[World-cant-wait-philly] WCW Meeting & the Thursday Waterboarding Action

Tue May 26 15:44:33 EDT 2009

Join us for the Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 Meeting.
LOVE Park - 15th & the Parkway
6pm
WCW Meeting - Planning for tomorrow

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A PHILADELPHIA WORLD CANT WAIT PRESS ALERT
worldcantwait.org, warcriminalswatch.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:         Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Media Contact: Koyuki Yip
                            philly at worldcantwait.org/215-888-7563

PHOTO OP:  First Waterboarding Demonstration done in Philadelphia

TOTURE IS A WAR CRIME! 
FIRE, DISBAR AND PROSECUTE TORTURE ARCHITECT JOHN YOO! 
RELEASE THE PHOTOS! PROSECUTE THE WAR CRIMINALS!

EVENT:          Press Conference and Waterboarding Demonstration

When:             Thursday, May 28th, 2009    4:30 PM

Where:            The Philadelphia Inquirer
                        400 N. Broad Street

(Philadelphia, PA)—In the face of the Obama administration’s refusal to release a reported 2,000 more photographs of detainee abuse – in spite of being ordered by a federal court to do so – torture opponents in fifteen (15)  U.S. cities will hold visible protests to demand that the government make the photos public.  These protests will also call for prosecution of those who ordered, legally justified, and carried out torture in US detention and secret prisons during the Bush years.

In Philadelphia, protestors will hold a press conference and waterboarding reinactment to call for the firing, disbarment, and prosecution of torture lawyer John Yoo in front of the Philadelphia Inquirer, where Yoo currently writes the monthly column Closing Arguments. In a series of now infamous memos while at the Office of Legal Counsel, John Yoo authorized the use of torture laid the groundwork for the wholesale and systematic torture of detainees, which to date has not been thoroughly repudiated. John Yoo insisted, “In the exercise of his plenary power to use military force, the President’s decisions are for him alone and are un-reviewable.”

World Can’t Wait has called for protest actions to meet John Yoo wherever he travels and declare: “Philadelphia: War Criminal Fee Zone!” 

World Can’t Wait’s Fire John Yoo coordinator Curt Wechsler emphasizes, “Obama’s refusal to release the torture pictures, in opposition to court order, eliminates any doubt as to whether the Obama Administration is continuing the Bush Regime’s torture crimes as an operating mechanism for the “war on terror.” This latest revelation underscores the existence of a torture state that must be strongly opposed and further illuminates why the war criminals must be prosecuted.”
– 30 –

Supporter

This is truly a moment I must say, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention...."

The stunning plan Barack Obama slipped into his speech Thursday, a speech filled with "the rule of law" is PROLONGED, or PREVENTIVE DETENTION. 

The President said he will "develop an appropriate legal regime" to indefinitely imprison people without charges based on what he thinks they might want to do, on their speech, or their associations.  He admitted that there are people now detained who cannot be prosecuted because evidence against them is tainted by torture, or because there simply IS no evidence against them.  He implied this could go on for a decade or more.

The Bush regime thought about this, but never tried it.  This has never been done by the US in its history.  What does it mean that Obama stated flatly that habeas corpus -- the right to know charges against you, and be able to defend yourself - will be indefinitely denied to a class of people.

Here are 2 key paragraphs of  Glen Greenwald's piece: Facts and myths about Obama's preventive detention proposal. 

"It's important to be clear about what "preventive detention" authorizes.  It does not merely allow the U.S. Government to imprison people alleged to have committed Terrorist acts yet who are unable to be convicted in a civilian court proceeding.  That class is merely a subset, perhaps a small subset, of who the Government can detain.  Far more significant, "preventive detention" allows indefinite imprisonment not based on proven crimes or past violations of law, but of those deemed generally "dangerous" by the Government for various reasons (such as, as Obama put it yesterday, they "expressed their allegiance to Osama bin Laden" or "otherwise made it clear that they want to kill Americans").  That's what "preventive" means: imprisoning people because the Government claims they are likely to engage in violent acts in the future because they are alleged to be "combatants."  

Once known, the details of the proposal could -- and likely will -- make this even more extreme by extending the "preventive detention" power beyond a handful of Guantanamo detainees to anyone, anywhere in the world, alleged to be a "combatant."  After all, once you accept the rationale on which this proposal is based -- namely, that the U.S. Government must, in order to keep us safe, preventively detain "dangerous" people even when they can't prove they violated any laws -- there's no coherent reason whatsoever to limit that power to people already at Guantanamo, as opposed to indefinitely imprisoning with no trials all allegedly "dangerous" combatants, whether located in Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Western countries and even the U.S."

There was also plenty to be outraged about in Dick Cheney's blood-thirsty, fascist speech at the American Enterprise Institute.  He meant to have the final word, clearly acts as if he's still in power, and is determined to set terms for Obama.  While in California this week, I've talked to a number of people who heard Cheney's raving, and were relieved to hear Obama uphold the "rule of law".  But check out the Utube of Rachel Maddow on Obama's "two speeches."  And David Swanson in: Does Cheney Make Obama Look Good? 

