Dec 11th, 2008
Posted by Rachel Myers, ACLU at 9:57pm	National Security

9/11 Family Members Challenge Legitimacy Of Guantánamo Military Commissions

Several press reports this week quoted people who lost loved ones on 9/11 and who were selected by the Pentagon to travel to Gitmo and attend legal proceedings for detainees accused of planning the terrorist attacks. The articles included statements attributed to those family members that the tribunals provided a fair hearing for these prosecutions and that family members "were struck by the extensive rights accorded the accused men."

No one can imagine what it’s been like for these families and how it felt for them to sit through these proceedings. But the truth is that there are many other 9/11 families with many different viewpoints who weren’t afforded the opportunity to be there, and whose opinions weren’t represented in the initial press coverage. Many of them strongly believe that the prison and the military commissions are a miscarriage of justice that have been politically motivated from the start.

We at the ACLU have been so fortunate to meet and hear from so many incredibly courageous and strong people, who tell us that they believe no closure or real justice can come from a commissions system that allows secret evidence and evidence obtained through torture. Many of them tell us that the military commissions go against the values of the ones they lost.

In order to make their voices heard, more than 30 relatives of 9/11 victims signed on to a statement making it known that that they “do not believe these military commissions to be fair, in accordance with American values, or capable of achieving the justice that 9/11 family members and all Americans deserve.”

In addition, the ACLU teamed up with Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films to produce this short video. It features four family members talking about why they believe Gitmo and the commissions should be shut down. These are people who have a tremendous amount at stake in seeing that justice is served in the prosecution of 9/11 suspects. What they have to say is truly powerful.

Please note that by playing this clip You Tube and Google will place a long-term cookie on your computer. Please see You Tube's privacy statement on their website and Google's privacy statement on theirs to learn more. To view the ACLU's privacy statement, click here.

To learn more about the campaign to close Guantánamo and end the military commissions, go to www.closegitmo.com.

Permalink |	National Security

Tags: Close Guantanamo

1. liberal hater Says:
   Dec 11th, 2008 at 10:53pm

   The ACLU supports terrorist!

2. ADELAIDE FORREST Says:
   Dec 12th, 2008 at 2:54pm

   ANY EVIDENCE GAINED BY TORTURE OR HEAR-SAY CAN NOT BE ENTERED AS EVIDENCE AGAINST ANYONE. REGARDLESS OF WHAT KING GEORGE AND PRINCE CHENEY SAY.

3. ADELAIDE FORREST Says:
   Dec 12th, 2008 at 2:56pm

   ANY EVIDENCE GAINED BY TORTURE OR HEAR-SAY CAN NOT BE ENTERED AS EVIDENCE AGAINST ANYONE.

4. Boony Says:
   Dec 12th, 2008 at 4:00pm

   I agree.
   There have been times when I or someone I care about has been hurt and as a result, Ive wanted revenge BUT in any legal judicial worthy of the name....Its far more important to have justice rather than revenge.

5. Isidoro Rodriguez, Esq. Says:
   Dec 14th, 2008 at 4:18am

   OPEN LETTER TO MEMBERS OF THE U.S. SENATE

   RE: OPPOSITION TO SENATE CONFIRMATION OF ERIC HOLDER AS ATTORNEY GENERAL OF DOJ BASED ON THE EVIDENCE OF HIS CRIMINAL OBSTRUCT-ION OF THE UNDERSIGN’S FEDERAL STATUTORY RIGHTS AS A FATHER AND ATTORNEY IN VIOLATION OF 18 U.S.C. §§ 241, 242, 1202, AND 1513.

   Greetings:

   I write as a US. citizen, as a Nam Vet who swore 44 years ago to defend the Constitution, as a former appointee in both the Carter and Reagan Administration, as a independent federal civil/human rights litigation attorney who for more than 32 years has successfully represented Hispanics against the malfeasance of DOJ,1 and a supporter of President-elect Obama, because irrespective of being a Republican, Democrat, or Independent the Senate must immediately act to restore the Rule of Law in the U.S. Department of Justice (See Adam Cohen, “Democratic Pressure on Obama to Restore the Rule of Law,” The New York Times, November 14, 2008).

