By MICHAEL RATNER
Opening Remarks to the closing
session of the International Commission of Inquiry On Crimes
Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration, Riverside
Church, New York, January 20, 2006.
When Clark Kissinger called me yesterday
and said, “You will be sharing a platform with Harry Belafonte,
I said, “Well, maybe you want to put me on for tomorrow.”
But here I am, and of course I’m proud to be in any kind of association
with Harry Belafonte. And I’m sure you’re all familiar with Harry
Belafonte’s comments that he made to President Chavez in Venezuela
a few days ago. And if you don’t remember them, I’ll repeat them.
“No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest
terrorist in the world, George W. Bush, says, we’re here to tell
you that not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American
people support your revolution.”
Now what’s remarkable about
that, is not only the statement itself but Harry Belafonte response
when he was heavily attacked for calling Bush a terrorist. As
he, to his credit, has never been willing to do, he did not retreat
from the statement. And if you go on the net you will find what
he said, at the Children’s Defense Fund, a few days later about
that statement to Chavez: “So I made my remarks, they may
stir up controversy, but then it’s time to talk about new definitions,
new points of view.” And that’s what Harry Belafonte was
doing, and that is what we are doing here today, and over the
next two days, at these Bush Crimes Commissions.
The other important point about
being here, at Riverside of course, is that in April 1967, this
is the place, this is the church, where Martin Luther King openly,
and notoriously I should say, opposed the war in Vietnam. The
speech was called “Beyond Vietnam: A time to break the silence.”
It’s a historic place for that reason. He began that speech with
these words: “A time comes when silence is betrayal. That
time has come for us, in relation to Vietnam.” And then
in that speech, he lays out a 5-point program. But the ultimate
point of that program was: Remove all foreign troops from Vietnam.
Incredibly, even though it was Martin Luther King saying that,
in 1967, it took 9 more years, millions of Vietnamese deaths,
and thousands of American deaths, to do so.
We today model our conduct
on that of Dr. Martin Luther King. As he said then, we say today,
“A time comes when silence is betrayal.” That time
has come for us, in relationship to the war in Iraq. It is time
for us to bring the troops home now.
A people’s trial, a people’s
commission, is not without important precedents. Almost 40 years
ago, in 1968, there was another people’s trial. It was held in
Sweden and Denmark. Originally it was to be held in France. But
the French wouldn’t allow it; they prohibited it, because it
was about Vietnam, and of course the French had been very deeply
involved in the subjugation of Vietnam. The witnesses at that
people’s trial were well-known progressives, including Jean-Paul
Sartre. They gathered in Stockholm and Copenhagen, and they were
there to judge another human outrage in our history, the brutal
and inhuman Vietnam War. Bertrand Russell, the famous English
philosopher, was one of the key participants in that trial. In
fact, it was called the Russell War Crimes Tribunal.
Russell opened that trial,
and here is what he said: “We meet at an alarming time.
Overwhelming evidence besieges us daily of crimes without precedent.
We investigate in order to expose; we document in order to indict;
we arouse consciousness in order to create mass resistance.”
And so, as Russell said then, we say today: we are putting the
Bush administration on trial. We investigate in order to expose;
we document in order to indict; we arouse consciousness in order
to create mass resistance. We want this trial to be a step in
the building of mass resistance to war, to torture, to the destruction
of earth and its people. It’s a serious moment. Our country and
our world are at a tipping point: Tipping toward permanent war,
the end of human rights, and the impoverishment and death of
millions. We still have a chance, an opportunity to stop this
slide into chaos. But it is up to us. We must not sit with our
arms folded, and we must be as radical as the reality we are
facing.
The witnesses you will hear
over the next few days are the truth-tellers: the witnesses to
the carnage this country and this administration have wrought.
This truth challenges us — challenges us all to act. We, particularly
the American people, have not heard or seen the truth. And if
some do, in their comfort and complacency, they often turn away.
The truth is hidden. It is hidden through cover-up language,
euphemisms, legalisms, obfuscations, false investigations, the
blaming of low-level individuals: all meant to hide the reality
of the criminal involvement of high officials of this administration:
Their criminal involvement in war, torture, global and human
destruction.
Let’s take a look at a few
of these examples, and there are many. The failure in this country,
and the media, and pundits everywhere we look, to look at the
reality- a reality this commission will examine. I’m sure most
of you are familiar with the first example: the war in Iraq.
Supposedly, the war was to eliminate Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.
Now it is said: that was a mistake. It was bad intelligence.
The administration says it, and much of Congress says it , the
Press says it, “Had we only known – but we thought they
had weapons of mass destruction. So we must in the future get
better intelligence.” As if that explains or excuses why
we went to war. But of course, that explanation — the failure
of intelligence — and it is still the current explanation of
today, by the elites, hides the real reasons for war. It blames
some negligent officials, individuals, at the CIA, for leading
us into war. All we need to do according to them is correct that
and we won’t be in mistaken wars any longer. Mistaken wars will
come to an end. If you believe that, you believe in the tooth
fairy. We all know that is not the truth. In fact, in 1967, at
the speech hear at Riverside, Martin Luther King predicted it.
