Did Ramsey Clark convict Clinton of War Crimes with a Kangaroo Court?

[Quixote1818]

While I am glad Ramsey Clark is calling for impeachment of President Bush from what I have heard the guy is a complete wacko who no one takes seriously. Please correct me if I am wrong but didn't he have some kind of Kangaroo Court convict Bill Clinton and Madelyn Albright of War Crimes? It seems like I heard this once. If I am wrong please set me straight.

[CWebster]

1. Well, he has been made a pariah

for daring to confront reality, while Albright justifies slaughtering children and Clinton attends the ball at Versailles.

[bigtree]

2. At least he's consistent in his support of human rights

and in his opposition to wars of aggression.

[Freddie Stubbs]

5. He certainly knows a lot about human rights:

When he flew to Belgrade to support Slobodan Milosevic during NATO's campaign, there was no word about the siege of Sarajevo, the massacre at Srebrenica or the million homeless refugees from Kosovo -- and even less of those olfactorily eloquent mass graves that NATO is now uncovering. But then, urging Belgrade to resist NATO, while he was there picking up an honorary degree, he told his hosts, "It will be a great struggle, but a glorious victory. You can be victorious."

In Grenada he went to advise Bernard Coard, the murderer of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. Other clients include Radovan Karadzic, the indicted Bosnian Serbian war criminal whom he defended in a New York civil suit brought by Bosnian rape victims, and the Rwandan pastor who is accused of telling Tutsis to hide in his church and then summoning Hutus to massacre them, and then leading killing squads.

more: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/06/21/clark/

[bigtree]

9. There doesn't appear to be any quibble in America about this

destructive, bloody, proxy war that the U.S. led and financed to cage the monster, Slobadan Milosevic. But there should be. Clark is correct in his opposition to many of the U.S. efforts there.

In April 2001, Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa and author of The Globalization of Poverty wrote that, "While supporting the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Washington was at the same time behind the scenes funneling money and military hardware to the Kosovo Liberation Army(KLA)which was engaged in a border war with the Macedonian Security Forces.

Professor Chossudovsky thought it a "cruel irony" that Washington was arming and advising both the KLA attackers and the Macedonian defenders under military and intelligence authorization acts approved by the U.S. Congress.

During President Bush's first presidential campaign Condoleeza Rice, proposed that American peacekeepers be removed from the Balkans, Bosnia, and Kosovo. The rationale behind this move was described as a view that American forces were overdeployed and that peacekeeping is not a proper role for U.S. troops. Said Rice, "We don't need the 82nd Airborne escorting kids to kindergarten." At the Republican national convention Rice asserted "the United States should not be the "world's 911."

There are nearly 55,000 European troops in Kosovo in addition to the American contribution. U.S. President Bush made it clear when he became president that those countries affording shelter to terrorists would not be spared. But for the Serbs, Gypsies, Jews, Turks and other non Albanians who have been driven from homes in Kosovo by the Kosovo Liberation Army, that was a hollow and contradictory promise.

James Bisset, former Canadian ambassador to the region, wrote that, the bombing of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999 to stop ethnic
cleansing and prevent the Balkans from igniting a European civil war, caused Kosovo to become dominated by Albanians. The Balkans, since the end of the bombing, have been in a perpetual state of unrest caused by the KLA terrorist activities. NATO allowed the KLA, to keep their weapons, despite the U.N. resolution calling for disarnament.

Bisset writes that, as early as 1998, the U.S. State Department listed the KLA as a terrorist organization financing its operations with money from the international heroin trade and funds supplied from Islamic countries and individuals, including Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden had operated in the Balkans since the Bosnian civil wars in 1992-1995. With the help of the United States, arms, ammunition and thousands of Mujahideen fighters were smuggled into Bosnia to help the Muslims. Many remain in Bosnia today and are recognized as a serious threat to Western forces there.

The Bosnian government is said to have presented bin Laden with a Bosnian passport in recognition of his contribution to their cause. He and his al Qaeda network were also active in Kosovo and KLA members trained in his camps in Afghanistan and Albania.

MPRI, was helping Macedonia as part of a US military aid package "to deter armed aggression and defend Macedonian territory." But MPRI
was also advising and equipping the KLA, which was responsible for terrorist assaults.

