Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Elizabeth have canceled speeches in Toronto, Canada out of concern that they would be set upon by people who oppose torture and want Cheney arrested. While Americans appear reconciled with the torture program, citizens in other countries still demand that Bush officials be arrested according to international law.
Last September, Cheney was surrounded in the Vancouver Club and kept there for seven hours before it was deemed safe for him to leave.
The aspect of this story that I love the most is the name of the group that was arranging Cheney’s visit on April 24th: Spectre. Yes, Spectre of Ernst Stavro Blofeld fame. Number 1 in this case was Ryan Ruppert of Spectre Live Corp. who explained that “[a]fter speaking with their security advisers, they changed their mind on coming to the event [and] decided it was better for their personal safety they stay out of Canada.” It is not clear if Blofeld’s cat will make the trip instead.
Cheney could claim a curious victory in frustrating efforts to arrest him. In the words of Blofeld: “Such a pity. All that time and energy wasted, simply to provide you with one mock, heroic moment.” [Look into camera, pet cat, exit stage right]
Source: Washington Post
Pete,
Hilarious. Couldn’t Cheney just use decoys?
rafflaw
1, March 13, 2012 at 8:12 am
Come on Dick. The duck hunting grounds of Canada are calling your name…torturer
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raff
can’t find a canadian to hold the duck
Dick Cheney by Roy Zimmerman
“While Americans appear reconciled with the torture program.” That should read, Washington. Many Americans here would gladly have Cheney arrested along with all those that started the conflicts in the Middle East, but all of us know that those in public office have already set themselves up with laws on the books that keep them from being prosecuted. Even if people here attempted to bring about their arrest, there are so many working for the system that those who protect them will do so even if they know they are guilty. Those people are working for a paycheck. Damn be the rest of the world as long as I get paid handfuls of fiat monies.
Americans are NOT at rest with this, Cheney, all the Bushes and scores of other people NEED TO BE ARRESTED FOR MULTIPLE CRIMES against America and against the world, and our DOJ ignores ALL OF IT.
Our government has gone collectively insane, including those responsible for Justice and the rule of law, and there is no one inside or outside to help the public enforce against these crimes.
If our prosecutors, Congress, Senate, and Dept of Justice won’t do their jobs, and the military does not enforce the Constitution, Bill of Rights and help us to make sure the laws of our land are protected, then the people can’t do anything.
Larken Rose,
Perfect disguise. Until you wrote “United Socialist States of America”.
Then your disguise was gone.
For the record, while a lot of Americans may fall for the fascist propaganda about “national security” as an excuse for violating every right imaginable, many still don’t. I, for one, have no attachments or fondness based on lines made up by control freaks. Just because that fascist, Cheney, was born in relative proximity to where I was, doesn’t mean I would be any less happy if someone were to inflict a little justice on that psychotic, sadistic, power-happy bastard. So please, even if many of “my fellow countrymen” are brain-dead state-worshipers, don’t lump everyone else here into that same boat. Despite current appearances, when tyranny gets its next major butt-kicking, there’s a good chance it will happen down here, in the United Socialist States of America.
mespo said:
“but without any discernible societal benefit.”
Well the MIC, don’t they count?
Operation H? lol
Gene and Mespo,
How about “operation pain in the ass”?
mespo,
I humbly submit the project name of “Operation Paper Cut”.
Does Cheney get SS coverage?
And anyway, if we were a hundred, how many would they dare arrest, indict, try? And if we had ten thousand protesters outside, what would that do?
They got power, we got numbers.
The post at 11:03 from Jill neglected to give a link to the source – http://reprieve.org.uk/press/2012_03_12_UK_drones_legal_challenge/
Thank you
(725 ILCS 5/107-3) (from Ch. 38, par. 107-3)
Sec. 107-3. Arrest by private person.
Any person may arrest another when he has reasonable grounds to believe that an offense other than an ordinance violation is being committed.
(Source: Laws 1963, p. 2836.)
That’s the law in Illinois. I suspect it’s fairly the same in most states.
http://www.unesco.de/c_humanrights/III-V.php
The site above is a good synopsis of the law’s which members of or current and former government have violated. The Hauge Convention against torture was made U.S. law under Reagan.