   For this reason I oppose the confirmation of Eric Holder as Attorney General because he is a defendant in a pending action under 18 U.S.C. § 3771 and civil RICO action to be filed in the U.S. District Court for D.C., based on the following evidence in the record that establishes that as a Beltway attorney/lobbyist he is the linchpin in a criminal conspiracy since 2003:

   First, for five years after my Son was shanghaied to the Republic of Colombia in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1204, he did obstruct my Federal and Virginia statutory rights as a Father to compel DOJ to secure my right to international visitations with my U.S. citizen Son, pursuant to the provisions of the Hague Convention on Missing and Abducted Children (“Treaty”), and Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act VA Code § 20-124.1 et seq. (“UCCJEA”); and,

   Second, in retaliation for my litigating to enforce my rights under Treaty and UCCJEA and petitioning Congress (See http://www.liamsdad.org/others/isidoro.shtml), in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 241, 242, and 1513, he conspired to punish, stigmatize, and deprive me of my right to employment as an attorney.2

   Thus, my opposition to Eric Holder is a continuation of my petitions of 2005 to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees: (a) for an investigation of the collusion of the Federal Courts and DOJ by abuse of the Judicial Conference Act and the Rules Enabling Act to usurp the authority of Congress, the Constitutional mandates of checks and balances, as well as separation of power, and to deprive citizens of substantive rights; and, (b) my petition opposing the confirmation of Chief Justice John G. Roberts for his false statement to Congress aiding and abetting the obstruction of my right to compel DOJ to enforce my rights as a Father under the Treaty and UCCJEA (See http://www.home.earthlink.net/~isidoror/id6.html).

   Consequentl y based on the above evidence of malfeasance the Senate must take the opportunity during the confirmation proceedings of not only Eric Holder, bu of all appointments to DOJ to hold hearings on past violations of the Rule of Law and Congressional mandates. For example, the Senate must inquire into the abuse of the Rules Enabling Act to use both summary judgement and Feldman abstention doctrine which has permitted State Court to deprive citizens of due process and parental rights under the Treaty, the surreal holdings of absolute Judicial and Executive Branch immunity for liability from suit for criminal and tortious acts which injure Fathers rights, the denial of RICO civil jury trial on claims of judicial and ministerial malfeasance, and the policy of denying access to an impartial court and the protection to victim of malfeasance pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3771, through secrete proceedings with DOJ by abuse of the Judicial Conference Act.3

   This is because the lessons from history have shown that,

   Once certain checks and balances are destroyed, and once certain institutions have been intimidated, the pressure that can turn an open society into a closed one-turn into direct assaults; at that point events tend to occur very rapidly, and a point comes at which there is no easy turning back to the way it used to be. Naomi Wolf, The End of America: Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot, p. 14, Chelsea Green Publishing, Vermont, 2007.4

   Therefore, at this critical time for our Republic the Senate must restore the Rule of Law, as well as the integrity and public confidence in DOJ by assuring compliance with the words inscribed on the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Department Building: “No Free Government Can Survive That Is Not Based on The Supremacy of Law. Where Law ends, Tyranny Begins, Law Alone Can Give Us Freedom.”

   For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully request that I have your support to be given an opportunity to testify and present evidence in opposition at the Senate confirmation hearing of Eric Holder.

   Very truly yours,

   Isidoro Rodriguez, Esq.

