[GPCA Updates] GP RELEASE Greens to Obama: Don't obstruct justice on Bush Admin. torture

[Green Party of California Updates]

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, April 29, 2009


Greens: Justice Dept. must appoint a special prosecutor to
investigate and prosecute Bush officials who OKed torture

• Any attempt by the White House to limit investigation will be an
obstruction of justice, say Greens; Witness Against Torture protests
planned for April 30

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Green leaders available to speak on
related issues http://www.gp.org/speakers


WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders called on Attorney General
Eric Holder and the Justice Department to investigate evidence of
torture and punish any and all Bush White House officials who broke
the law.  Greens urged President Obama to release all torture memos.

"Political considerations have no place in this matter.  The
Department of Justice -- which is authorized to act independently of
the White House -- must appoint a special prosecutor to investigate
who broke the law and approved the use of torture," said Starlene
Rankin, co-chair of the Lavender Green Caucus
(http://www.lavendergreens.us).

Greens named several former White House officials who have been
implicated in evidence already published: Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales, national security advisor Condoleezza Rice, counsel John
Yoo, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Cheney, and
President Bush.  Some Greens plan to participate in the '100 Days to
Close Guantanamo and End Torture!' demonstrations
(http://www.100dayscampaign.org) planned for Thursday, April 30, an
event initiated by Witness Against Torture
(http://www.witnesstorture.org).

Green Party leaders noted that some Democratic (including House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Intelligence Committee chair David
Rockefeller, and former House Intelligence chair Jane Harman) and
Republican members of Congress were allegedly informed about the use
of torture, and said that their silence and failure to object should
be investigated as well.

"President Obama has said that '[n]othing will be gained by spending
our time and energy laying blame for the past.'  On the contrary,
the President's oath of office requires that he uphold the law.  If
he tries to discourage the Justice Department from investigation and
prosecution, he is abusing his own power as President and
obstructing justice.  Any attempt by the White House to immunize
those who ordered, allowed, or participated in torture would violate
international laws and agreements, especially the Convention Against
Torture signed by President Reagan in 1988
(http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html)," said Phil Huckelberry,
Co-Chair of the Green Party of the United States.

The Green Party, which lists nonviolence among its key values,
categorically opposes the use of torture under any circumstances.
Greens listed several urgent reasons to investigate and prosecute
officials allegedly involved in torture:

• Torture violates US and international law.  In the past, US and
international courts have punished war criminals for waterboarding
prisoners, establishing an inescapable precedent.

• The use of torture has damaged the US's standing in the world and
motivated greater hostility against Americans: how many US military
personnel were killed or maimed in Iraq by those enraged by the Abu
Ghraib abuses?  International revulsion over torture may have made
US allies less willing to cooperate with the US, thus reducing the
US's ability to gather intelligence.  Some of the damage can be
repaired by punishing those responsible for torture.

• Torture places US troops and other personnel at risk of similar
retaliatory treatment if captured.

• The circumstances of Abu Zubaydah's treatment, including 83
instances of waterboarding in August, 2002, suggest that torture
might have been used to extract "evidence" of collusion between
Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda in order to justify the US invasion of
Iraq.  No genuine evidence of such an alliance existed, but the Bush
Administration's deceptions led to a bipartisan vote in Congress in
October, 2002, transferring war power to the White House in
violation of the US Constitution.

• Torture has never been a reliable way to gain information.  Under
torture in Syria, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi's words were used to support
the US invasion of Iraq, despite questions of credibility and his
later admission that the information was fabricated
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Shaykh_al-Libi).  Information
extracted through torture is especially unreliable in the 'ticking
bomb' situations that Bush officials have been used to justify it.
However, whether torture works is besides the point; Mr. Cheney's
claims that such methods protected Americans lack credibility in
light of his past deceptions.

• Historically, torture has often been employed by lawless
governments less to gain information than to create terror among
targeted populations.  Continued torture of some prisoners at
Guantanamo Bay after they were known to be innocent is consistent
with torture for this purpose.  Under George W. Bush, the US joined
the list of terrorist states around the world.

• The use of torture cannot be separated from other Bush
Administration abuses of power and violations of the US Constitution
and international law (deceptions to win support for the invasion of
Iraq, 'preemptive' military aggression, warrantless surveillance of
US citizens), or from the Bush-Cheney doctrine of 'unitary executive
power' placing the president above the law.

• White House crimes that go unpunished are a license for future
administrations to commit similar crimes, and new ones too.


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
• Tally of Green election victories
http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/election-results.html
• Green candidate news
http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/candidate-news.php
• Green candidate database for 2008 and other campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections

Green Pages, Vol. 13, No. 1
The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United
States
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog


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