The debate cannot be between Cheney's vision of permanent war for empire, unbound by constitutional niceties like due process, and Obama's "re-branding" of the same.  But I don't buy the argument that those of us who opposed the Bush program should now accept the Obama proposals, and not fight them, because Cheney is waiting in the wings.

The people, represented now by relatively and admittedly small numbers of us who are outraged, and see where this is going, have to come into the argument by taking a stand against US torture, indefinite & preventive detention, and soon, visibly. We need to bring more people with us, and not stop, given the stakes. 

Right now, the demand to Release the Torture Photos and Prosecute the War Criminals is right on time.  Where the US goes on torture is not yet decided, will be a central issue in the Obama presidency and the conduct of the "war of terror" occupying the people of the Middle East. We cannot depend on the courts to do the right thing.  The US Senate has entered in, profoundly on the wrong side.  See Dennis Loo: Senate Votes to Block Release of [Torture] Photos for 5 Years 

But there's a lot more here than the fate of the Guantanamo detainees, as profound a moral question for humanity as that is.  I wrote about the appointment of Stanley McChrystal to lead the US occupation of Afghanistan.  More and more is coming out on him.  See Tom Engelhart,  
Obama, McChrystal, and Expanding the War in Afghanistan and Pakistan

He's a protege of Rumsfeld, protected by Cheney, heading an assassination squad under the Joint Special Operations Command, which Seymour Hersh says is the shadowy assassination squad operating in Iraq as part of the surge.  

When McChrystal was brought into Afghanistan two weeks ago, he was at an Oval Office meeting was held where Obama agreed not to release the torture photos.

It's thought some of the photos being covered up are of abuse directly under McChrystal's command.  

West Hollywood CA City Hall Hangs "NO TORTURE" banner Thursday with Guantanamo lawyer, former Mayor, & Hollywood artists

As I watched the Obama and Cheney speeches yesterday, I was rushing to a press conference called by the West Hollywood City Hall where they hung a "NO TORTURE" banner.  Former West Hollywood Mayor John Duran hosted Actor John Heard, Guantanamo lawyer Michael Rapkin, Paul Haggis, Mark Ruffalo and myself in calling for the torture photos to be released, and the war criminals prosecuted.  This kind of thing should be happening in as many places as possible.  Write me if you want to learn how.

Paul Haggis, Screenwriter & Director:  "Torture is torture. This is something that debases us, to hell with everybody else. It debases us as Americans. It shames us. And they're going to hide these pictures? Because they might upset someone? We need to see these pictures, Mr. President, and we need to see them now!"

Michael Rapkin, Guantanamo Lawyer, described in painful detail what was, and is being done to detainees in Guantanamo.  "Some say that President Obama will end torture, so why deal with the past? I say, don't believe that torture will end. Because already our president has said, through his lawyers' court filings, through his choice of a CIA director, who has at the Senate confirmation hearings, supported the use of the "ticking bomb" scenario. These are concerns that the public should have over whether torture will come to an end under Obama. Finally, we are a nation that lives under the rule of law. Laws are to be enforced not just when it is convenient to do so. Prosecutions require evidence, and the photos are the best evidence of what happened"  
Mark Ruffalo, Actor and Director:  "This is not the time to walk away.This is the time to shed some very bright light into the dark corners of Abu Ghraib, the CIA secret rendition sites, Guantánamo Bay and, lord knows, how many other hideous and dark-filled places where bold-faced torture was carried out in the name of decent American people...Each day that we and you, President Obama, refuse to face what has been done, and bring those responsible to justice, the more those images of torture become our identity, each day that we try to move away from these crimes the more burdened by them we become. Torture is a crime. The people who carried out that crime are called criminals...Don't allow that orange uniform and black hood to be our new flag. Investigate and prosecute..."

WLS Radio Host Has Himself Water-Boarded to Prove It's Not Torture: Watch Out What You Try for the Wrong Reasons! Via Raw Story

May 22:  Chicago radio host Erich "Mancow" Muller decided he'd get himself waterboarded to prove the technique wasn't torture.
It didn't turn out that way. "Mancow," in fact, lasted just six or seven seconds before crying foul. Apparently, the experience went pretty badly --- "Witnesses said Muller thrashed on the table, and even instantly threw the toy cow he was holding as his emergency tool to signify when he wanted the experiment to stop," according to NBC Chicago. 

"I wanted to prove it wasn't torture," Mancow said. "They cut off our heads, we put water on their face...I got voted to do this but I really thought 'I'm going to laugh this off.' "

The upshot? "It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that's no joke," Mancow told listeners. "It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back...It was instantaneous...and I don't want to say this: absolutely torture." 

Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait

Philly WCW E-mail Team
phillywcw at hotmail.com
phone:  1-267-408-6286

DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME!

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