   1After I argued and won Martinez v. Lamagno and DOJ/DEA, 515 U.S. 417 (1995), the Legal Times confirmed that I was the only known U.S. license practitioner residing outside of the U.S. and litigating in Federal Courts on behalf of resident and nonresident Hispanics, see also Lopez v. First Union, 129 F3.rd. 1186 (11th Cir. 1997)(Litigation that successfully stopped the unlawful seizing by DOJ of all nonresident Hispanic bank accounts in the U.S.)[Web: http://justiciaportodo.webs.com]

   2In retaliation for filing Rodriguez et al., v. National center for Missing and exploited Children et al., Civil Action No. 030120, 2005 WL 736526 (D.C. Cir. March 31, 2005), to compel DOJ to secure visitation rights under the Treaty and UCCJEA, Eric Holder filed fraudulent bar complaints in 2003 with the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board (“VSBDB”). But, the VSBDB issued a void orders as a kangaroo court since the General Assembly granted the power to revoke an attorneys license only to courts-of-record and judges. [See 2007 Petition for Impeachment of Va. Supreme Court, et al., http://www.petitiononline.com/RDL/petition.html; see also http://best-lawyer.tistory.com/entry/Isidoro-Rodriguez-Civil-Rights-La wyerFAMILY-LAW].

   3The evidence confirms that in retaliation the Federal Courts have: (I) refused to empanel a Special Grand Jury and denied me access to an impartial court to compel DOJ to protect me as a victim of federal crimes as mandated by 18 U.S.C. § 3771(a), In re Isidoro Rodriguez US S Ct. No. 08-339, Writ denied on November 17, 2008 (Petitioner’s Exhibit 3); (II) deprived me of my right to a jury trial in the D. C. under RICO-based on the holding of absolute Judicial and Executive immunity from tortious and criminal liability-and declared lack of venue to maintain a RICO action in D.C., Isidoro Rodriguez, Esq. v. Editor in Chief, Legal Times, et al., US S Ct. No. 08-411, Cert. denied December 1, 2008; and, (III) denied me of procedural and substantive due process right by refusing to enjoin the illegal attorney disciplinary system of the Supreme Court of Virginia, Isidoro Rodriguez v. Hon. Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr. Chief Justice, Sup. Ct. of VA, et al., US S Ct. No. 08-574, Cert. denied on December 8, 2008.

   3The dangers to our Republic and citizens by collusion of DOJ with the Federal Courts are real. ". . . the Courts in our judicial system have, in fact, become the lawmakers, when it is very clear . . . that our Constitution delegated that responsibility to the Congress of the United States and the State Legislatures . . . the legal profession has truly changed from being one of the premier professions in our society to a business where the number one objective or bottom line is financial profit . . . " Dennis DeConcini, U.S. Senator (Ret). The Fraternity: Lawyers and Judges in Collusion, by John Fitzgerald Molloy. St. Paul, Minn.: Paragon House.

   THE LAW OFFICES OF ISIDORO RODRIGUEZ
   ATTORNEYS AND COUNSELORS AT LAW
   Isidoro Rodriguez, Esq. Dra. Irene Rodriguez
   A member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court; Admitted Rep. of Colombia
   of the U.S. Ct. of App for 2nd, D.C., and Fed. Cir.; and U.S. Tax Ct.

   Northern Virginia Office: South American Office:
   7924 Peyton Forest Trail World Trade Center
   Annandale, Virginia 22003-1560 Calle 76 No. 54-11, Office 313
   Telephone: 703.573.1571/telefax: 571.423.5066 Barranquilla, Colombia
   Mobil: 703.470.1457 Telephone: 011.5753.605288
   Email: isidoror@earthlink.net E-mail:irenerod@earthlink.net
   Web: http://home.earthlink.net/~isidoror Web: http://justiciaportodo.webs.com

6. scrivener Says:
   Dec 15th, 2008 at 11:15am

   FISA has been misused to enable a series of secret programs used in the extrajudicial targeting of U.S. citizens by government agencies involved in intelligence, law enforcement and revenue collection. These agencies have been hijacked by ideologues who are using the war on terror as a pretext for a peculiar form of social engineering.

