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Our Leaders Won't, But We Can Prosecute War Criminals

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Message jill mclaughlin
Some nameless, faceless source has said that there will be no prosecutions for the authors of torture. This source, who I imagine lurking in the dark, has said that the report out of the Department of  Justice will not call for prosecutions.
 
I am not surprised. As an aside, I'm always surprised how angry I feel when I hear news like this. You see as an activist with World Can't Wait, I can say that over the last 3 years WCW has brought the truth about U.S. torture and those responsible. We have not only spoken the truth about these crimes against humanity, but we have told the people what we ought to do to bring justice. And we never told people “turn to the system”.
 
We knew that turning to this system for justice was not going to work. The system operates for and serves the empire and the ruling class of the empire. It does not operate for and serve you or me. And anyone outside the empire, like the people of Iraq and Afghanistan and so many around the world, well the ruling class of the empire sees them as less than human.  And the leaders of this empire, not unlike the Nazi leadership in Germany, have pounded into the minds of the American people, that these others are the source of all our troubles. They pounded it in so much that now they believe it is O.K. to excuse and look past the crimes of the previous administration.
Like the Nazi leadership they're going to make sure we all just accept the excuses and the lies-lies like Condoleeza Rice told this past week to a group of Stanford students and then a fourth grader when she was questioned about torture-"we were just trying to protect the lives of the American people, but our President did nothing illegal" And now the Department of Justice (It doesn't deserve to be called that) is legitimizing her words. This in turn will leave the door open for more torture committed in our names. And if we remain silent in the face of this then we are complicit because with all that has been revealed, all that has been said, and all that has been done we can never say we did not know what was being done in our names.
 
No we cannot turn to this system for Justice. It is with this latest news that the people of this country must recognize that we are past "give him a chance" or "wait and see". We have only us to turn to. Us together. Every person must decide if they are a outraged member of humanity or a "good German" And if you decide that you are of the first choice then you must step forward to take bold and determined action to stop the crimes of your government. It is time to get in the streets. On May 28th over 2000 more photos of torture will be released. World Can't Wait is calling the people of conscience to come out that day and demand an end to the torture state and demand prosecutions for those responsible. We are the ones who must prosecute torturers in the streets by never letting fall silent are righteous demand for justice Read More About Actions on May 28th.
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Jill McLaughlin is an activist/organizer with the World Can't Wait. She currently sits on the national steering committee of World Can't Wait and has been an active activist/organizer with the Chicago Chapter of World Can't Wait. She has written (more...)
 
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