lies and these cover-ups. Even worse, serious media discussion and
respectability is given to the legal justifiers. For example, John
Yoo, a lawyer for the administration, who wrote that torture could
be used in the name of national security -- much like the Pinochet
defense, torture in the name of national security. I was utterly
shocked the other day when I picked up the New York Times and there
on the oped page they had asked half a dozen people what questions
they would you ask the potential new Supreme Court Judge Alito. And
they asked John Yoo what question would he ask Alito. Here they--the
New York Times--is giving credibility to a man who should not be
writing opeds in the New York Times but should be in the dock--- in
the dock facing justice.
Let there be no doubt this administration is engaged in massive
violations of the law. Torture is an international crime. It is a
grave breech of the Geneva conventions. And almost no one is telling
you that. And in this country it is anathema to do so.
A third and last example of the hiding of reality, of the blaming
of individuals, instead of the nature of this country and its
leaders is the example of what happened in New Orleans with Katrina.
It is the preparation for and aftermath of Katrina. What do we hear
and read? It was an unpredictable act of god. It was the failure of
FEMA. FEMA had a bad manger. All sorts of excuses similar to what we
heard about the so-called intelligence failures in the Iraq war. But
to blame FEMA, to blame the individuals, obscures what we know
occurred in New Orleans. What we saw in New Orleans and the
Superdome was something very different - it was the legacy of
slavery, the legacy of Jim Crow, the legacy of separate but equal,
and it was the legacy and the current practice and policy of our
country today that human beings are seen as disposable, particularly
if they are poor and black. That is the reality of New Orleans, and
that is the reality faced everyday in this country. And again, that
is the reality this Commission will bring you.
The war, torture, and the effects of Katrina are not looked at as
failures or as products of the system. The truths are hidden and by
hiding the truth we are disempowered. So we are here this weekend to
hear truth tellers; to empower people. It is not just a few bad
apples, it is not mistakes or bad choices, it is not just bad
managers and getting better ones; but something much more
fundamental. It's that awful alchemy as Dr. Martin Luther King
described it in this very church - the giant triplets of "racism
extreme materialism and militarism. "
I want to say a few words about one aspect of the current period
that is extremely frightening-- Probably the most frightening
development, although it does have roots in prior administrations.
The short hand for the expression of this period and the scare and
fear that I feel is, "The king can do no wrong" or the word might be
tyranny, police state or dictatorship. I recall that after 9/11,
within a few months afterwards, I wrote an article. It was entitled,
"Moving toward a police state - or have we arrived?" And I remember
being nervous about it because this was pretty aggressive to be
saying a few months after 9/11. Was I going to get trashed for it?
Did it really reflect reality? I wasn't sure. I had some evidence in
front of me. I had the Patriot Act. I had internal detentions. I had
the President's military order that allows him to pick up people
anywhere in the world and detain them in Guantánamo or elsewhere.
But I still was only willing to say 'moving toward a police state',
not have 'we arrived'. And a police state to me is one where
authority is not under law, where the legislature is overridden, and
where our courts are ignored. It is a state where one can be jailed
without a court proceeding or trial and where the president, king or
what have you, can do as he pleases - wire tap, torture, and
disappear people. Unfortunately, and dangerously that is the
situation we are in today.
You are familiar with much of the evidence, some of which I have
laid out, some of which the next two days will address. There is
however one piece of important evidence I want to bring to your
attention. It shows that the president, their president, not our
president, is open and notorious about his aims, public if you will;
and if you miss what we are being told you have to be an ostrich
with your head in the ground. What the President has done is
basically lay the plan for what has to be called a coup-d'etat in
America. It is a small paragraph and it's contained in what is
called a 'signing statement.' It was signed on December 30th and
it's the signing statement to what is called the McCain amendment.
You probably all remember the McCain amendment. That's the amendment
that prohibits cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, or
supposedly prohibits it. The president as you recall, resisted the
McCain amendment. But in the end he had to sign it because it was
part of a broader military authorization to pay for what we're doing
in Iraq. When a president signs legislation, he sometimes and, more
recently with President Bush, almost always, issues a signing
statement as to what his understanding of the new law is. The
president's statement on McCain is only one short paragraph. But it
is historic. It is unprecedented. And if you're looking for the grab
for power that allows you, permits you, compels you to call this
administration a tyranny, it is that paragraph.
