Truth Commission

The World Justice Project on Thursday published a "Rule of Law Index," and there's no easy way to say this. Let me put it this way: as when rankings on education, infant mortality, work hours, lifespan, retirement security, health, environmental impact, incarceration rates, violence, concentration of wealth, and other measures of quality of life come out, it is time once again for we Americans to shout "We're Number One!" more loudly than ever. Because, of course, we're not.

The Rule of Law Index looks at 35 nations around the world, including seven in Western Europe and North America. The researchers understand the rule of law as follows:

Book Can Now Be Ordered, Book Tour Being Planned

You can now pre-order my book at Amazon.com at http://tinyurl.com/daybreakbook

It's a thick book containing everything I know - and then some - for $10 (pre-order discount price).  And you can support a good cause by pre-ordering it now.

You can also call or visit your local bookstore right now and ask them to be sure to stock the book.

If you're in California, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, or Ohio please see below.  I'm only coming once to any given state, so please schedule more events for the times I will be in yours! Please don't ask me later why I didn't come to your town!

If you're in another state, please contact me re dates in 2010. -- David Swanson

Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Robert Wexler (D-FL), and John Conyers (D-MI) yesterday introduced H.Res. 383 to establish a House-only Select Committee to review "national security laws, policies, and practices."

The Select Committee would consist of 4 Democrats and 3 Republicans. The obvious danger is that John Boehner would appoint rightwing ideologues to obstruct and sabotage any serious work.

The scope of the investigation would be broad, but it would focus on policy rather than prosecution.

Today's news is dominated by a conflict among leading Democrats over a Truth Commission. Speaker Pelosi has supported a Truth Commission since John Conyers proposed it earlier this year. But President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Reid oppose it.

“The president said that given all that’s on the agenda and the pressing issues facing the country, that a backward-looking investigation would not be productive,” said a White House official who attended the session. “The president was very clear ... that he believes it’s important that there’s not a witch hunt.”

Despite the torture memo revelations, Democratic leaders are showing little interest in prosecuting torturers, according to Jason Leopold:

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy reiterated his calls for a bipartisan “truth commission.”

By David Swanson

Leading human rights organizations in the United States on March 20th presented charges of human rights abuse and torture against the U.S. government to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which can recommend actions, including prosecutions, to the U.S. government, other nations' governments, or the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Colleen Costello of the World Organization for Human Rights USA, Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Jamil Dakwar of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) spoke at the hearing in Washington, D.C., on "Accountability for Violations of Human Rights in the United States."

The speakers presented evidence of torture and insisted on the need for prosecutions. A representative of the U.S. government defended torture, or rather the refusal to prosecute torture, or rather he avoided the topic while managing to speak at length. The career diplomat taking the stage for this Colin Powell moment was Lewis Amselem, Deputy Permanent Representative of the United States to the Organization of American States (OAS).

The full video of the hearing is available at http://www.cidh.oas.org and is well worth watching. The written complaints filed with the IACHR will be posted at http://afterdowningstreet.org/iachr

Here is Colleen Costello's testimony:

And Michael Ratner's:

By David Swanson

I'm honored to have been included in this event and applaud what Our Spring Break and DC Students for a Democratic Society are doing here in cold, wet Washington, D.C., for spring break.

We're now at 6 years of bloody and horrific occupation of Iraq, and 7.5 years in Afghanistan. That means that most college students in the United States were not yet college students when this began. Opposing something that you grow up with takes more wisdom and more nerve, and yet we see young people in this town and in this country opposing the way old people have always destroyed the environment, the way old people have always borrowed and misspent money, and the way our nation treats other people around the world exactly as we teach little children never to treat each other.

By David Swanson

As with the evidence that Bush, Cheney, and gang intentionally lied us into a war, or the evidence of illegal and unconstitutional spying, each time a major new piece of evidence of torture emerges, it is impossible not to hope that this is the one that will compel the Justice Department or Congress or the courts or the American people to act decisively. Certainly I hope that, right now, the day after Mark Danner reported on a report from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In January, Dianne Feinstein replaced Jay Rockefeller as chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. And her first act as chair will be to coverup the Bush System of Torture. Joby Warrick of the Pentagon Post is the CIA's embedded spokesliar:

The officials described the planned inquiry as a "study" and stressed that it would not yield recommendations for possible legal proceedings.

Why not? Because the new CIA Director, Leon Panetta, wants to protect the torturers:

Senate Judiciary chair Pat Leahy just scheduled a March 4 hearing entitled "Getting to the Truth Through a Nonpartisan Commission of Inquiry" (h/t Ari Melber). But it won't actually be a hearing to "get the truth" - just a debate over whether or not to get the truth.

Prediction #1: Republican Senators will not want hearings to "get the truth" for these reasons: