Bin Laden death, the lost trial & Eichman.

Tonight President Obama announced the death of bin-Laden. Much like the president who failed to bring us single payer health care, failed to close Guantanimo, failed to stop the travesties of the Bush administration, Obama has failed the American people and the people of the world with his speech. Read the article. His 2nd line states:

"Tonight, I can report to the people of the United States and the world, the United States had carried an operation that has killed Osama Bin Laden, a terrorist responsible for killing thousands of innocent people,"

Huh? Was bin-Laden tried and found guilty of bringing down the Twin Towers in a court of law? Did I miss it? Did New York or the Haigue find him guilty? I don't think so nd yet you, Mr. President, made the statement that he was "a terrorist responsible for killing thousands". President Obama, why do you disregard the law? You attended Harvard, taught law classes. You've been called a "Constitutional scholar." I am not a lawyer but my understanding is that a person is innocent until PROVEN gulity. It's not good enough for the person just to "take responsibility." Hell, there are thousands who confess every year to the police that they killed Kennedy; it doesn't mean that it's true!

Even Nazi's got a trial...and they killed 6 million jews and MILLIONS of catholics, homosexuals, gypsies, communists, and others and were part of a war machine that killed tens of millions worldwide. The Nazis were brought to trial in Nuremburg at the end of the World War II.

Many were tried in abstentia. President Obama, you remember "In Abstentia"... That's a legal term that according to the wiki means:

"In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use it usually means a trial where the defendant is not present, and pertains to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial."

Hell, even Adolf Eichman received a trial.  Eichman was a Nazi, SS Lieutenant Colonel, the highest ranking officer at Auswitz and it can be argued he was responsible for millions of deaths.  He PERSONALLY killed hundreds, if not thousands.  He received a trial in Israel, the country founded by the families of his vicitims. Many in court had been tatooed at the death camp he controlled, they had watched their families be led off to the death chambers and had suffered beyond human reasoning.

Of course, Eichman was found guilty and after his trial put to death. Israel does not have the death penalty but they do have a law demanding that perpetrators of the holocaust face the ultimate penalty.

...but is being put to death the ultimate penalty? One could argue that Eichman got off easy...he got to die. He went to sleep. Unlike his victims he did not have to live his life alone, with the constant nightmares of friends and family murdered and with their bright futures turned to dust. Their tattoo their only companion.

Eichman got off easy. Wouldn't it have been better for the victims to have been able to know that Eichman was living in solitary confinement, without his family, suffering through his remaining years in squallor and confinement. Hopefully with his own nightmares that got richer over the years. Maybe his vicitims would have wanted to visit Eichman on Rosh Hashanna, new Years, and wish him another year of suffering or Yom Kippur, to see if he had remorse. Wouldn't it have been fitting for Eichman to live year after year looking to the families of his victims for his very existance, experiencing the pity he had not showed them.

Wouldn't the victims of 9/11 appreciate a similar fate for bin-Laden?   I've heard the victims families. Wouldn't a trial be excellent.   If he would have found guility, and he probably would have since the President said so, Bin-Laden could have lived out his final years in confinement, living with his failed kidneys and the almost daily dialyis and seeing that the country he so despised did not fall. By showing justice and mercy he would have to live with a daily reminder that he had failed.

Well Mr. President, you get your Sunday evening press conference, the praise from friends and the the hurried heckling from foes. Wouldn't REAL justice have been better? Was this not the duty of the US government? Justice. Not retribution, not revenge...but justice!

On the reported death of Bin-Laden:

Ok, who is crazier? The man who's been accused of bringing down two buildings and killing 3000 people or the president who used this act as an excuse to invade a country that had not attacked us. Thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died because of our timid congress acquiesced to idiot Bush. I read somewhere that a society can be judged by it's treatment of it's prisoners. We've failed: we torture, hold foreign citizens without trial, assassinate with impunity, constrict religious freedom of our prisoners and lock up US citizens up without trial and in torturous conditions like WhistleBlower Private Manning.

