Prosecution

By David Swanson

It’s not that I really object to lies about Obama. Most people lie about Obama to make him look good, for the same reason they lie about death or God — because they can’t handle the truth. Others lie about Obama because Fox News told them to or because he’s black, but they mostly make him look better too (“socialist!” “pacifist!” “government healthcare!”). What does disturb me is the entire 16-page afterword to John read more

Listen here http://www.theurbanjournal.org

By David Swanson

Former prime minister Tony Blair’s testimony was streamed live at 4:30 a.m. ET at the Iraq Inquiry website and on other sites, such as the UK newspaper the Telegraph which allowed viewers to rank Blair’s responses on a “Lie Meter”. Telegraph readers’ top desired questions pre-hearing were:

* What was the real motivation for invading Iraq?
* Why did you not act like a Statesman and stand up to Bush?
* Do you think the world is a read more

An organization of attorneys, journalists, and advocates today filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act requesting the long-suppressed report from the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) regarding the conduct of President Bush’s top lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel who authored memos purporting to authorize torture and aggressive war.

The request, reproduced below along with a transmittal letter, asks for the OPR report that has long read more

By David Swanson

Compare Tony Blair’s latest confession to mass murder with Bush’s. The BBC has just aired an interview of Blair in which he was asked whether he would have attacked Iraq even if he had known there were no “weapons of mass destruction” there. Blair replied:

“I would still have thought it right to remove him.”

Him is, of course, Saddam Hussein. And of course Blair did know that Iraq had no serious weapons and that any such weapons were not read more

Annotated Aggression: Being Jay Bybee
By David Swanson

It’s October 23, 2002, and you’re Jay Bybee, the man in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel in the United States Department of Justice. John Yoo and a bunch of other lawyers willing to claim that absolutely anything is legal work for you. But you’d much rather be a judge. That would be a cushy job, a lifetime job, a job with a book of the Bible named for it, a job where you would get to decide which crimes to legalize rather read more

By David Swanson

One of the best features of a visit to Los Angeles is the opportunity to hang out with the guy who put Charles Manson in prison, the most successful criminal prosecutor we’re ever likely to see, Vince Bugliosi (105 convictions in 106 felony jury trials, 21 convictions in 21 murder trials). I spoke with him on Tuesday about his forthcoming documentary film (pre-order DVD here http://www.indiegogo.com/bush ).

I consider Vince a friend, an ally, and a hero, but we don’t read more

The University of Virginia, to the shame of us alumni, contracts with the Pentagon, builds a research park nextdoor to a military spying center, employs the guy in charge of derailing the 9-11 commission, and now proposes to record the oral history of George W. Bush’s misleadership.

If they were to obtain audio recordings of the prompts given him during debates at which he wore an ear piece, or English translations of his more comical utterances, I could see a limited value. But recording read more