He said we will be marching and protesting wars for the rest
of our lives as long as we are on the wrong side of history.
And we are on the wrong side of history.
Sometimes I ask myself: why
did we progressives know the weapons of mass destruction story
was a cover for war? But Congress and the media claimed they
did not? Because they — all of them– Democrats, Republicans,
the media — they were all reading from the same page. And that
page is U.S. world exploitation and domination. And of course
what does the truth tell us about the war in Iraq? It tells us
that it’s an aggressive war, a crime against peace, and according
to the judgment at Nuremberg, that kind of war is the most heinous
of all war crimes.
I can give you other examples:
For example, the fact that they say that they–the administration–
does not torture. Here is how they get away with that statement.
All of a sudden in this country, torture is not torture. Or
at worst it is abuse. And even that abuse is no worse than a
fraternity prank. Or if it was abuse, it was because abusive
techniques were only for use in Guantánamo. What sense
does that make? Used in Guantánamo as if that is ok–
and somehow they migrated to Iraq? But what does “migrated
to Iraq” mean? Are they birds, like a bird migrates? Without
any human agent, torture techniques move from one place to another?
Or we are told that it is a few bad apples, but no responsibility
of the higher-ups. And yet the media has gone along with this,
with these lies and these cover-ups. Even worse, serious media
discussion and respectability is given to the legal justifiers.
For example, John Yoo, a lawyer for the administration, who wrote
that torture could be used in the name of national security —
much like the Pinochet defense, torture in the name of national
security. I was utterly shocked the other day when I picked up
the New York Times and there on the oped page they had asked
half a dozen people what questions they would you ask the potential
new Supreme Court Judge Alito. And they asked John Yoo what
question would he ask Alito. Here they–the New York Times–is
giving credibility to a man who should not be writing opeds
in the New York Times but should be in the dock— in the dock
facing justice.
Let there be no doubt this
administration is engaged in massive violations of the law. Torture
is an international crime. It is a grave breech of the Geneva
conventions. And almost no one is telling you that. And in this
country it is anathema to do so.
A third and last example of
the hiding of reality, of the blaming of individuals, instead
of the nature of this country and its leaders is the example
of what happened in New Orleans with Katrina. It is the preparation
for and aftermath of Katrina. What do we hear and read? It was
an unpredictable act of god. It was the failure of FEMA. FEMA
had a bad manger. All sorts of excuses similar to what we heard
about the so-called intelligence failures in the Iraq war. But
to blame FEMA, to blame the individuals, obscures what we know
occurred in New Orleans. What we saw in New Orleans and the Superdome
was something very different – it was the legacy of slavery,
the legacy of Jim Crow, the legacy of separate but equal, and
it was the legacy and the current practice and policy of our
country today that human beings are seen as disposable, particularly
if they are poor and black. That is the reality of New Orleans,
and that is the reality faced everyday in this country. And again,
that is the reality this Commission will bring you.
The war, torture, and the effects
of Katrina are not looked at as failures or as products of the
system. The truths are hidden and by hiding the truth we are
disempowered. So we are here this weekend to hear truth tellers;
to empower people. It is not just a few bad apples, it is not
mistakes or bad choices, it is not just bad managers and getting
better ones; but something much more fundamental. It’s that awful
alchemy as Dr. Martin Luther King described it in this very church
– the giant triplets of “racism extreme materialism and
militarism. “
I want to say a few words about
one aspect of the current period that is extremely frightening–
Probably the most frightening development, although it does have
roots in prior administrations. The short hand for the expression
of this period and the scare and fear that I feel is, “The
king can do no wrong” or the word might be tyranny, police
state or dictatorship. I recall that after 9/11, within a few
months afterwards, I wrote an article. It was entitled, “Moving
toward a police state – or have we arrived?” And I remember
being nervous about it because this was pretty aggressive to
be saying a few months after 9/11. Was I going to get trashed
for it? Did it really reflect reality? I wasn’t sure. I had some
evidence in front of me. I had the Patriot Act. I had internal
detentions. I had the President’s military order that allows
him to pick up people anywhere in the world and detain them in
Guantánamo or elsewhere. But I still was only willing
to say ‘moving toward a police state’, not have ‘we arrived’.
And a police state to me is one where authority is not under
law, where the legislature is overridden, and where our courts
are ignored. It is a state where one can be jailed without a
court proceeding or trial and where the president, king or what
have you, can do as he pleases – wire tap, torture, and disappear
people. Unfortunately, and dangerously that is the situation
we are in today.
You are familiar with much
of the evidence, some of which I have laid out, some of which
the next two days will address. There is however one piece of
important evidence I want to bring to your attention. It shows
that the president, their president, not our president, is open
and notorious about his aims, public if you will; and if you
miss what we are being told you have to be an ostrich with your
head in the ground. What the President has done is basically
lay the plan for what has to be called a coup-d’etat in America.
It is a small paragraph and it’s contained in what is called
a ‘signing statement.’ It was signed on December 30th and it’s
the signing statement to what is called the McCain amendment.