The US is better than this...or at least it should be. This so called War on Terror is a waste of resources & lives. Worse, it's a distraction from the problems at home. We need real health care, the best infrastructure in the world, a free education for all and, most importantly, public funding of elections to get our representatives off the corporate teet that has wrecked our republic.

Obama’s Prisoners

Obama’s Prisoners - March 8, 2011

Obama has worked out his solution for Guantanamo prison. During the campaign he promised to large and small crowds alike that one of his main goals was to close the prison, stop the inane practice of military trials and bring the detainees to civilian courts. After being unable to close the prison since signing an executive order and after buckling to Republican complaints of the “terrible danger” of trying the detainees in continental U.S.courts, the administration gave up stating that it was impossible” to close the base.

Yesterday the administration announced a solution. Obama has separated the 180+ detainees into THREE categories: those who will be tried in civilian courts, those to be tried in and military tribunals and a new and improved “special” category for some of the detainees.. This third class of prisoner are those considered too dangerous to be released but they cannot be tried in either system. Some cannot be tried because of a lack of evidence, because their trial would put US Intelligence operations at risk, or because they had been tortured or all of the above.

These detainees will be held indefinitely.

Wait...WHAT??? Hold on... Indefinitely? Am I to understand we now have people who we just KEEP? Incarcerate with no chance of ever facing the evidence against them or facing their accusers? When did we become the Soviet Union circa 1980? Forget how Europe and the U.S. chided the Soviets, China, Argentina, and many other countries for prosecuting exactly this type of terrorist act against their own people. Amnesty international was founded to free just this type of prisoner. Forget the illegality...how is this an ETHICAL or MORAL decision?

Oh, the administration did say that this special category will be reviewed periodically (but with no set time frame.). To quote Cenk Uygur of TheYoungurks.com & MSNBC ...”Are they not merciful!”

Anyone who had a pulse during the first eight years of this century knew that there were terrible, terrible acts committed by the Bush adminstration. Waterboarding, warrant-less wiretaps, rendition, invading countries under false pretenses, murder of thosands if not tens of thousands Iraqi civilians. These were bad but somehow it is worse for a Democratic president to codify this “lost” class of prisoner.

The Guardian said it well:

“Monday's announcement also included a process for periodically reviewing the status of detainees held at the prison. That's an effort to resolve one of the central dilemmas at Guantanamo Bay: what to do when the government thinks a prisoner is too dangerous to be released but either can't prove it in court or doesn't want to reveal national security secrets by trying to prosecute him? The answer, the White House said, is that the U.S. will hold those men indefinitely, without charges, but will review their cases periodically. However, if a review determines that someone should be released, there's no requirement that he actually be freed”


A prisoner’s status will “periodically” be reviewed to see if they can still be imprisoned ILLEGALLY! How is this legal decision any different than Bush’s John Yoo who wrote his infamous Torture paper which determined that water boarding was not illegal because the executive branch said it was not illegal. All was legal under the prosecution of War. Really? Tell that to the Nazis tried at Nuremberg, the Japanese we prosecuted for water boarding US troops, and the many other individuals we’ve tried for torture.

The Obama administration, the justice department and Obama himself are making a terrible, terrible mistake. We are supposed to be a country of laws! Obama has mishandled this issue (and many others) since the beginning: by not at least making a show of prosecuting Cheyney, Bush, Yoo, and going after every person in the government involved in torture Obama left an untreated wound on the body politic of the United States. We are now reaping the rewards: the US has lost it’s compass. By “looking forward, not backward” (an inane term) the Obama administration has both ignored the monsters among us and the bigger one lurking behind.

