Criminal Prosecution

Contractors in Iraq could face charges in earlier incidents
By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers

Private security contractors operating in Iraq could face Iraqi prosecution for acts committed when they supposedly had immunity from Iraqi law, U.S. officials said Thursday.

A new U.S.-Iraq security agreement doesn't specifically prevent Iraqi officials from bringing criminal charges retroactively in cases such as the September 2007 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians by contractors protecting a State Department convoy, officials told security company officials during meetings in Washington Thursday.

The news caught company officials by surprise.

Democracy Now!.

New Channel 5.

Cheney's lawyer files motion to quash indictment.

Many people have been asking us, "Could Bush actually pardon himself?". Would it be despicable? Sure it would. Would it be shameless and cowardly? Yes, that and that too. But all those adjectives fit Bush like O.J.'s glove before it shrunk from being soaked completely in blood. Which means he is absolutely is planning on doing it.

And only impeachment could stop it. We need to talk about this. We need Congress to talk about this. And Congress is in session this week, so we need you to speak out this week while there is still time.

Impeach Now Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/impeach_now.php

Tens of thousands of you submitted the action page on this last week. Do it again. Please speak out again while we still can. There is already a drum beat in the right wing media calling on Bush to pardon his whole administration. Only our voices can raise the price of such action so that there would be real consequences.

By Dave Lindorff

The ongoing and deepening global economic crisis, to which Barack Obama owes his presidential election victory, is no small thing, to be sure. It also presents us on the left with a lot of openings to press for progressive change.

Then please read the indictment of Dick Cheney posted here:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/37794

He is charged with influencing ICE to contract with for-profit prison corporations in which he himself has millions invested, and with assaults on inmates and detainees. Alberto Gonzales is charged with blocking investigations of those assaults.

Arraignment is Friday.

HERE's PDF of Indictment, thanks to Jon Schwartz and Robert Wilcox and the Raymondville Chronicle & Willacy County News.

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN, Associated Press

RAYMONDVILLE, Texas – A Texas judge has set an arraignment for Vice President Dick Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other officials accused of involvement in prisoner abuse.

Presiding Judge Manuel Banales (buh-NAHL'-ehs) said Wednesday he will allow them to waive arraignment or have attorneys present rather than appear in person Friday.

Banales also said he would issue summonses, not warrants. That allows them to avoid arrest and the need to post bond.

Willacy County District Attorney Juan Guerra (GEHR'-uh) accuses Cheney, Gonzales, a state senator and others of involvement in prisoner abuse at a federal detention center in south Texas.

An unpardonable use of power
If President Bush cares about his place in history, he should think twice before issuing pardons that call his judgment, and the integrity of the rule of law, into question.
By Sen. Russ Feingold
READ AT SALON.

By Joseph L. Galloway, McClatchy Newspapers

With two months still to go before his inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama and his transition team are already getting off on the wrong foot, signaling that they have no intention of investigating anyone in the Bush administration for possible war crimes.

What we're talking about here is the torture of detained terrorist suspects in American custody in a grotesque violation of both our treaty obligations under the Geneva Conventions and our historic principles as a democratic nation.

By their own machinations and attempts to redefine and pervert both treaties and our own laws, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales, Cheney's chief of staff David Addington and any number of lesser suspects sought to shield themselves from, or put themselves above, justice.

Taxpayers will pay for Gonzales' private attorney
By Marisa Taylor | McClatchy Newspapers

The Justice Department has agreed to pay for a private lawyer to defend former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales against allegations that he encouraged officials to inject partisan politics into the department's hiring and firing practices.

Lawyers from the Justice Department's civil division often represent department employees who're sued in connection with their official actions. However, Gonzales' attorney recently revealed in court papers that the Justice Department had approved his request to pay private attorney's fees arising from the federal lawsuit.

By David Swanson

Former judge Andrew Napolitano appeared on Fox News to claim falsely that a president can pardon himself but to assert, interestingly, that a president cannot issue blanket pardons, that each person pardoned has to be named. This would seem to go against precedent. President Carter pardoned Vietnam war resisters, but his pardon referred to indictments and investigations, etc., each of which -- Napolitano argues -- would have named someone. Here's the video. But what about Lincoln's and Johnson's blanket pardons of confederates? And President Washington's blanket pardon after whiskey rebellion? What about the possibility that there might be an appropriate and legitimate use of blanket pardons in the future?

