past prosecutor MN Senator Klobuchar Disappoints Anti-Torture Group

[annm4peace]

Run time: 07:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEjabGQHaD8   Posted on YouTube: November 27, 2010 By YouTube Member: UpTakeVideo Views on YouTube: 71   Posted on DU: November 28, 2010 By DU Member: annm4peace Views on DU: 696

 
( the people interviewed in this video have been extremely active in going to the Senators and Representative's offices. sending letters, having numerous protests, including organizing 72 people in orange jumpsuits and black hoods walking through downtown with signs around their necks of the torture that happened to different detainees)
(Many think Sen Klobuchar is liberal but it is evident she isn't, she can't even call for the prosecution of one of the most heinous war crimes)


Senator Klobuchar declined to make any major commitment to act; she did promise to consider sending a written question to the Attorney General after the next review meeting by the Judiciary Committee. She did not want to spend any of her limited direct time with this issue.

Members of, “Tackle Torture at the Top,” met with Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar on November 24. The meeting had been requested about a year ago and it was preceded by a meeting with her staff the week before.

This group, an amalgamation of many Twin Cities peace groups, delivered a plea to the Senator as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, intervene with the Dept of Justice to pursue and prosecute the crimes of torture committed by senior government officials including George W. Bush. Bush, currently on a book tour, has stated publicly that he authorized torture, specifically waterboarding.

The group cited issues of international law, the fact that torture is a crime that transcends national borders and that prosecution for torture may be initiated by any prosecutor in any country. There is also the documented fact that torture trickles down, those trained in torture transfer that skill to other jobs. It takes many years to remove the effect of torture practice as has been demonstrated in several Latin America countries. The price of US refusal to prosecute the war crime of torture is a serious loss national prestige and the moral high ground. It is also an excuse for increased terrorist activity.

[annm4peace]

1. Contact Sen Klobuchar and tell her to ask for invesigation and prosecution of torture

Washington DC Address:
Courtyard Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2304
DC Phone: [phone]
DC Fax: [phone]

District Office:
1200 Washington Avenue South
Suite 250
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]

Chief of Staff: Sean Richardson
Scheduler: Kate Nilan
Legislative Director: Shiela Murphy
Press Secretary: Semonti Mustaphi

[annm4peace]

2. Besides trying to get our Senators to do the right thing, we also ask our US Attorney General also

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer:

I was reading your October 6, 2009, statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. At the end of the statement you wrote: "The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that no human rights violator or war criminal ever again finds safe haven in the United States."

Since our former President Bush has been telling the public in the last week that he did order waterboarding, which is torture, I am wondering what the Department of Justice is doing about this admission of a crime? Are we harboring and giving safe haven to one who is a human rights violator? We have had memos aplenty, reports galore, statements from the military, lawyers, FBI agents, and so much seemingly great evidence given. And we have had people trying to get reparations for the torture that we have done to them, and no justice seems to be coming forth. We have hidden behind "national security reasons" for not doing justice. That is a judicial tragedy and also a tragedy for the victims and all the rest of us. Other nations are giving reparations, but we are not. The Geneva Conventions says that reparations must be paid. What about the people who died in our care, over one hundred, some who were tortured to death? What about the people who were innocent and we incarcerated for years and who we tortured? What about their families?

I am of the firm belief that if accountability for torture is not pursued, torture will become engrained in our society and will be used again and again and will trickle down through all the systems of power in our society. Torture and cruelty to other humans are against our laws, treaties, and Constitution. And it is one of the crimes where there are no exceptions ever made - jus cogens. As a citizen, I do not understand why nothing is being done about all the torture that we have done. It has developed into a system and no one seems to be even talking about this most grievous crime that we, the citizens, are now carrying around the guilt of torture done in our name. And I believe that silence is the greatest weapon that torture has in any society. And that is exactly what we do by not prosecuting, we are pretending it doesn't exist and we keep silent. What are we doing? What are we handing down to our children? What are we saying to the world? Our platitudes on human rights are now a joke.

I am sure lawyers can line up all the evidence and reasons to prosecute; and then there are all the reports investigating this which is potent reading; and then there are medical reports from the Department of Defense which are revealing. I am wondering what more do you need to start an investigation of your own into this hideous crime? What did you take an oath to defend - the political will of the day or the Constitution? This is not a light issue, and it is one that threatens to contaminate the basic soul of America. The moral and justice soul of America is at stake.

I implore you to be faithful to the Constitution, our laws, and our treaties!

Sonja Johnson


For your information:

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer heads up the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice; he oversees the cases re torture, cruelty, etc. He probably would be the one that would appear before the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law of the Senate - as he did last year. I cc.ed it to B. Todd Jones, just so he knows that the issue is not going to die even if he does not pick up the issue and deal with it.

[briteleaf]

3. Hang your head in shame lady liberty. No prosecution for torture

George Washington declared to his troops that the punishment for torturing prisoners was DEATH. Somehow, the land of the free and the home of the brave have shifted into ordering torture and not prosecuting torture. Obama is guilty. The attorney general is guilty. Bush is guilty. Cheney is guilty. Let all americans hang our heads in shame. Look at what we have become. Torture is ethically outrageous. No matter what the circumstance. We have wandered into government-sanctioned moral atrocities. Our elected officials turn their heads because we let them. Americans have surrendered their voice to the rich and the corporate. Moral atrocities mean nothing to the powers of a plutocracy. Get used to that word America because you're still scratching your head about issues when the wealthy have taken control. They decide how representatives vote and what legislation comes out of committee. You're just the rubes who still vote for the red or the blue corporate interests. Why would you guess that there's about 300 lobbyists for each member of congress? You're owned and still don't know it. How else could such moral outrage as torture be ignored?

[Hardrada]

4. She is such a corporatist tool!

[cynthia]

5. I, too, am disappointed in her

I expect she will be a one term senator.

[Hardrada]

6. Minnesota has done a lot better. Someone slipped her some koolaid somewhere.