USA: The hollow words and empty claims of “democratic rights”

[The noted Black author James Balwin wrote to Angela Davis in 1970, when she was being unjustly prosecuted during the Nixon era, that “we must fight for your life as though it were our own—which it is—and render impassable with our bodies the corridor to the gas chamber. For, if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night.”  These words continue to ring true, and loud, today. Those who act like nothing’s wrong, those who do not speak and act against the unjust persecution of people of whatever shape, size, color, and belief, will certainly face such fate themselves, in due time.  The time to resist is now. — Frontlines ed.]

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President Obama Signs Indefinite Detention Bill Into Law

Statement from the American Civil Liberties Union–FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE–December 31, 2011

CONTACT: media@dcaclu.org

WASHINGTON – President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law today. The statute contains a sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision.  While President Obama issued a signing statement saying he had “serious reservations” about the provisions, the statement only applies to how his administration would use the authorities granted by the NDAA, and would not affect how the law is interpreted by subsequent administrations.  The White House had threatened to veto an earlier version of the NDAA, but reversed course shortly before Congress voted on the final bill.

“President Obama’s action today is a blight on his legacy because he will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law,” said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director. “The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield.  The ACLU will fight worldwide detention authority wherever we can, be it in court, in Congress, or internationally.”

Amnesty Int’l: Call for African Arrest of GWBush is rebuffed by pro-US countries–int’l law to serve (not challenge) imperialism

African leaders ignore Amnesty’s call to arrest Bush

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, December 6, 2011

ADDIS ABABA, Dec 6 – RNW correspondents in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia went in search of supporters and detractors of Amnesty International’s call to arrest former US president, George W. Bush, during his recent visit to the continent.
Aiding and abetting in Addis Ababa
Ethiopians have had a good laugh about Amnesty International’s appeal, which most say is a ‘foolish’ publicity stunt to win African support for the rights group.
“This is a ridiculous attempt to show us that they are not a biased organization,” Mikael Atsbeha, a cameraman, said. “They abuse the opportunity of Bush’s visit to Africa to buy support.”
He also said the arrest is “never going to happen,” because of the strong ties Ethiopia had with the Bush administration. Ethiopia has been a loyal ally in Bush’s ‘war on terror’, fighting Islamic extremism in a US backed incursion into neighboring Somalia from 2006 to 2009. It even earned Ethiopia’s leader Meles Zenawi the nickname ‘America’s poodle’.

British Imperialism cuts another deal with Zionism–a free pass for Israeli war criminals

[Since World War 2, imperialism has cynically promoted itself as the advocate of international human rights law, even while trampling human rights in its wars, interventions, and other pursuits of domination and control and suppression of people’s struggles all over the world.  But, again and again, the truth of human rights violations has surfaced, and imperialism has created exemption after exemption to human rights law.  Several years ago, the blocked prosecutions of Pinochet of Chile and of Henry Kissinger are two examples of such imperialist shielding of its own.  Now, the immunity and impunity given imperialism’s criminals has been formally extended to Zionist war criminals. The Israel press YNet reported, “The (British) law that allows issuing arrest warrants against foreign nationals (had) not been amended since the Second World War, and has prevented several IDF officers, including former Southern District Commander Major General (res.) Doron Almog and Head of the Intelligence Corps Major General Aviv Kochavi (who was the former commander of the Gaza Division) from entering Britain…Last May, Major-General Yohanan Locker, the military secretary to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had to cancel his trip to Britain due to his role in Operation Cast Lead, where he served as the head of the IAF’s Air Division.” When even the superficial appearance of justice is discarded by imperialists, the people will, inevitably, take matters into their own hands. — Frontlines ed.]

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Former Israeli minister Tzipi Livni to visit UK after change in arrest law

Critics claim change in law governing arrest warrants for war crimes is motivated by political pressure from Israel

by Ben Quinn, The Guardian (UK), Monday 3 October 2011

Tzipi Livni, now opposition leader in Israel, will meet foreign secretary William Hague in Britain. Photograph: Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images

The former Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, will meet the foreign secretary, William Hague, in Britain on Thursday in the first test of a new law governing arrest warrants for war crimes.

Westminster magistrates court issued an unprecedented arrest warrant for Livni in 2009 – a move that led to an review of the issuing of such warrants.

The warrant, which was issued at the request of lawyers acting for Palestinian victims of Israel‘s operations in Gaza, was withdrawn amid embarrassment in the Foreign Office.

Israel’s foreign ministry condemned it at the time, describing it as a “cynical” move.

Livni, who is the current Israeli opposition leader, had been due to attend a conference in London in 2009 but cancelled two weeks before the warrant was issued. Palestinian sources claimed to have seen her at the event and alerted lawyers.