Here's another take on this:

By Nick Cargo, Raw Story

Former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, plan to take their civil lawsuit against Bush administration officials to the Supreme Court after a federal circuit court refused to rehear the case on Monday.

Former senior law lord condemns 'serious violation of international law'
By Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, guardian.co.uk

A British soldier patrols the northern suburbs of the southern Iraqi city of Basra

A British soldier patrols the northern suburbs of the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Photograph: Dave Clark/AFP/Getty images

One of Britain's most authoritative judicial figures last night delivered a blistering attack on the invasion of Iraq, describing it as a serious violation of international law, and accusing Britain and the US of acting like a "world vigilante".

Lord Bingham, in his first major speech since retiring as the senior law lord, rejected the then attorney general's defence of the 2003 invasion as fundamentally flawed.

I discuss this on today's Urban Journal. -DS

By ABC 13

McALLEN, TX -- A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County's federal detention centers.

The indictment criticizes Cheney's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees by working through the prison companies.

Gonzales is accused of using his position while in office to stop an investigation into abuses at the federal detention centers.

Another indictment charges state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. with profiting from his public office by accepting honoraria from prison management companies.

Eric Holder is the name of the man who will refuse to prosecute the Bush Cheney crime syndicate.

Digby has found some info on Holder that makes him sound surprisingly good.

One drawback: the media is focusing on his role in pushing the Marc Rich pardon, which puts Obama in the position of defending crazy pardons or being called a hypocrit -- even though there's a world of difference between pardoning someone who bribed you and pardoning someone for a crime you ordered them to commit.

By Benjamin G. Davis, Associate Professor of Law, University of Toledo College of Law

Recently released reports confirm that the United States still has very important unfinished business with regard to torture. Civilians at the highest levels of government as well as military generals have committed crimes. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, State Department Legal Adviser John Bellinger, and documents from 2003 and 2004 provide further evidence that the White House endorsed the use of torture. The Department of Justice, Department of Defense, Department of State, Intelligence, and other leadership have all been complicit. Congressional leadership has been far too passive and encouraged these acts. These are bipartisan crimes. They are crimes against the United States and the world community.

As usual, we read in the press that no one will prosecute these crimes. They will if we insist.

Former senior law lord condemns 'serious violation of international law'

Richard Norton-Taylor

One of Britain's most authoritative judicial figures last night delivered a blistering attack on the invasion of Iraq, describing it as a serious violation of international law, and accusing Britain and the US of acting like a "world vigilante".

Lord Bingham, in his first major speech since retiring as the senior law lord, rejected the then attorney general's defence of the 2003 invasion as fundamentally flawed.

By Scott Michels, ABC News

A record number of felons are seeking presidential pardons or commutations as President George W. Bush enters the final months of his term, creating one of the largest backlogs in clemency applications in recent history.

More than 2,300 people applied for a pardon or commutation in fiscal 2008, which ended Sept. 30, the largest number for any single year since at least 1900, according to Justice Department Statistics. The unprecedented number of applications and the lengthy time needed to make final decisions have led to a backlog of more than 2,000 pending clemency applications.

Who will, and will not, get clemency in the waning days of the Bush presidency -- a time when many presidents have granted sometimes controversial pardons -- remains the subject of speculation and controversy.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT for the District of Columbia

Richard Allen Hohensee,
plaintiff
v. Civil Action No._________

United States Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan,
Unites States of America,
defendants

PETITION TO REVIEW AN AGENCY

Plaintiff Richard Allen Hohensee complains of defendants and shows the Court the following:

I. JURISDICTION

Being the origination of an action on an entirely federal matter of judicial review actionable
under U.S.C. Title 5, s.s. 702, which the district courts have original jurisdiction over, involving
the negligent per se inaction of a director of a federal agency, defendant Mark Sullivan,
Director of the United States Secret Service, said inaction being vis-a-vis suspects of federal
crimes which suspects commited crimes alleged hereunder through their official capacities as