From Perceval Press today: (see eta below)
Dear President-Elect Obama,
Please do all that you honestly can to bring to justice Dick Cheney, David Addington, John Yoo, William Haynes, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rice, Colin Powell, George Tennet, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzalez, Karl Rove, and numerous other members of the Bush administration since the start of 2001 who have either been directly responsible for or complicit in the numerous acts of treason, human rights violations and other crimes in the United States of America and abroad, including in but not limited to Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Colombia, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and Lebanon. There have been many violations of domestic and international law by the Bush/ Cheney regime, but the use of torture by this administration, in blatant disregard of long-accepted international and U.S. standards, is on its own enough to see many U.S. officials prosecuted and jailed. The energetic promotion and white-washing of torture by U.S. interrogators are not only reprehensible and damaging to the reputation of the United States, but have undoubtedly placed all of its citizens - military as well as civilian- in increased danger from reprisals and acts of terrorism for years to come. The war crimes and clearly-impeachable misconduct of the Bush/Cheney administrations cannot go unprosecuted and unpunished if citizens of the United States of America are to move forward with relatively clear consciences and the hoped for restoration of their country's relatively good standing in the community of nations. This is about moral responsibility, common decency, and historical legacy. Thank you in advance, Mr. Obama.
http://www.percevalpress.com
ETAThere are things about this that bother me. Worry me. I agree, emotionally and ethically, that there have been war crimes committed in my name. But I also worry that directing too much energy toward that, right at the beginning of what I fervently hope is, and will work for making be, a huge change in our national bearing, will steal from what needs to be done.
I trust Mr. Obama to do what he honestly can. I think he's well-educated, thoughtful, resourceful, aware.
I just wanted to put this out here, as an articulate presentation of one aspect of the effects of the last 7 years.
ETA2 I should mention, too, that Mr. Mortensen has a double degree, essentially Government or Political Science and Spanish, from St. Lawrence College in New York. I suspect that as angry as he is about this, he's put a fair amount of thought into this post.
ETA 3 Rewritten and reposted on 11.8.08
Dear President-Elect Obama,
Please do all that you honestly can to bring to justice Dick Cheney, David Addington, John Yoo, William "Jim" Haynes, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rice, Colin Powell, George Tennet, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzalez, Karl Rove, and numerous other members of the Bush administration since the start of 2001 who have either been directly responsible for or complicit in the almost countless acts of treason, human rights violations and other crimes in the United States of America and abroad, including in but not limited to Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and Lebanon. There have been many violations of domestic and international law by the Bush/ Cheney regime, but the use of torture by this administration, in blatant disregard of long-accepted international and U.S. standards, is on its own enough to see many U.S. officials prosecuted and jailed. The energetic promotion and white-washing of torture by U.S. interrogators are not only reprehensible and damaging to the reputation of the United States, but have undoubtedly placed all of its citizens - military as well as civilian- in increased danger from reprisals and acts of terrorism for years to come. The fact that a good part of the torture has been conducted by U.S. citizens not just in Saddam Hussein's former house of cruelties in Abu Ghraib, but also in the lawless confines of Guantánamo's Camp Delta and in numerous secret sites around the world tied to U.S. government use of "rendition", only makes it harder to forgive and forget these acts of savagery. These and other war crimes and the clearly-impeachable misconduct of the Bush/Cheney administrations cannot go unprosecuted and unpunished if citizens of the United States of America are to move forward with relatively clear consciences and the hoped for restoration of their country's standing in the community of nations. This is about moral responsibility, common decency, and historical legacy. Thank you in advance, Mr. Obama.
Viggo Mortensen
Please do all that you honestly can to bring to justice Dick Cheney, David Addington, John Yoo, William Haynes, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rice, Colin Powell, George Tennet, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzalez, Karl Rove, and numerous other members of the Bush administration since the start of 2001 who have either been directly responsible for or complicit in the numerous acts of treason, human rights violations and other crimes in the United States of America and abroad, including in but not limited to Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Colombia, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and Lebanon. There have been many violations of domestic and international law by the Bush/ Cheney regime, but the use of torture by this administration, in blatant disregard of long-accepted international and U.S. standards, is on its own enough to see many U.S. officials prosecuted and jailed. The energetic promotion and white-washing of torture by U.S. interrogators are not only reprehensible and damaging to the reputation of the United States, but have undoubtedly placed all of its citizens - military as well as civilian- in increased danger from reprisals and acts of terrorism for years to come. The war crimes and clearly-impeachable misconduct of the Bush/Cheney administrations cannot go unprosecuted and unpunished if citizens of the United States of America are to move forward with relatively clear consciences and the hoped for restoration of their country's relatively good standing in the community of nations. This is about moral responsibility, common decency, and historical legacy. Thank you in advance, Mr. Obama.
http://www.percevalpress.com
ETAThere are things about this that bother me. Worry me. I agree, emotionally and ethically, that there have been war crimes committed in my name. But I also worry that directing too much energy toward that, right at the beginning of what I fervently hope is, and will work for making be, a huge change in our national bearing, will steal from what needs to be done.
I trust Mr. Obama to do what he honestly can. I think he's well-educated, thoughtful, resourceful, aware.
I just wanted to put this out here, as an articulate presentation of one aspect of the effects of the last 7 years.
ETA2 I should mention, too, that Mr. Mortensen has a double degree, essentially Government or Political Science and Spanish, from St. Lawrence College in New York. I suspect that as angry as he is about this, he's put a fair amount of thought into this post.
ETA 3 Rewritten and reposted on 11.8.08
Dear President-Elect Obama,
Please do all that you honestly can to bring to justice Dick Cheney, David Addington, John Yoo, William "Jim" Haynes, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rice, Colin Powell, George Tennet, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzalez, Karl Rove, and numerous other members of the Bush administration since the start of 2001 who have either been directly responsible for or complicit in the almost countless acts of treason, human rights violations and other crimes in the United States of America and abroad, including in but not limited to Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and Lebanon. There have been many violations of domestic and international law by the Bush/ Cheney regime, but the use of torture by this administration, in blatant disregard of long-accepted international and U.S. standards, is on its own enough to see many U.S. officials prosecuted and jailed. The energetic promotion and white-washing of torture by U.S. interrogators are not only reprehensible and damaging to the reputation of the United States, but have undoubtedly placed all of its citizens - military as well as civilian- in increased danger from reprisals and acts of terrorism for years to come. The fact that a good part of the torture has been conducted by U.S. citizens not just in Saddam Hussein's former house of cruelties in Abu Ghraib, but also in the lawless confines of Guantánamo's Camp Delta and in numerous secret sites around the world tied to U.S. government use of "rendition", only makes it harder to forgive and forget these acts of savagery. These and other war crimes and the clearly-impeachable misconduct of the Bush/Cheney administrations cannot go unprosecuted and unpunished if citizens of the United States of America are to move forward with relatively clear consciences and the hoped for restoration of their country's standing in the community of nations. This is about moral responsibility, common decency, and historical legacy. Thank you in advance, Mr. Obama.
Viggo Mortensen