Bush and Cheney has bragged about their knowledge and autherization of acts defined as torture under U.S. and International law. I’ve seen people indicted on far shakier grounds. A legal basis exists for a citizens arrest in the States. The problem, is that Holder/Obama would never indict the bastards, and you’d get shot by the police and secret service attempting it. Hopefully some crazy Cannuck or Spaniard will grab one of these guys someday.
Ah, we must be very proud to be an accused harborer of alleged war criminals. It’s Operation Paperclip II — but without any discernible societal benefit.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21913
Jill,
“We should stop allowing ourselves to be manipulated and start thinking for ourselves. It really is worth examining how these views can change so rapidly and what this means about our society.”
Very good point. Let me say, that how many of us have to think on a daily basis? How many have to re-examine their filters, opinions, assumptions, tactics. social conduct—–much of it untouched for years.
And then put your point of manipulation on top—-yes, a wondrous question.
How did torture become O.K. to people in the US who used to oppose it? A switch keeps flipping for too many Americans. After 2001, torture= good. After revelations concerning what torture really was like, torture =bad. After election of a Democrat, torture = good (or at least not that upsetting) again. This quick changing of thought concerning something as significant as torture points to a population who is being manipulated to accept what we are told. We should stop allowing ourselves to be manipulated and start thinking for ourselves. It really is worth examining how these views can change so rapidly and what this means about our society.
It’s strange because Brittan is also challenging things we tend not to challenge in the US. Here’s an update from warisacrime.org: “Reprieve and solicitors Leigh Day & Co have announced that they will be issuing formal legal proceedings this week against the UK Foreign Secretary on behalf of Noor Khan, whose father was killed last year in a drone strike on a Jirga – or council of elders – in North West Pakistan.
Noor Khan (27), lives in Miranshah, North Waziristan Agency, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. His father, Malik Daud Khan, was a member of the local Jirga, a peaceful council of tribal elders whose functions included the settling of commercial disputes.
On 17 March 2011, Malik Daud Khan attended and presided over a meeting of the Jirga, held outdoors at Datta Khel, NWA, which had been called to settle such a dispute. During the course of the meeting a missile was fired from an unmanned aircraft or “drone”, which is believed to have been operated by the US Central Intelligence Agency. Malik Daud Khan was one of more than 40 people killed in the strike.
Several reports have stated that British intelligence agencies have provided information on the whereabouts of alleged ‘militants’ targeted by the CIA.
In 2010 several media outlets on the basis of a briefing said to emanate from official sources, reported that UK intelligence agency GCHQ, for which the Foreign Secretary is responsible, provides “locational intelligence” to the US authorities for use in drone strikes in Pakistan. The reports appeared to quote an on-the-record GCHQ source as saying that the assistance provided by GCHQ to the US authorities was “in ‘strict accordance’ with the law”.
However, in the papers to be filed in the High Court this week the lawfulness of such actions will be challenged.
The legal challenge states that the only persons entitled to immunity from ordinary criminal law in respect of armed attacks are those regarded under international law as “lawful combatants” participating in an “international armed conflict”.
As CIA and GCHQ employees are civilians and not “combatants” they are not entitled to the benefit of immunity from ordinary criminal law. Even if they were there is also no “international armed conflict” in Pakistan. Indeed, there is no “armed conflict” of any sort.
GCHQ employees who assist CIA employees to direct armed attacks in Pakistan are in principle liable under domestic criminal law as secondary parties to murder and that any policy which involves passing locational intelligence to the CIA for use in drone strikes in Pakistan is unlawful.
Evidence suggests that drone strikes in Pakistan are being carried out in violation of international humanitarian law, because the individuals who are being targeted are not directly participating in hostilities and/or because the force used is neither necessary nor proportionate.
This suggests that there is also a significant risk that GCHQ officers may be guilty of conduct ancillary to crimes against humanity and/or war crimes, both of which are statutory offences under the International Criminal Court Act 2001.
Dredd,
Yeah…. He sounds like he watched too many hitcher episodes or is in awe of John Wayne Gacy or Dahmer…… Creepy for sure….
Anonymously Yours 1, March 13, 2012 at 10:34 am
Dredd,
He probably did h lp build infrastructure…… Wmd…. Mic…..some here mostly there…
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Yeah, not too much of a stretch to think that since he brags about torture in public.