Local activist,, asks U. S. Attorneys General to "support and defend the Constitution"

[annm4peace]

Dear Senators Klobuchar and Franken, and Representative Ellison:

Today I sent the letter below to 83 of the 93 United States Attorneys. It is equally applicable to all of you, so I thought I would forward it to you as well.

Sincerely,
chuck
****

Dear United States Attorneys:

Today is International Human Rights Day, a day commemorating the General Assembly's passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

While some legal scholars believe this document has some legal effect as a part of customary international law, I am sure the vast majority of you do not hold this view. Nevertheless, the document can surely serve as a reminder of what we aspire to as human beings, as well as what our obligations are under portions of the UDHR that have in fact been incorporated into treaties and statutes.

The Declaration itself, in its third "Whereas" clause, encourages such codification. It reads as follows: "Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law."

I also call your attention to Article 5 of the Declaration, which reads, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." In the United States, we have enacted statutes that have partially incorporated this provision into law. For example, the Federal Torture Statute, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2340-2340A, criminalizes torture committed outside the United States, as well as conspiracy to commit such torture.

For the past several weeks, a former President of the United States has been openly proclaiming he authorized waterboarding, which occurred outside the United States. As you know, President Obama, Attorney General Holder, and United States State Department spokespeople at the November 5, 2010, Universal Periodic Review of the United States before the United Nations Human Rights Council have all said waterboarding is torture.

So we have numerous public admissions of violating 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2340-2340A by a former highest official of our government, and all but two or three members of Congress have been silent. All of you have also been silent. Not one of you has uttered a public statement -- as Attorney General Holder recently did, for example, on the WikiLeaks disclosures -- saying there is an ongoing criminal investigation of these admissions for former President Bush.

What ever happened to the rule of law in this country? How have we come to ignore that aspiration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

To commemorate Human Rights Day, I ask that each of you read the UDHR, read the Federal Torture Statute, listen to the comments recently made by former President Bush, and ask yourselves, "How have we come to this? What is my responsibility as a United States Attorney, who took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States?"

Happy holidays.

Sincerely,

Chuck
Minneapolis, Minnesota

[snot]

1. K&R'd

(I'd just add, the vast majority of our reps and corp. media have been equally silent about the wholesale violations of our own Constitution.)

[Bandit]

2. It is about time they locked that rouble maker Chuck up..

How dare he suggest America follow any Law..How dare he.