   I’m a longtime mainstream journalist whose career, finances and physical well-being have been decimated by these programs. Agencies of government are using “directed energy weapons” that emit silent radiation to slowly incapacitate their targets. THIS IS TORTURE AND IT IS GOING ON IN COMMUNITIES ACROSS AMERICA.

   Please read the following article, and the additional article cited in the link that follows. I have been trying to secure legal assistance on behalf of untold thousands of Americans who have been victimized as I have been over the past five years. I put my 35+ years of credibility on the line here. Only recently have my posts been allowed to go through to the ACLU blog with some consistency. My communications are not just being surveilled — my internet and telephonic communications are subject to malicious interference and interception.

   Please read this article, which is based on first-hand experience and reporting, and please help me arrange a meeting with ACLU attorneys. If this can happen to me, it can (and is) happening to many other innocent Americans:

   …Secret programs are destroying families…

   ‘Extrajudicial Targeting’ of U.S. Citizens by Gov’t Agencies: Root Cause of Global Financial Crisis?

   GET POLITICAL w/ VIC LIVINGSTON columnist, members.nowpublic.com/scrivener; former business reporter, Fox TV Phila., N.Y. Daily News ‘Tonight’, Philadelphia Bulletin, St. Petersburg Times

   Could government “targeting” of American citizens outside the bounds of the judicial system be one of the root causes of the Wall Street financial meltdown that threatens to devastate the global economy?

   Victims of so-called “organized gang stalking” claim that federal and local government agencies involved in intelligence, law enforcement, and revenue collection have established a network of secret programs aimed at destroying the financial well-being of “targeted” individuals — who are denied due process of law as their financial resources are systematically expropriated.

   These programs allegedly involve the interception of mail; surveillance, interception, and alteration of telecommunications, including telephone and internet communications; fabrication of bank, credit card, mortgage and billing statements; surreptitious manipulation of personal and business bank and mortgage accounts.

   Victims of this alleged “extrajudicial targeting” report being inundated with offers of “easy credit” from banks, mortgage companies and credit card issuers — even if their financial situation does not warrant the extension of generous lines of credit. Typically, consumers are lured in by low interest rates — only to see those rates raised to usurious levels months later.

   In effect, victims say, a secret parallel system of transaction processing has been established for persons targeted by government agencies. They allege that the goal is to destroy their capacity to earn a living and to support themselves and their families.

   Victims theorize that these “programs of personal destruction” are a derivative of past controversial government programs such as Cointelpro and Total Information Awareness. They maintain that the enactment of sweeping laws such as the USA Patriot Act, passed by Congress in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has emboldened those who would use the powers of the state to restrict civil liberties as a tool of social control.

   The “mechanics” of these programs of personal destruction, victims say, closely resemble the tactics employed by pre-war Nazi Germany in its campaign against the Jews and other targeted groups, such as those deemed to be political “dissenters.”

   Victims charge that some of these programs also are designed to degrade their physical health, with health care professionals sometimes pressured to cooperate. Citizen vigilantes affiliated with government-funded community policing and “watch” groups are employed to relentlessly stalk, harass and intimidate those targeted by these government programs, victims charge.

   These civilian vigilantes, with retired military and public safety officers among their ranks, are said to have access to surveillance imposed upon their targets, who are tracked and followed like prey, whether in vehicles or on foot.

   The vigilante stalkers are believed to be equipped with high-tech instruments such as radiation-emitting “directed energy” weapons capable of causing serious adverse health effects — what some describe as a “slow genocide.”

   Officials in the private sector are believed to have knowledge of some of these programs, since their cooperation is key to the functioning of the system. Victims charge that the government is using national security and the “war on terror” as a pretext to secure the cooperation of local law enforcement, corporations and businesses. But they say it’s also possible that the civilian overseers of these agencies, as well as civilian operatives, have been kept in the dark about the most nefarious aspects of these programs.

   It’s feared that the government takeover of more than half of the nation’s mortgage market, and government bailouts and supervision of failed and financially troubled banks, investment houses and insurers, could facilitate this extrajudicial targeting of citizens and their personal and business assets.

