Between The Lines: The Center for Constitutional Rights Human Rights Group's Claire Tixeire on Efforts to Indict former President George W. Bush for Authorizing Torture (Week Ending 2/25/11)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

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His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

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Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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Human Rights Groups Pursue Indictment of George W. Bush for Authorizing Torture

Posted Feb. 16, 2011

Real Audio MP3

Interview with Claire Tixeire, jurist and legal researcher with the Center for Constitutional Rights, conducted by Scott Harris

bushtorture Although George W. Bush has been out of office since January 2009, human rights groups in America and around the world are working to hold the former U.S. president accountable for what many international law scholars believe to be human rights abuses and war crimes. Two torture victims had planned to file criminal complaints in Geneva Switzerland on behalf of the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights and the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights on Feb. 7, naming President Bush as responsible for authorizing their torture, including waterboarding, while in U.S. custody. The filing of the complaints was to coincide with Bush's scheduled trip to Switzerland on Feb. 12, as Swiss law requires that a person being charged with torture must be present in the country before an investigation can be opened. However, at the last moment, the former president cancelled his trip to Switzerland, presumably due to the legal case being filed against him.

Although Bush's cancelled trip to Switzerland derailed the planned preliminary indictment, the human rights groups involved in preparing the complaints announced that their 42-page legal document, including 2,500 pages of supporting material, could be used against President Bush in his future travels abroad. Under terms of the U.N. Convention Against Torture, all signatories of the treaty -- including the U.S. -- are obligated to prosecute anyone present in their territory if there is evidence supporting allegations that an individual has committed torture. President Bush has proudly admitted in press interviews that he authorized waterboarding of U.S.-held terrorist suspects.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Claire Tixeire, a jurist and legal researcher with the Center for Constitutional Rights. She explains the basis for the Bush torture indictment and plans by human rights groups to pursue the case around the world.

CLAIRE TIXEIRE: The evidence that we have is actually quite impressive. It's a very straightforward and easy case. There have been hundreds of pages of declassified reports that have shed light on how George W. Bush authorized the CIA secret detention program; on how he shaped those policies; on how he authorized personally and condoned enhanced interrogation techniques. We have testimonies, we have international reports. But most importantly, in Bush's case, we have his own acknowledgment that he authorized torture. He has said in his memoir that was released in November, that he personally, when he was asked by the CIA if he would authorize them to proceed to waterboarding of a detainee, he writes in his book that he replied, "Damn right, I do."

The detainee was subsequently waterboarded 183 times in one month. And then other detainees were subjected to waterboarding and ultimately that also paved the way for even more abuses. Waterboarding is torture. There is not a doubt that it is torture. Today, even the Obama administration fully recognizes that waterboarding is torture. So you have the former president of the United States, saying, "Yes, I did authorize torture." He also said it on TV on Primetime during his interview back in November. And you know, we have a lot of other documents establishing his personal, criminal responsibility. You know, exactly nine years ago, on Feb. 7, 2002, George Bush signed a memo in which he decided that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to the Taliban or al Qaeda detainees, including the clause that prohibits inhumane treatment, an act of torture. And that, the Senate itself, in a bipartisan committee report has found that memo did pave the way for the abuses of detainees in the war on terror. But now as the evidence keeps on coming out, it's even worse than that, I mean, he personally authorized and condoned waterboarding and other acts of torture. So it's a pretty straightforward case, unfortunately.

BETWEEN THE LINES: What has been the reaction of the Obama administration since they took office in 2009 in terms of complaints about human rights abuses by U.S. officials, including George W. Bush and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as well as some of the attorneys that were advising the White House, like John Yoo? What has been the Obama administration's reaction to calls for investigations and prosecution?

CLAIRE TIXEIRE: The Obama administration, since 2009, has repeatedly said, with regards to prosecution of these crimes perpetrated by American officials, "We want to look forward; we do not want to look backwards." And they have decided not to initiate any serious investigation into the criminal responsibility of higher-ups. There's been one special prosecutor appointed to look at a very, very narrow group of possible abuses perpetrated basically by "actors" -- you know, officials -- on the ground; that mandate of the investigation is so narrow that never will it go up the chain of command and never will it go looking at the actual torture program. That is unbelievable.

And more than that, the WikiLeaks revelation last December having to do with something really even more confusing and more than disappointing -- it revealed that the embassy of the United States in Madrid did all it could in 2009 under the Obama presidency to block two pending proceedings in Spain that were looking at the responsibility of Bush administration officials authorizing torture at Guantanamo and elsewhere. So, it's one thing to not start an investigation in your own country; it's another to even block efforts in other countries. And that's actually directly hurting the independence of justice in that country, which is yet another crime in of itself.

BETWEEN THE LINES: What are the next steps for these international human rights groups when it comes to holding Bush administration officials accountable?

CLAIRE TIXEIRE: Well, the document that we have publicly released that we call "The Indictment for Torture for Bush" is a living document that we are going to be updating and strengthening. And we're going to be looking at where Bush is traveling next. He's scheduled to go to Canada next October. So, we're going to be working with Canadian groups and seeing what can be done over there. But we're also looking at other Bush administration officials like (Dick) Cheney, Rumsfeld, or (George) Tenet as well as the administration's lawyers, John Yoo, (David) Addington or Jay Bybee. And we have those cases ready for them and we will pursue accountability wherever and whenever we can.

Learn more about the case against former President Bush by visiting the group's website at www.ccrjustice.org