MPRI, in 1999, listed ninety one highly experienced, former military professionals working in Bosnia & Herzegovina. The military intelligence ploy was to finance both sides of the conflict, provide military aid to one side and finance the other side and wait for them to weaken. U.S. military advisers operated behind MPRI on both sides of the conflict.

The same group of U.S. military advisers on contract with the KLA was also "helping" the Macedonian Armed Forces. The MPRI, while assisting the KLA in its terrorist assaults, was also present behind enemy lines in Macedonia under a so called "Stability and Deterrence Program".

DEA agent and author Michael Levine was quoted in the New American Magazine, May 24, 1999: "Ten years ago we were arming and equipping the worst elements of the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan drug traffickers, arms smugglers, anti American terrorists. Now we're doing the same thing with the KLA, which is tied in with every known middle and far eastern drug cartel. Interpol, Europol, and nearly every European intelligence and counter narcotics agency has files open on drug syndicates that lead right to the KLA, and right to Albanian gangs in this country."

[Freddie Stubbs]

3. He is a wacko Lyndon LaRouche supporter

http://www.schillerinstitute.org/exon/ramseyclark_ltr_95.html

[bigtree]

4. larouche may be a wacko

but I would be glad to agree with a good deal of the issues and viewpoints he has raised. The 'guilt by association' tactic won't wash with folks who are concerned with issues and indifferent to these cults of personality.

[theboss]

6. Clark's been on the fringe for decades

I think his heart is in the right place, but he fights some strange battles with some stranger allies.

[T Town Jake]

7. Clark is a nut-job who belongs in an insane asylum...

...and his rantings against President Clinton and Secretary Albright are exhibit A in proof of that assertion.

[messiah]

8. hmmmmmm

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/International_War_Crimes/ClintonWarCriminal_Herman.html

[Tinoire]

10. Ramsey Clark is taken very seriously except by Republicans, 3rd Way Dems

and apologists for the Likud atrocities in Palestine.

Go to Europe, mention his name and see what a postivie reaction you'll get about this great man nominated by no less than JOHN F KENNEDY to be Attorney General.

*** 1961-1968 Nominated Assistant Attorney General of United States by President John F. Kennedy, served to 1965;
nominated Deputy Attorney General by President Lyndon B. Johnson, served to 1967;
nominated Attorney General, served to January 20. 1969. ***


Go to Europe and see what they think of the GREAT AMERICAN who oversaw the passage of civil rights in a society as racist as ours.

Neo-liberals, neo-conservatives and Israeli firsters dislike him because he denounces corruption no matter which side of the aisle its on and has taken up the Palestinian cause.

Ramsey Clark is a great American hero.

Clinton's neo-con war against Yugoslavia was EVERY bit as corrupt as Bush's war against Iraq. He had NO Congressional approval for it (setting a useful precedent for Bush) and NO UN mandate for it. It was another war based on lies and propaganda except that Clinton was a lot slicker than Bush and not as greedy. Ever ask yourself why Clinton bombed Iraq for 8 years straight? Think that was good? Or why he's been telling us for 4 years now, right after 2 elections, to "get over it".

The people who believe in the neoliberal and neoconservative policies of both Bush and Clinton are the ones who hate Clark.

Choose your friends and sources wisely.


Ramsey Clark, John Doar, Robert Kennedy, speaking, Roy Wilkins, Arnold Aronson

During his years at Justice:

In the field:

Supervised federal presence at Ole Miss week following admission of James Meredith;

surveyed all school districts in south desegregating under court order (1963);

supervised federal enforcement of court order protecting march from Selma to Montgomery;

headed Presidential task force to Watts following riots.

In criminal law enforcement:


set aside federal funds to finance creation of state criminal justice coordinating agencies;

sought financing and professionalization for local police;

supervised legislative proposal for and organization of federal Law Enforcement Assistance Administration;

originated Strike Force concept in attack of Organized Crime; increased annual indictment rate of organized crime figures six fold;

urged strict gun control helping secure first federal gun control law in over thirty years;

reorganized and transferred federal narcotics enforcement creating Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.


In Prisons:


authorized first federal technical assistance to state and local prisons; proposed unified federal corrections merging prison and probation service;

reorganized federal prisons to emphasize rehabilitation, early release, health, education, job training, community based corrections;

opened first federal Halfway House;

closed old prisons, opposed construction of new prisons;

established first federal narcotics addict treatment unit.