Like with many decisions in his presidency, Obama has gone against a major campaign promise to close Guantanamo and stop these false trials. He’s made it worse by creating this special class of prisoners. Let’s call them “Obama’s Prisoners”. This from a Harvard trained lawyer, constitutional scholar and community activist. During the campaign he said that military tribunals were unnecessary since our legal system had a track record of handling all types of terrorists. What happened? Now, like with many of his decisions, his inability to act decisively has negatively affected his reputation and the reputation of the U.S. both at home and abroad. Worse, his Justice Department has proved that terrible acts and decisions of one president will be blindly followed by the next out of political expediency ignorant to what is right!. .

The president needs to be reminded that campaign promises may just be words but the decision to create a class of “disappeared” prisoners without the right to face the accusers is ethically, morally and should be legally wrong! This act is diametrically opposed to the constitution, the bill of rights and the core values on which our country was founded.

Who’s to say that we won’t get a worse president in the future who will use this precedent to arrest, sequester and “disappear” citizens of the U.S. not just other countries? Hell, Huckabee is off spouting that Obama grew up in Kenya! We could easlily get a worse presdient!

I think of the poem “First they Came” by Pastor Martin Niemoller. Niemoller didn’t just write this poem he lived it. After at first supporting the Nazis he was arrested for protesting their treatment of the church. He was held and incarcerated at Dachau and other concentration camps. Unline so many millions, however, he survived the war.



This poem is on display at the Holocaust Museum in DC and at Yad Vashem in Israel but it speaks to all of us, not just to jews, communists or trade unionists.

First They came... - Pastor Martin Niemoller

- First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.


What can we do? Speak out! Feel free to forward this post, tweet it, facebook it, talk to friends. Call the white house, write a letter, send them an e-mail. Hell, send them two. (...put it on paper, they put great import on stuff with a stamp.) It is clear that like in 2008 we need to ramp up again and take back our democracy...Get out there, visit your town councils, your state legislatures, your congressman and senators, get involved.

This cannot stand. - Josh Weisbuch

Egyptian Jews, Facebook and tolerance

In my cautious elation about the Egypt situation I was surfing the web curious about the status of Jews in Egypt. In my web journey I found a fascinating Facebook group about Egyptian jews. Group seems to be made up of people of all religions in Egypt, US and around the world (Poland.) I joined and I found a wide range of knowledge of history and of the holy texts of Jews, Christians and Muslims. Here's my posting. The FB group is located here

-=-=-=-

Very interesting discussion, I thank Tarek Saied for starting it. It's clear we all need to study each other's holy texts. Torah, Bible and Koran are all written a very long time ago and may not be relavent to modern people. Examples: Many wear two types of cloth together and are not stoned, shellfish is often consumed, many women show their hair in public and in church. I Corinthians 14:34-35 states that women should not be allowed to speak in church but they clearly do. Many women have become pastors in Christianity and Rabbis in Judaism. (Not sure about Islam, I'd be curious if women can become Imams..) Commandments read "Thou shalt not kill (or murder depending on translation.) Sadly, humans kill and murder all the time. Also, many translations of the holy books contradict each other. Some would argue that we must follow the writings to the letter. To these I ask: "Have you not sinned?" I believe Matthew 5:29-30 states they should cut their hands if they sin, cast out the eyes if they see evil... do they?

Here's an idea. Why don't we all agree to listen to each other, be open to new ideas but not to say that our TRUTH is the ONLY TRUTH. People who have the TRUTH and cannot live with others not having the same TRUTH are very, very dangerous. Avicenna, Muslim philosopher, wrote that if one lives near a city of "non-belivers" then it's one duty to convert those "non-believers" by word.....or...of course... by the sword. We have enough trouble in this world with climate change, 6 billion people straining the planet's resources, poisoning of air, oceans, water and land, lack of education for the vast majority of the population and rich countries hoarding resources, closing their minds to new ideas, voting for idiots, building weapons and invading countries that had not attacked them. Let's not fight over who's deity is best.

Thank you again Tarek for starting this discussion. Communication is key to increasing wisdom, knowledge and peace. I hold good thoughts for all the people of Egypt. May all sides have wise discussions like this one.

