492 Cafe
Bush Crimes Commission at M.I.T.
4/20/2006 |
Corruption, Torture, & War Crimes |
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Testimony Recordings (MP3's)
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The Case:
"When the possibility of far-reaching war crimes and crimes against humanity exists, people of conscience have a solemn responsibility to inquire into the nature and scope of these acts and to determine if they do in fact rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity." -- from the Bush Commission Charter
Witnesses:
Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, testified on the use of the most horrible forms of torture by the US’s “Coalition of Willing”
Brigadier General (demoted to Corporal) Janis Karpinski, the former commander of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, described a high-ranking general demanding that Iraqi prisoners be “treated like dogs.” The testimony of former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter described in detail how the administration had full knowledge that Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction and posed no threat to the US, laying bare the lies used to justify the war of aggression on Iraq.
Note: Marine and Weapons Inspector Team Leader Scott Ritter's words to this effect were broadcast (well before the Bush Administration re-attacked Iraq) on WZBC's Sounds of Dissent. Ritter was smeared, similarly to many other who've done the right thing by exposing crimes, lies and irregularities that have now put us in extreme danger. -FZ
Craig Murray |
Larry Everest |
Janis Karpinsky |
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CRAIG MURRAY--former British ambassador to Uzbekistan
who resigned over the use of intelligence from
prisoners rendered to Uzbekistan for torture.
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Journalist and author of "Oil, Power, and Empire: Iraq and the U.S. Global Agenda." Everest has covered the Middle East and Central Asia for over 20 years. |
Karpinsky served 25 years in the Army and Reserves. She was promoted and sent to command the Military Police responsible for handling prisoners at Abu Ghraib. |
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"When the possibility of far-reaching war crimes and crimes against humanity exists, people of conscience have a solemn responsibility to inquire into the nature and scope of these acts and to determine if they do in fact rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity." |
"I went to meetings with colleagues of mine,
people I had known for
over 20 years, ordinary, nice people who were setting
down on paper strategies
by which what we were doing could be said not to
circumvent the U.N.
Convention against Torture. At that moment I
understood how some civil
servant ended up writing out the orders for cattle
trucks to go to Auschwitz and
felt they were only doing their job." |
"The nuclear option is on the table. Even people who dislike Bush are in denial. They don't believe he'd do it. Top Generals who try to take (it) off the table are shouted down. ...He will do it." |
"General Miller and General Sanchez would
not have implemented a new
set of [harsher] techniques without the approval of
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. The Secretary of
Defense would not have authorized without the approval
of the Vice President." |
Note: Scheduled speaker, Journalist Daphne Wysham, was unable to be present. (Wysham articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
Other Panelists on the National Tour:
4. The Harvard Event
by Freeman Z
The previous night's event at Harvard featured Law Studnet Stephan Sonnenberg who discussed the Bybee memo. The program was sponsored by Harvard Law Students for Peace, the Harvard Law Student Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, joined by the Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration.
At The Event...
I attended the event at Harvard the previous night to study up on the speakers and their presentations. I arrived early and heard the complete program, including questions from the audience, including Nancy Murray of ACLU Mass, and Joseph Gerson of the American Friends Service Committee. Joe Gerson is still under the cloud of charges resulting from actions in opposition to the Army's occupation of Cambridge Common last summer, when the Army decided "to celebrate it's birthday" on our town common, though it had never done this before.. The dubious assertion is that this army is the same as the Continental Army that General Washington founded to defeat British colonialism. More accurately, it's the army of a new American Empire. The sudden appearance seems more related to abysmal US Army recruitment, resulting from the elephant in the room, namely, that the US Army is losing another war, because yet another criminal administration has misused it.
At The Pub...
After the scheduled event, we were all invited to join the tour at Cambridge Common (the restaurant and drinking establishment) Perhaps having had enough of "the Common" last summer, Joe Gerson abstained, and about fifteen of us proceeded to the pub. In his speech, Craig Murray promised brevity, as "...somewhere nearby, there is a Guiness, and a scotch whiskey with my name on them." Murray is a man of his word.
Two seats to my right, at the head of the table, sat the former General. To my left was Wolfgang Kaleck, a German Attorney who's suing Bush Administration Officials in German Court for War Crimes. A photographer from a major German paper is snapping photos. Later I discover through John Grebe, host of Sounds of Dissent, (a program for which I produce program material,) that Kaleck is also suing Karpinski in the same legal action. Perhaps this is why Ms. Karpinski spent little time directing her attention in our direction, talking with a young man to my right, and with James, who chatted up Karpinski endlessly. In her discussion of China, my unasked question about Falun Gong would have been an appropriate topic for Kaleck, who, as it turns out, also sued China for human rights abuses against Falun Gong.
I enjoyed a conversation with Wolfgang Kaleck, asking him what he thought about American media's complicity in war crimes, by which I refer to the Nuremburg standard for inciting the people to violence. He agreed about the media's complicity and commented "Don't be so easy on the intellectuals" (see thesis of Joe Gerson's speech, linked below.) Kaleck's viviting New York to work with the Center for Constitutional Rights and Attorney Ratner. "German human rights lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck...filed the Criminal Complaint against Ronald Rumsfeld and others for war crimes perpetrated against Iraq detainees at the Abu Grahib Detention Centre 2003/2004/ with the German General Prosecutor earlier this year." source (Kaleck Human Rights Abuse Legal Actions: 0 1, 2, 3, 4, and a related case in Canada.)
5. Related Material
492 Cafe -Speeches
- Andrew Bacevich: Ten Points on Policy
- Joseph Gerson: Resisting Empire
- Camilo Mejia Confessions of an American Torturer
492 Cafe - Music
- David Rovics: Song for New Orleans
- David Rovics: Song for Cindy Sheehan
External Links:
Bybee's Torture Memo
- Bybee "Torture Memo" defends atrocities
- Findlaw: John Dean on Bybee
- Washington Post: Bybee
- War Criminal Bybee promoted by Bush
Regarding Karpinski
The Producer of these recordings was convicted of wiretapping, essentially for holding a microphone on Boston Common Find out (more)
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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Edited recordings are copyright 2006, Freeman Z. All rights reserved.