Senator Graham: "I do believe we have lost our way"

Lindsey Graham is a Republican US Senator from South Carolina.

General themes have emerged here at DU, at http://www.velvetrevolution.us, and appear to be common concerns at numerous other sites focused on the demise of American democracy, decency and stature. One pervasive theme is the lack of responsible media and another is the need to identify a situation that could be used to force both the media and our fellow citizens to take heed of just how horrid Bush and his cabal are.

I think we need an issue that brings as many of our fellow citizens to "The Bush Opposition" as quickly as possible, including the countless Republicans who are disenchanted with Bush. I think, even beyond Bush's illegal Iraq war, the torture issue can galvanize the vast majority of our fellow citizens in solidarity with "The Bush Opposition."

We need to mobilize as many as we can, as quickly as we can because the threats to the lives of our troops, to our civil liberties, to the environment and to our respect in the international community are only going to grow if we do not build massive resistance to the Bush cabal.

The Senate confirmation process of Gonzales is, in my opinion, the most immediate opportunity we have to expand quickly "The Bush Opposition."

I think we could use a massive, focused effort to force every responsible member of the US Senate to filibuster until the Gonzales appointment is defeated. We could thereby expose, broadly, the threat Bush and his gang represents to our Nation and humanity.

Senator Graham was quite forceful in his assessment of the situation as even the brief, poignant quote in the subject of this post demonstrates.

From the NYTimes we have: "Senator Graham....accused the Bush administration of "playing cute with the law" in its treatment of prisoners in Iraq and elsewhere. That approach, he told Mr. Gonzales, has "dramatically undermined" the campaign against terrorism by yielding the moral high ground and has endangered the lives of American troops who may themselves be taken into custody."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/07/politics/07gonzales.html

Black20Jan could be an ideal time for "The Bush Opposition" to announce their commitment to force the US Senate to not confirm Gonzales and to build a website that will bring national and international scorn to any member of the US Senate who votes for Gonzales. At the same time, focus can be brought on the resistance in the US Senate for confirmation of the UN Convention Against Torture.

Excellent article at truthout by Steve Weissman on this issue:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/011305A.shtml

This is a follow-up to:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=275412

Peace.


"Bush Owns It: Let's Purge It" -- NOW!

I think it would be interesting to ask the freepers to take a poll:

Please check one of the following:
A) I do not believe the US has committed any atrocities or engaged in torture.
B) I believe that it is OK to torture certain people under certain circumstances.
C) I say torture the towel-headed infidels because they're all terrorists anyway.

All the Repugs I have spoken to would choose "C"

Anyone here know any differently?

base on economic issues rather than the torture issue. I think average Americans are more concerned about SS and spend and borrow economics than they are with the torture of prisoners. I have seen a number of LTTEs excusing torture because the writers assume American POWs will be tortured. Just my opinion.

except of course we yielded the moral high ground when we started this unprovoked war to begin with.

I've heard my repug friend echo that Bush sentiment, too.

That very Christian "Eye-for-an-Eye" that Jesus was so against.

The look at Daniel Berg and say, "Look what they did to him. They want us to play nice?"

They automatically assume that our people are going to be tortured whether we torture THEIRS or not. So we might as well torture the hell out of them.

MEANWHILE....

Please point THIS out to the Freepers....

Some Americans sued Saddam Hussein because they were captured and tortured during the first Gulf War. They won their judgements, but President George W. Bush issued an Executive Order to BLOCK OUR OWN TORTURED POW'S FROM RECEIVING THEIR SETTLEMENT AGAINST SADDAM FOR BEING TORTURED!

And Richard Storr, one of the tortured POWs is speaking-out against America's use of torture

Ex-POW's suit vs. Saddam snarled
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/191956p-165868c.html

By PATRICE O'SHAUGHNESSY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Richard Storr

Air Force Capt. Richard Storr endured 33 days of torture at the hands of Iraqis during the Persian Gulf War 13 years ago. He knew firsthand the cruelty sanctioned by Saddam Hussein and believed that the U.S. was right to go to war again in Iraq.

When he heard the allegations and saw photographs of American soldiers abusing Iraqi POWs, Storr was filled with shame and empathy.

"For those of us that have been there, I just felt horrible for those guys," Storr said of the prisoners.

"What I did see in those pictures I thought was just awful," said Storr, 42, of Spokane, Wash. "There is absolutely no reason for those prisoners to receive that kind of treatment.

"I was ashamed," said Storr, an airline pilot and a lieutenant colonel in the Washington Air National Guard. "And I'm glad to see the military is acting swiftly, and I think they're taking all the appropriate measures in regards to these soldiers for doing that to these guys."

<snip>
"Those guys were wrong, and the worst part about the whole thing is that the troops there are going to suffer."

<snip>
Hoping to deter mistreatment of future prisoners of war, Storr and 16 other Americans held as POWs filed a $900 million lawsuit two years ago against Iraq, Saddam and the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

They won a judgment, which they were told would come out of Iraqi assets frozen at the beginning of the current Iraq war.

Then they were told the money was used to rebuild Iraq.

The case is under appeal.

Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has suggested that mistreated Iraqi prisoners might be compensated, a notion Storr finds puzzling.

"They're trying to extinguish this lawsuit, and we go and mistreat the prisoners," he said. "What are we saying? What kind of message are we sending? It's very confusing to me.

more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/191956p-165868c.html

See also:

Bush fighting former U.S. POW's
http://www.iht.com/articles/117008.html
Philip Shenon/NYT The New York Times

WASHINGTON The Bush administration is seeking to block a group of American troops who were brutally tortured in Iraqi prisons during the 1991 Gulf war from collecting any of the hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen Iraqi assets they won last summer in a federal court ruling against the government of Saddam Hussein.
.
In a court challenge that the administration is winning so far but is not eager to publicize, administration lawyers have argued that Iraqi assets frozen in bank accounts in the United States are needed for Iraqi reconstruction, and that the court judgment won by the 17 former American prisoners should be overturned in its entirety.
.
If the administration is successful, the former prisoners would be deprived both of the almost $1 billion that they won and, they say, of the validation of a judge's ruling that documented their accounts of gruesome torture by the Iraqis, included beatings, burnings, starvation, mock executions and constant threats of castration and dismemberment.
.
"I don't want to say that I feel betrayed, because I still believe in my country," said Lieutenant Colonel Richard Storr, whose plane was shot down by Iraqi fire in February 1991.
<snip>
Officials at the Justice Department and State Department, which are overseeing the administration's response to the case, say they are sensitive to the claims of the former prisoners, who brought suit against Iraq under a 1996 law that allows foreign governments designated as terrorist sponsors to be sued for injuries.
<snip>


The judge rejected the families' request, noting that President George W. Bush signed an executive order in March, on the eve of the American invasion of Iraq, that confiscated Iraqi assets and converted them into assets of the United States government. In May, after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the president issued a declaration that effectively removed Iraq from a list of countries liable for some court judgments involving past human right abuses and links to terrorism.
.
In a sworn court filing in the case involving for the former prisoners, L. Paul Bremer 3rd, the American administrator in postwar Iraq, said that the money won by the former prisoners had already been "completely obligated or expended" in reconstruction efforts.

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator

It's not like any of this is new information. It's not like they weren't aware of how secretive, manipulative and dangerous this crew was before the election. It's like letting a monster in your house and then complaining when he starts killing everyone.

and vote for whatever * wants him to.