It makes three points and I'll paraphrase. First, speaking as the
president, 'My authority as commander in chief allows me to do
whatever I think is necessary in the war on terror including use
torture. Second, the Commander in Chief cannot be checked by
Congress. Third, the Commander in Chief cannot be checked by the
courts.' There it is. There you have it. That boring stuff I learned
as a junior high school student about checks and balances or about
limited law or about authority under law - out the window. Gone. In
other words, the republic and democracy is over. In Germany what did
they call that? They called that the fuhrer's law. Why? Because the
fuhrer was the law. That's what George Bush is saying here. George
Bush is the law.
This assertion of power is so blatant so open, and so notorious,
that it is finally shocking some people like former Vice President
Gore to speak up. I'm sure many of you are familiar with what he
said in his recent speech on Martin Luther King's birthday. "The
President of the United State has been breaking the law repeatedly
and persistently." He was referring to the NSA spying scandal. And
then he went on to say, "A president who breaks the law is a threat
to the very structure of our government." And then he said what that
means to a Republic: "An executive who acts free of the will of
Congress as this president says he can, or the check of the
judiciary, as this president says he can, becomes the central threat
that the founders sought to nullify in the Constitution." And then
Gore quotes James Madison.to the effect that what President Bush has
done is the very definition of "tyranny." So there you have it. It's
not just us, its not just progressives, but even someone like former
Vice President Gore is saying this government is the very definition
of tyranny.
I believe that the president and this grab for power will be
repudiated. But it will not just happen. The pendulum does not swing
back automatically. It will take an aroused public and an aroused
people. And so the question is really - where do we go from here?
One place I can tell you not to go is: don't go to the Democrats in
Washington.
I have to tell you I've have never in my life been kicked in the
teeth as badly as I was on the Guantánamo cases when we were forced
to take that issue to the Democrats in Washington. Now I'm just
going say it here, there are a million reasons I can tell you don't
go to Washington and the Democrats, but this one is called the
Graham-Levin Bill. After we win the right to go court for the
detainees at Guantánamo, and we win that in the Supreme Court,
Republican Senator Graham and Democrat Senator Levin get together -
and what do they decide to do a few weeks ago? But strip the courts
of any jurisdiction to hear the Guantánamo cases. That's what they
do - Democrats and Republicans together. And then they say you can
use evidence from torture to keep those people in jail. Kicking us
right in the teeth! Kicking the courts in the teeth. And sentencing
the Guantanamo detainees to years more of Hell. And so if you think
that we're going to get far by going there--to the Democrats, you've
got it wrong. Lessons of history teach us that we don't move our
leaders without the passion and the protest of the people.
I want to close with a sense of hope. It's been a rough four
years, it's been a rough twenty years, and it's been a rough forty
years since Dr. King spoke. But I want to close with a sense of
hope. This administration is unraveling. There is a split in the
elites. Gore is one of the best examples. Everywhere we see former
administration officials speaking out. They realize the
administration has gone too far. They want to save some remnant of
democracy. We see indictments from Scooter Libby to Delay coming
fast and furious. We see General Miller, responsible for torture in
Guantánamo and Iraq, taking the 5th amendment essentially so he
won't have to testify. We see General Sanchez, who was head of
troops in Iraq, retiring without that 4th star. It's a real opening
for us but it is not simply to go back to the normal. It's not
simply to save a remnant of democracy. The malady is much deeper
than that. We need a radical transformation of our society. My hopes
for today and for the future are that the truth will arouse
resistance and with resistance there will be some change. I mean
resistance of every sort, mobilizing, protesting, disobeying and
disobedience. And then again, when I was reading Dr. King's speech,
the thought that he closed with, and that I want to close with, is
that sometimes we can wait too long to take action. Or as Dr. King
said, "you can be too late." And we, unless we act, may be too late.
So let me end with Dr. King's directive to us all: "We are now
faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are
confronted with the fierce urgency of now. There is such a thing as
being too late. We still have a choice today. Now let us begin. Now
let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful
struggle for our new world."
Thank you. We'll do this together.
Michael Ratner is President of the
Center for
Constitutional Rights, and was co-counsel in Rasul vs. Bush, the
historic case of Guantánamo detainees, in which the Supreme Court
ruled that U.S. courts do indeed have jurisdiction over Guantánamo.
He is an expert in international human rights law and a past
President of the National Lawyers' Guild.
On January 31 Michael Ratner will be joining thousands across the
country to protest President Bush's State of the Union message, and
on February 4 he will be addressing the
World Can't Wait
demonstration in Washington DC demanding that President Bush Step
Down.
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