In civil rights:


supervised drafting and executive role in passage of Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Civil Rights Act of 1968 containing the first federal open housing law;

argued Johns v. Mayor for US in Supreme Court, first federal open housing case;

authorized first northern school desegregation case;

created massive program for employment and housing discrimination litigation;

authorized prosecution of police in Algiers Motel killing, Orangeburg massacre (South Carolina State College) and police brutality at Chicago Democratic Convention.


In civil liberties:


supervised executive effort at bail reform;

proposed prohibition of wiretapping and electronic surveillance;

required voluntary disclosure of unlawful wiretapping by federal prosecutors in more than 50 cases;

refused to use wiretap authority contained in Safe Streets Act of 1968;

denounced shooting of looters by law enforcement, threatened prosecution;

first Attorney General to propose abolition of the death penalty.


In antitrust enforcement:


filed record number of anti-merger cases (24 in 1968);

opposed ITT acquisition of ABC network;

Penn-Central and Atlantic Richfield-Sinclair mergers;

sued all automobile manufacturers for anti-competition in computer industry.


In judicial function:


supervised executive effort to achieve federal jury selection reform;

urged creation of Federal Judicial Center;

sought expansion of Federal Criminal Justice Act and Neighborhood Legal Services program;

defended controversial Supreme Court decisions such as Miranda v. Arizona.



Since 1968:


Lawyer: General counsel of Alaska Federation of Natives securing largest settlement of native land claims in history.

Lawyer for: Craig Morgan, President of Kent State student government indicted following Kent State tragedy;

Father Philip Berrigan in Harrisburg trial;

Ruchell Magee in Marin Country Courthouse murder-kidnapping indictment;

Charles Pernasalice in Attica prison prosecutions.

Argued, or briefed, first Freedom of Information Act case, various First Amendment, Peace Movement, civil rights and criminal cases in U.S. Supreme Court.


Worked on numerous commissions:


Chairman, Right to Vote Task Force, issuing report THAT ALL MAY VOTE urging Universal Voter Enrollment by the government;

Chairman of Citizens Inquiry on Parole and Criminal Justice, Inc. reporting on parole in New York.


Individually and on behalf of various organizations, sought to end political repression, violation of human rights, torture and violence in international area by seeking protection for Soviet Jewry, abuse of prisoners in Brazil, Greece, Ireland, Spain and elsewhere;

traveled to South Africa to examine and protest apartheid; North Vietnam to examine American bombing, visit U.S. POW's.

Teacher: legal seminars on civil rights planning, law as an effective instrument for social change: Howard University School of Law, Brooklyn Law School.

Writer: Crime in America; The Role of the Supreme Court with Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr.; contributions to collected works on crime control, peace, civil rights, education, civil liberties, violence, etc. Articles: Foreign Affairs, Saturday Review, Life, Nation, New York Times and others; various law journals and reviews; Dictionary of American History, Great Ideas Today, Encyclopedia Britannica Magazine and others.

General: Traveled in more than 80 foreign nations; lectured at more than 50 universities; testified before U.S. Congress, state legislatures and foreign parliaments and legislative bodies on more than 100 occasions on subjects including international and constitutional law, civil rights, housing, employment, selective service, barriers to voting, Presidential emergency powers, juvenile delinquency, environmental protection, right to travel, crime control, balance of payments, international affairs.

Representative Organizations and Institutions: National Chairman, National Advisory Committee, American Civil Liberties Union; Board of Directors. Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, New School for Social Research; Federal Bar Association (past president); American Judicature Society (past); Jobs for Youth, Amnesty International; Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund; NAACP Legal Defense Fund; Martin Luther King Memorial Center (trustee); Whitney Young, Jr. Foundation; Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law; International Progress Organization.

and of course INTERNATIONAL A.N.S.W.E.R. the BIGGEST anti-war, pro-justice voice out there.

[bigtree]

11. tell it

These folks thanked Ramsey for his fight for civil rights and thanked him for inspiring them. Ramsey was speechless.

[Freddie Stubbs]

13. Some wackos in Europe think that LaRouche is a great man too

But that doesn't mean that he isn't a mental case.

[American Tragedy]

12. Ramsey Clark was Lyndon Johnson's Attorney General

and he seems to have helped initiate and defend many progressive changes in this country.

That having been said, he hasn't always chosen his battles wisely in the ensuing decades, and has severely damaged his own credibility.