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THANKS * or * NOT...
November 2001
On my list:
(of things to be THANKful for or NOT...)
Posted: November 26, 2001
NOT
to President Bush for, "...ceding to nations overseas the high moral and
legal ground long held by U.S. justice..." and THANKS to William Safire of the New York Times that speaking up about it!
...Now President Bush, with no such Congressional declaration (of war), is using that Roosevelt mistake as precedent for his own dismaying departure from due process. Bush's latest self-justification is his claim to be protecting jurors (by doing away with juries). Worse, his gung-ho advisers have convinced him - as well as some gullible commentators - that the Star Chamber tribunals he has ordered are "implementations" of the lawful Uniform Code of Military Justice... Military attorneys are silently seething because they know that to be untrue. The U.C.M.J. demands a public trial, proof beyond reasonable doubt, an accused's voice in the selection of juries and right to choose counsel, unanimity in death sentencing and above all appellate review by civilians confirmed by the Senate. Not one of those fundamental rights can be found in Bush's military order setting up kangaroo courts for people he designates before "trial" to be terrorists... His advisers assured him that a fearful majority would cheer his assumption of dictatorial power to ignore our courts...
Source: New York Times [read full]
Posted: November 26, 2001
THANKS to Richard Reeves of The Hartford Courant for writing The World's Love-Hate Relationship With The U.S.
My friend Mushahid - his wife and mine were classmates at Columbia University's Graduate School of International Relations - is working as a journalist again after spending a year under house arrest and in prison, put there by Gen. Pervez Musharraf after his troops overthrew the Sharif government. He wrote a column titled "America's Goodness Doesn't Extend Overseas," which should be recommended reading for most Americans... "For any foreign visitor to America," he began, "the virtues of the average American coupled with the fact that immigrants get freedoms and opportunities that are denied to them at home, are key ingredients that make the United States the world's most popular destination... Empathy, candor, humor and hard work endear Americans to all those who interact with them... "How does this `good guy' at home become the `ugly American' overseas? Because American liberty, rule of law, democracy and justice are alien to American foreign policy... "What did a diverse group of Third World leaders - Mao Tse-tung of China, Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam, Gamel Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Fidel Castro of Cuba and Sukarno of Indonesia - have in common? They were admirers of the American Revolution. ... So inspired was Ho that when he declared Vietnam's independence from France, he borrowed words from the Declaration about the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ... "But what happened? Coming to power, these leaders became implacable American foes after finding that the United States they idolized was different in real life... During the 1991 Gulf War, President Bush's father aptly summed it all up: `What we say goes.' ... Not many Americans are aware of the adverse impact of U.S. foreign policy on millions of lives overseas because what happens over there never affected their lives back home. All that changed on Sept. 11."...
Source: The Hartford Courant [read full]
Posted: November 15, 2001
NOT
to President Bush for the order that terror trials by military are ok and THANKS to William Safire of the New York Times that they are not!
Source: New York Times - "...In his infamous emergency order, Bush admits to dismissing "the principles of law and the rules of evidence" that undergird America's system of justice. He seizes the power to circumvent the courts and set up his own drumhead tribunals - panels of officers who will sit in judgment of non-citizens who the president need only claim "reason to believe" are members of terrorist organizations... His kangaroo court can conceal evidence by citing national security, make up its own rules, find a defendant guilty even if a third of the officers disagree, and execute the alien with no review by any civilian court..."
Read outrageous quotes by our national leaders that they are not ashamed to spout here. Whatever happened to, "We hold these truths to be self evident...", are we winning the war in Afghanistan and losing our freedoms at home?
Posted: November 13, 2001
THANKS
to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Ireland's Foreign Minister Brian Cowen: From AP story ...With public support for U.S.-led military action on Afghanistan waning in some nations that have joined the
global coalition against terrorism, the foreign ministers stressed that military efforts alone would not succeed in
eradicating terrorism.
"The war on terrorism starts within each of our respective sovereign borders," Powell said. "It will be fought
with increased support for democracy programs, judicial reform, conflict resolution, poverty alleviation,
economic reform, and health and education programs.
"All these together deny the reason for terrorists to exist or find safe havens within those borders," Powell said,
in what U.N. diplomats said was his strongest statement on what must be addressed to win the war on
terrorism.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov agreed.
"Military means alone are not sufficient. After all, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, absence of equal access to
the benefits of scientific and technological progress force destitute people to join the ranks of extremists," he
said. Ireland's Foreign Minister Brian Cowen said the international community ignores these underlying problems
"at our peril." "We must reject a world order in which the 200 richest people have greater assets than the 2
billion people at the other end of the spectrum," he said.more
Posted: November 11, 2001
THANKS
to Garry Trudeau for making us all think about freedom of press and free speech. Doonesbury November 11, 2001
Posted: November 4, 2001
NOT
to over reaction of troops at airports that deny civil rights and freedom to American citizens. "They're looking at me like I'm a terrorist and I'm just a peaceful person trying to go to a meeting in Chicago." Bangor, Maine USA
Posted: November 4, 2001
THANKS
to Science Fiction that shows us again that we should be reading it as much for its warnings as our pleasure ...
Posted: November 1, 2001
The "Patriot Act" tops my NOT list.
From CNET ...Gregory T. Nojeim, Associate Director of the ACLU's Washington Office, added: "These new and
unchecked powers could be used against American citizens who are not under criminal
investigation, immigrants who are here within our borders legally and also against those whose
First Amendment activities are deemed to be threats to national security by the Attorney General."
-
Patriot Act draws privacy concerns, Source: CNet, October 26, 2001, 1:25 p.m. PT
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