“The essence of humanity is freedom. Government – whether voted in peacefully or thrust upon us by force – is essentially the negation of freedom`
“… the natural law teaches that our freedoms are pre-political and come from our humanity and not from the government, and as our humanity is ultimately divine in origin, the government, even by majority vote, cannot morally take natural rights away from us. A natural right is an area of individual human behavior – like thought, speech, worship, travel, self-defense, privacy, ownership and use of property, consensual personal intimacy – immune from government interference and for the exercise of which we don’t need the government’s permission.” – Andrew P. Napolitano, former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey
“Logic and reason overcomes anything, and disarms any adversary. Anger and irrational behavior is the exclusive jurisdiction of an uneducated and poorly equipped mind.”- Dean C. Clifford
“September 11 2001 opens up an era of crisis, upheaval and militarization of American society. The post September 11, 2001 era is marked by the outright criminalization of the US State, including its judicial, foreign policy, national security and intelligence apparatus.”
“(…) The crimes committed “in the name of 9/11″ involving acts of war are far-reaching, resulting in the deaths of millions of people as well as the destruction of entire countries.“
“As a signatory to the Convention against Torture, Canada has an obligation to investigate and prosecute a torture suspect on its soil. This is the first time a complaint concerning torture allegations against a high-level U.S. official has been filed with the U.N. Committee.” (1)
LPAC – October 27, 2012 – President Obama’s killer drone program is about to come under scrutiny from the UN Human Rights Council, announced Ben Emmerson QC, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and implementation of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, during a speech delivered yesterday at Harvard University Law School. Emmerson reported that a dedicated investigative unit will be set up in Geneva to examine the legality of drone attacks in cases where civilians are killed in so-called “targeted” counter-terrorism operations.
Emmerson’s colleague on the Human Rights Council, South African lawyer Christoph Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur for extrajudical killings, issued a report, last summer, sharply critical of the U.S. drone program, and warned that war crimes may have been committed in the process of carrying it out. (emphasis added) Continue reading →
“According to the Nuremburg principle four, war crime isdefined as planning, preparation and initiation or waging a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances.” (1)
“Judge Forrest’s decision this week reaffirms her earlier ruling that prohibits the US government from abiding by the indefinite detention provision in the NDAA, a clause that allows for American citizens to be detained and held on the suspicion of supporting terrorists “or associated forces” until a very vague time frame described as only “until the end of hostilities.” – RT(1)
Desmond M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of South Africa (2009) / Wikimedia (1)
“The immorality of the United States and Great Britain’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003, premised on the lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, has destabilised and polarised the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history.” – Desmond Tutu, South African peace activist and Retired Anglican Bishop(emphasis added)
The United Nations has called on the US to release the footage of its deadly assassination drone strikes in different parts of the globe or face an international inquiry.
UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism Ben Emmerson said on Sunday that the US is coming under mounting global pressure over its use of assassination drones, adding that he is preparing a report on the issue for the next session of the Human Rights Council in March.
“Well, this is a classic case of what has changed over the last 20 years. And that is simply that the shape of the world is now empire vs. the rest of you. What I say here now is that Caesar has spoken. Caesar is the law. Caesar is the United States and the satraps overseas – the UK in the first instance, and now Sweden in the other, do the bidding of the empire. The country that has refused to do the bidding of the empire, Ecuador, is playing a very interesting role here. Their foreign minister said this morning that “we are not a British colony, and the days of colonialism are over. So what we see here is a playing out of the fact that there is a complete disrespect for international law.(…) This is unprecedented.” – Ray McGovern, former CIA officer (1)
“Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s cold case posse has confirmed that President Barack Obama’s birth certificate is “definitely fraudulent,”prompting the media and political establishment to launch a frenzied spin campaign in an effort to deflect attention from the astoundingnew evidence uncovered by the investigation.”
“The most stunning revelation is the fact that in numerous places, Obama’s birth certificate has hadinformation added at a later date than the original.”
“What we are telling you is: that document isn’t real. That’s the difference. That’s the distinction in law. We are talking about a forged document being used – maybe mistakenly – by M. Obama. But somebody knows how it got there. The department of Health didn’t create it. They didn’t create the file. Somebody else did. (…) That’s a falsified document.” – Mike Zullo, Lead Investigator
(…) the White House has denied none of this. The president meets every Tuesday morning with a select group of military, intelligence, national security and, occasionally, political advisers and reviews the background and photos of persons in foreign countries whom he hates or fears, some of whom are Americans. He then personally decides whom among them to kill. Then he dispatches civilian agents of the government, no doubt the CIA, to do the killing using drones. He uses the CIA to do this because if he used the military, federal law requires public reporting of that use and, eventually, congressional approval. Some of the killings have taken place in Yemen, a country that has welcomed them, and some in Pakistan, a country that has condemned them. We are at war with neither. Andrew P. Napolitano
“To this date there has not been anything that would pass for a real criminal investigation of any of the larges entities whose fraud drove this crisis.”
“Let’s call’em for what they really are: Systemicly DANGEROUS institutions.”
“We had never figured out that the way to financial stability was to leave fraudulent CEOs in charge of the largest banks in the world.”
William K. Black,
Professor, Missouri University, Kansas City
Abacus Bank Indicted for Mortgage Fraud; More Prosecutions to Come?bloomberglaw
June 8 (Bloomberg Law) — Last week Manhattan DA Cy Vance filed charges against Abacus Bank and 19 former employees for committing mortgage fraud. Does this mean more prosecutions of other banks for crimes committed prior to the housing crisis?Continue reading →
As previously reported, Federal District Judge Katherine Forrest, in Manhattan on May 16, 2012 issued a preliminary injunction in Hedges v. Obama, against Government enforcement of a section of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). That section of the NDAA permits detention of any individuals who are viewed as “supporting” or “associated with” terrorists, for the duration of the present, ongoing military hostilities.
On May 25, the Government filed a motion for reconsideration, i.e., asking the judge to change her decision because of important relevant facts or law she had not considered in her ruling. In the normal course of arguing a motion, the plaintiffs are due to file a response to that motion tomorrow, and the Government gets to reply to the plaintiff’s arguments a week later.
However, the Government’s May 25 brief about their motion stated at the outset, that the Government deems the judge’s preliminary injunction order to apply only to the individual plaintiffs in the case, and not more generally, and that it only enjoined enforcement under one sub-section of the NDAA.
On June 6, Judge Forrest issued a new opinion addressing the Government’s expressed views about the scope of her order. Continue reading →