Mubarak Resigns?...hope so....

Mubarak resigns? I'll believe it when we have peace and a fairly elected democratic government where all economic classes, religions and genders are represented. Egypt could be a true powerhouse in the region. I fear that Mubarak is going to try to gum up he works and stay in charge of the economy via the well established kleptocracy behind the scenes. Good luck people of Egypt, you have an amazing opportunity.

Egyptian chickens have come home to roost

Egypt: Why is no one mentioning that the US is not a neutral party in the Middle east. The Bush Administration used Egypt to torture terror "suspects" after 9/11. Didn't start with Bush, however. For the last century the US has a history of bringing down democratically elected leaders and installing and supporting right-wing fascist dictators who better serve our political and/or economic interests. All the while the US professed to sponsor democracy. Diem in Vietnam, Prime Minister Mossadegh in Iran in 1951 & support of the Shah, installation of Noriega and his eventual removal from Panama, support for Death-Squad wielding leaders of Central America in the 1980s including the junta in El Salvador led my Adolfo Ramos. Allende's government in Argentina was brought down and Pinochet installed with assistance from the CIA on the behalf of United Fruit. At first we backed Sadam Hussein against Iran in the 1980s, before we took him down in the first decade of this century.

Egypt has had 30 years of peace with Israel, a model the US had hoped others would emulate, but this "Peace" was purchased by over 1 Billion a year to Egypt and over 2 Billion to Israel. Most of those funds went to the Egyptian military to fund purchases of US equipment. Richard Engel, NBC's chief foreign correspondent reported that the Tear gas canisters used on protesters in Egypt came from Pennsylvania.

Is this the "change" we expected after 2008. I've said it before but if the Obama administration had cleaned house, sent people to prison over torture, banking, Katrina and the other travesties of the Bush Administration then this bold action would place our "less democratic allies" like Egypt on notice that reforms must occur.

Many reports state that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt government is NOT the religious/political force that came about in Iran. They could easily become radicals, however. Iranians had to deal with oppression from the Shah. I would argue that the Iranians would not have become as reactionary once they came to power if the Shah and his secret Police, the Savak, had not cracked down on the protesters with such force. You'd be amazed what seeing your friends and families tortured and killed could do to push an individual's mindset toward fascism. Of course, if the US had left well enough alone and not helped eject the Iranian elected leader Mossadegh in 1951 things might have been different.

President Obama, it is clear that Mubarak will not leave willingly, he must be "invited" to leave. Allow him to take some wealth, hist title, his skin and his pride along with his son Gamal, the rest of the family and supporters. Bend the arms of the military if necessary, we do send them quite a lot of funding. Impress upon him that he does not want to end up like Nicolae Ceauşescu in Romania, Mussolini in Italy or Diem in Vietnam. (Oh wait, the US had a hand in that killing also.)

Why not focus on human rights and political freedom through your reelection and last term? The Republican congress are going to attempt to gut all the work made in the last two years, destroy health care, give more tax breaks to the rich and make abortions illegal. Why not distract them with a demand to all countries for reforms. Wave the flag, talk about how democracy brings security, that'll get them riled up. Hell, Bush did it, it should work again! And unlike Bush act on it and demand it!

Maybe the U.N. would like to push the issue of true human rights. All they are missing is support from the US. This way fascists can't state that the "Great Satan" (or whatever) is trying to exert force and control the world.

Mr. President, you have a real opportunity to exact great change not only to make a great speech. It will require bold actions not half measures. You have disappointed the right thinking base that elected you. Many would argue that the last two years has been one of weakness surrounded by half measures with a slice of capitulation. You've stood up to the congress and senate over the Lame duck, show the same kind of back-bone now with an issue that is truly a security issue and get Mubarak to leave Egypt and come to Disneyland. Hell, I'll even spot for his ride on Space Mountain.

Thank you

- Josh Weisbuch