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Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, deputy secretary general of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and a member of the National Advisory Board of Veterans for Peace.Her most recent book is Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues. See http://marjoriecohn.com/ . .
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, August 28, 2016 Abu Zubaydah: Torture's "Poster Child"
The ugly legacy of George W. Bush's torture program continues to haunt U.S. foreign policy as the "poster child" for waterboarding, Abu Zubaydah, makes an appeal for his release from Guantanamo, writes Marjorie Cohn.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, July 4, 2016 Numbers in Obama's Drone Deaths Report Just Don't Add Up
Like his predecessor, Obama defines the whole world as his battlefield, reserving for himself the role of judge, jury and executioner. Compliance with due process (arrest and fair trial), which the U.S. Constitution guarantees all persons, not just U.S. citizens, has not been a priority in the Obama administration's "war on terror."
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 29, 2017 Trump's Arpaio Pardon Signals to White Supremacists: "I've Got Your Back"
Perhaps most significant is what the pardon says about the president. It demonstrates beyond doubt that Trump and Arpaio share the same values. Both men are racist to the core. Neither has any respect for the law. And both retaliate against those who criticize their actions. Like Trump, Arpaio attacked judges who ruled against him.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 11, 2014 Reshaping the Vietnam Narrative
The Vietnam War was a turning point in U.S. history but not as many people may think. In defeat, the national security state changed the narrative into one that made American soldiers the victims and made anti-war activists into traitors who spat on returning soldiers, as Marjorie Cohn explains.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, March 29, 2019 Lawyers Worldwide Urge International Court: Investigate Israeli Crimes
On Saturday, March 30, tens of thousands of Palestinians are planning to walk toward the Gaza border to commemorate the March 30, 2018, launch of the Great March of Return. For the past year, during the weekly protests, tens of thousands of Palestinians have demanded an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza and the right to return to their homeland.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, October 18, 2014 Shaping the Vietnam Narrative
Controlling the narrative is a key tool for propagandists who realize that how people understand a foreign conflict goes a long way toward determining their support or opposition. So, the U.S. government's sanitizing of the Vietnam War is not just about history, but the present, as Marjorie Cohn writes.
SHARE Saturday, April 17, 2021 The Supreme Court Is Also to Blame for Daunte Wright's Death
When Kimberly Potter shot and killed Wright, her act whether intentional or accidental was also grounded in the same sort of racism manifested by police officers throughout the United States.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 1, 2018 Trump Finds Fellow Bully in Bolton
President Donald Trump's appointment of John Bolton as his national security adviser is his most dangerous move yet, argues Marjorie Cohn. As Stormy Daniels and Robert Mueller close in on Trump, the president will seek to create a major distraction. With bully Bolton egging him on, that may well be a military attack on North Korea or Iran. The consequences would prove disastrous.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, October 11, 2021 Biden Tells Supreme Court That Publicly Documented Torture Is a State Secret
The torture of Abu Zubaydah is thoroughly documented in the 2014 report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. In fact, several of the justices at the October 6 Supreme Court oral argument in United States v. Zubaydah referred to his treatment as "torture."
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 1, 2018 Trump Threatens Iran to Distract From Russia Criticism and Appease Israel
Trump is now desperate to deflect criticism away from his much-criticized summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Trump knows that a war -- conducted with the right spin -- could help the GOP in the midterm elections. And Israel, the United States' closest ally, has been gunning for regime change in Iran, which Israel considers to be an existential threat.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, January 6, 2019 As Trump Orders US Out of Afghanistan, Notorious CIA-Backed Units Will Remain
As the US military kills civilians in Syria and CIA-led Afghan forces continue to commit war crimes, it appears Trump is doing the right thing in pulling out military troops. But the CIA will remain and grow stronger after the US troops leave. All US troops should be removed from Syria and all bombing must end.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 10, 2011 Compensate Victims of U.S. Chemical Warfare in Vietnam
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the chemical warfare program in Vietnam without sufficient remedial action by the U.S. government. One of the most shameful legacies of the Vietnam War, Agent Orange continues to poison Vietnam and the people exposed to the chemicals, as well as their offspring. Fifty years is long enough. It is high time to compensate the victims for this shameful chapter in our history.
SHARE Monday, January 16, 2017 Smooth-Talking Jeff Sessions Can't Hide Disturbing Record
A long-time prosecutor before joining the Senate 20 years ago, Jeff Sessions supports draconian mandatory minimum sentences that remove discretion from judges to tailor sentences to the individual and fuel mass incarceration that disproportionately targets people of color.
SHARE Tuesday, July 6, 2010 Losing in Afghanistan
Obama and Petraeus no longer speak of "victory" over the Taliban;
they both hold open the possibility of settlement with the Taliban.
Indeed, Maj. Gen. Bill Mayville, chief of operations for McChrystal,
told Rolling Stone, "It's not going to look like a win, smell like a
win or taste like a win."
(7 comments) SHARE Sunday, October 4, 2020 Trump Needs Accomplices at Every Level of Government to Pull Off a Coup
Voting is absolutely critical for democracy. But, stopping a coup attempt will depend on far more than the ballot, and will require creative and courageous acts of civic and political engagement from all of us.
(5 comments) SHARE Sunday, September 15, 2019 Post-9/11 Terrorism Watchlist of More Than 1 Million Judged Unconstitutional
An assault on the Constitution is the terrorism watchlist, a federal government database of "known or suspected terrorists." In 2013, there were 680,000 people on the watchlist, called the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB). By 2017, the number had swelled to 1.2 million, including 4,600 U.S. citizens.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 16, 2014 NSA Metadata Collection: Fourth Amendment Violation
This issue is headed to the Court of Appeals. From there, it will likely go the Supreme Court. It remains to be seen whether the court will refuse to cower before President Obama's claim of unfettered executive authority to conduct dragnet surveillance. If the court allows the NSA to continue its metadata collection, we will reside in what can only be characterized as a police state.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, September 30, 2016 President Obama: "Patron" of the Israeli Occupation
Obama increased the amount of money the U.S. provides Israel each year from $3.1 to $3.8 billion. Obama put his money where his heart apparently is with the unprecedented allocation of military assistance to Israel. The annual $3.8 billion, more money than the U.S. gives to any other country, will fund the continuing Israeli military occupation of Palestinian lands, now in its fifth decade.
(5 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 22, 2016 US Bombing Syrian Troops Would Be Illegal
Secretary of State Kerry met with dissident State Department "diplomats" to hear their call for U.S. airstrikes on Syrian government troops, but the plan is both dangerous and illegal, writes Marjorie Cohn.