Cara Italia: Can Italy Save America?

[davidswanson]

By David Swanson, http://ConvictBushCheney.org

Dear Italy, I consider you a second home and some of your citizens a second family. I have spent more days on your beautiful soil than anywhere else in the world other than my home in the United States of America. Many of my fellow Americans will, I am sure, join me in asking you to lend us, your friends, a much needed helping hand. In doing so, I think you will be coming to the aid of yourselves as well, and of the rest of the world.

Judge Baltasar Garzón of Spain, on March 20, 2008, wrote these words in El Pais: "Breaking every international law, and under the pretext of the war against terror, there has taken place since 2003 a devastating attack on the rule of law and against the very essence of the international community. In its path, institutions such as the United Nations were left in tatters, from which it has not yet recovered....We should look more deeply into the possible criminal responsibility of the people who are, or were, responsible for this war and see whether there is sufficient evidence to make them answer for it....There is enough of an argument in 650,000 deaths for this investigation and inquiry to start without more delay."

The final judgment of the Tribunal at Nuremberg stated: "To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."

There is no doubt that the initiators of the current war of aggression against the people of Iraq are George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, who in six months' time will no longer hold public office. Of all the nations on earth, only you, Italy, have dared to challenge these men's violations of basic principles of law. They have kidnapped people in numerous nations and sent them to be tortured, but only in Italian courts has this practice been challenged.

An International Criminal Court was created by a statute drafted in Rome, but it is uncertain whether that body truly has sufficient independence from U.S. control to uphold the rule of law. Domestically, in the United States one of our most successful former prosecutors, an Italian American named Vincent Bugliosi is promoting a plan for local or state level prosecution of Bush. This is a long-shot, but even more unlikely is federal prosecution under the presidency of Barack Obama or John McCain. The most likely arena for the rule of law to find its rebirth is the court system of the courageous, principled, and independent justices of Italy.

I am aware that Italians played a role in Bush and Cheney's fraudulent claims regarding alleged Iraqi attempts to purchase uranium. I am aware that an Italian government backed Bush and Cheney's unsuccessful attempt to legalize their aggression at the United Nations and then backed their illegal invasion of Iraq. But I also recall the massive and passionate and principled opposition of the people of Italy to the invasion, to the occupation, to war crimes that have been a part of the occupation, to the targeting of an Italian journalist, to the use of illegal weapons against the people of Iraq, and - of course - to the extremely unpopular proposal to construct a major new U.S. military base in the city of Andrea Palladio, a base whose only purpose is facilitation of further wars of aggression.

In English we often misquote the great Dante Alighieri as follows: "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis retain their neutrality." Neutrality is the plague of the deadly ignorant American public, but it is not as common a flaw in Italians, and it is in that fact that I place my hope. I beg you not to stand to one side as my government destroys our world and the system of laws that might restrain all governments from future abuses.

Sincerely,
David Swanson

[EFerrari]

1. Is it true that the transcripts of Friday's hearing won't be available

for 90 days now? I don't know what to make of this information and don't know this source:

Judiciary Backpedals on Reports and Transcripts from "Non-Impeachment" Hearings

by mikel weisser Page 1 of 1 page(s)


Claiming an intern error, the House Judiciary Committee has retracted Monday statements regarding updates on the July 25th hearing on alleged presidential abuses, AKA the “non-impeachment” hearings.

A late Wednesday afternoon call showed the Judiciary Committee now claiming congressional procedures will require the official transcripts of the six hour hearing to be held for 90 days, meaning the official transcripts will not be made available to the American public until just before the November elections. A staffer who declined to give her name claimed that Monday’s statement that the transcripts would ready for the public on Aug. 3rd was an “intern error,” explaining that there are “new people in the office and they don’t know.”

The same explanation of “intern error” was given for the retraction of another, even more critical, earlier statement that an official committee report, or announcement of the findings from the hearing would be made available in “two weeks.” “There are no plans for any report or statement regarding the findings from those hearings. They are completed. We do not make press releases on hearings that have already happened.”

When asked to clarify, the staffer did acknowledge that the latest press release posted on the Judiciary’s website was indeed a report of findings from a hearing, but the staffer explained it was actually a report of another committee’s hearing.



http://www.opednews.com/articles/Judiciary-Backpedals-on-Re-by-mikel-weisser-080731-6.html

[davidswanson]

2. It's all on C-Span and Youtube

Just transcribe it if you want a transcript.

[EFerrari]

3. I have it TiVo'd. The question is, is there anything unusual about this

because that seems to be the case made in the article and because most people will not sit down and transcribe anything. On the other hand, most people won't read transcripts, either.

[davidswanson]

4. there's nothing usual about any of this

they're actively destroying our revolution and reinstalling a monarchy and phoning them every day is the least everyone should do

i don't know of any official policy on transcripts, but I do think there'd be a sizable audience for a transcript if somebody hurried up and transcribed one

here's the prepared testimony:
http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/hear_072508.html

so the Q and A would be most useful

[EFerrari]

5. Sorrry to be dense, David. I sincerely didn't know if this was a thing

or not and I try to be careful about going off half cocked.

Okay. Maybe we can send this article out to our networks.

The Q&A was long. I wonder if we can get some people together to do the transcription or, at least, to transcribe selections. I can do some of it.

[davidswanson]

6. i really don't know

if there's some official policy on transcripts, but it can't be secret sincethe video is online

[EFerrari]

7. You know, that hearing and all the silt it turned up raises this question

that may be useful to impeachment advocates: What did the Gang of Eight know and when did they know it?

Maybe it's a mistake to focus soley on Nancy and on John Conyers. Maybe ALL the people who were briefed on torture, on wiretapping, on WMD, need to be drawn into this debate. Maybe doing that will level the playing field a little.

Something to think about, anyway.

[Time for change]

8. Very encouraging

One of the best things that could happen to our country is to have Bush and Cheney tried as war criminals. That would be a real eye opener for a lot of people.

[entanglement]

9. I'd encourage the Italians to save themselves from Umberto & Silvio

before worrying about us.