You probably all remember the McCain amendment. That’s the amendment
that prohibits cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, or supposedly
prohibits it. The president as you recall, resisted the McCain
amendment. But in the end he had to sign it because it was part
of a broader military authorization to pay for what we’re doing
in Iraq. When a president signs legislation, he sometimes and,
more recently with President Bush, almost always, issues a signing
statement as to what his understanding of the new law is. The
president’s statement on McCain is only one short paragraph.
But it is historic. It is unprecedented. And if you’re looking
for the grab for power that allows you, permits you, compels
you to call this administration a tyranny, it is that paragraph.
It makes three points and I’ll
paraphrase. First, speaking as the president, ‘My authority as
commander in chief allows me to do whatever I think is necessary
in the war on terror including use torture. Second, the Commander
in Chief cannot be checked by Congress. Third, the Commander
in Chief cannot be checked by the courts.’ There it is. There
you have it. That boring stuff I learned as a junior high school
student about checks and balances or about limited law or about
authority under law – out the window. Gone. In other words, the
republic and democracy is over. In Germany what did they call
that? They called that the fuhrer’s law. Why? Because the fuhrer
was the law. That’s what George Bush is saying here. George Bush
is the law.
This assertion of power is
so blatant so open, and so notorious, that it is finally shocking
some people like former Vice President Gore to speak up. I’m
sure many of you are familiar with what he said in his recent
speech on Martin Luther King’s birthday. “The President
of the United State has been breaking the law repeatedly and
persistently.” He was referring to the NSA spying scandal.
And then he went on to say, “A president who breaks the
law is a threat to the very structure of our government.”
And then he said what that means to a Republic: “An executive
who acts free of the will of Congress as this president says
he can, or the check of the judiciary, as this president says
he can, becomes the central threat that the founders sought to
nullify in the Constitution.” And then Gore quotes James
Madison.to the effect that what President Bush has done is the
very definition of “tyranny.” So there you have it.
It’s not just us, its not just progressives, but even someone
like former Vice President Gore is saying this government is
the very definition of tyranny.
I believe that the president
and this grab for power will be repudiated. But it will not just
happen. The pendulum does not swing back automatically. It will
take an aroused public and an aroused people. And so the question
is really – where do we go from here? One place I can tell you
not to go is: don’t go to the Democrats in Washington.
I have to tell you I’ve have
never in my life been kicked in the teeth as badly as I was on
the Guantánamo cases when we were forced to take that
issue to the Democrats in Washington. Now I’m just going say
it here, there are a million reasons I can tell you don’t go
to Washington and the Democrats, but this one is called the Graham-Levin
Bill. After we win the right to go court for the detainees at
Guantánamo, and we win that in the Supreme Court, Republican
Senator Graham and Democrat Senator Levin get together – and
what do they decide to do a few weeks ago? But strip the courts
of any jurisdiction to hear the Guantánamo cases. That’s
what they do – Democrats and Republicans together. And then they
say you can use evidence from torture to keep those people in
jail. Kicking us right in the teeth! Kicking the courts in the
teeth. And sentencing the Guantanamo detainees to years more
of Hell. And so if you think that we’re going to get far by
going there–to the Democrats, you’ve got it wrong. Lessons of
history teach us that we don’t move our leaders without the passion
and the protest of the people.
I want to close with a sense
of hope. It’s been a rough four years, it’s been a rough twenty
years, and it’s been a rough forty years since Dr. King spoke.
But I want to close with a sense of hope. This administration
is unraveling. There is a split in the elites. Gore is one of
the best examples. Everywhere we see former administration officials
speaking out. They realize the administration has gone too far.
They want to save some remnant of democracy. We see indictments
from Scooter Libby to Delay coming fast and furious. We see General
Miller, responsible for torture in Guantánamo and Iraq,
taking the 5th amendment essentially so he won’t have to testify.
We see General Sanchez, who was head of troops in Iraq, retiring
without that 4th star. It’s a real opening for us but it is not
simply to go back to the normal. It’s not simply to save a remnant
of democracy. The malady is much deeper than that. We need a
radical transformation of our society. My hopes for today and
for the future are that the truth will arouse resistance and
with resistance there will be some change. I mean resistance
of every sort, mobilizing, protesting, disobeying and disobedience.
And then again, when I was reading Dr. King’s speech, the thought
that he closed with, and that I want to close with, is that sometimes
we can wait too long to take action. Or as Dr. King said, “you
can be too late.” And we, unless we act, may be too late.
So let me end with Dr. King’s
directive to us all: “We are now faced with the fact, my
friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce
urgency of now. There is such a thing as being too late. We still
have a choice today. Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate
ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful struggle for
our new world.”
Thank you. We’ll do this together.
Michael Ratner is President of the Center
for Constitutional Rights, and was co-counsel in Rasul
vs. Bush, the historic case of Guantánamo detainees,
in which the Supreme Court ruled that U.S. courts do indeed have
jurisdiction over Guantánamo. He is an expert in international
human rights law and a past President of the National Lawyers’
Guild.
On January 31 Michael Ratner
will be joining thousands across the country to protest President
Bush’s State of the Union message, and on February 4 he will
be addressing the World
Can’t Wait demonstration in Washington DC demanding that
President Bush Step Down.