   Those who say they have been victimized by these programs are calling upon Congress to immediately convene hearings on unconstitutional, extra-legal abuses of power carried out under the direction of government agencies — what they see as an unraveling of the American constitutional democracy and a descent into a corporate-fascist police state.

   FOR MORE ON STATE-SUPPORTED DOMESTIC TERRORISM:

   http://www.nowpublic.com/world/american-gestapo-stat e-supported-terrorism-targets-u-s-citizens

   OR (if link is disabled): members.NowPublic.com/scrivener RE: “American Gestapo…”

   (NOTE: MR. Livingston’s bio, contact information and additional writings can be found at his web site.)

7. Steve Says:
   Dec 18th, 2008 at 9:02pm

   We could have won the war on terror years ago if not for the ACLU. The ACLU is the only reason we have terrorism.

8. Isidoro Rodriguez, Esq. Says:
   Apr 27th, 2009 at 6:15am

   Re: Present/former Attorneys of DOJ Collusion with Judges of the Judicial Branch to Use Cronyism to Obtain Immunity for Malfeasance-including to Authorize “Torture.”

   Dear Mr. President:

   Regarding the above referenced issue, I write as a Nam Vet, a former White House appointee in both the Carter and Reagan Administrations, and as an independent federal civil litigation practitioner for the past three decades, to underscore that history has shown that Democracies such as ours are precarious institutions. Therefore, constant vigilance must be maintained to preserve our Constitution from undue government encroachment by the use of legal sophistry of lawyers and judges intentionally acting to circumvent the limitations on the powers granted the government by “the people” in the Constitution and the Rule of Law.

   For this reason we must make certain that as a Nation faced with the threat of terrorism, we do not transform ourselves into legal tyrannies by permitting the legal profession to utilize cronyism to immunize government employees and judges from accountability for negligent, or criminal acts outside of their scope of authority, judicial capacity, or jurisdiction. As Thomas Jefferson stated more than 200 years ago,

   "[t]he germ of destruction of our nation is in the power of the judiciary, an irresponsible body - working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall render powerless the checks of one branch over the other and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated."

   In this context, we must always recall the sorry behavior of German judges and lawyers use of cronyism during Nazi era which did play an important part in allowing Hitler to power, because, “[l]egal scholars are still perplexed to explain how a highly developed and sophisticated legal system – German law and jurisprudence under the Weimar Republic – became so readily corrupted and how legal actors – German judges and other judicial officials, lawyers, and law professors – could so easily become willing accomplices in this process. The sad fact is that legal sophistication did not inoculate German law and German legal actors from actively participating in the perverse changes being made to the German legal system during the Nazi era, including the legal exclusion of German Jews from the concept of “citizen,” and the Nuremberg Race Laws, which gradually transformed the non-citizen Jew into a subhuman not worthy of life. By the time the gas vans came and the human slaughter factories were built in Auschwitz and the other death camps, the murder of the six million Jews and other persecuted minorities was done completely within the framework of German law.” Professor Michael Bazyler, The Legacy of the Holocaust and Lessons for Today: Research for a New Textbook Holocaust, Genocide, and the Law, Yad Vshem The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes Remembrance Authority, 2004. (Emphasis added).

   The evidence confirms that in reality the issue of immunity for “torture,” is a subpart of the larger issue of the on gong criminal conspiracy of present and former attorneys in DOJ and judges in the Judicial Branch to intentionally violate Congress’ delegations under the Rules Enabling Act and the Judicial Conference Act to deny access to an impartial court. Consequently, the evidence confirms the use of cronyism to surreally assert immunity for past and present acts tortious and criminal acts in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 241, 242, 1204, and 1523, by government attorneys and judges to cover-up and deny me access to an impartial jury trial under RICO for the criminal obstruction of my statutory rights as a father and retaliation by issuing and enforcing a void order to deprive me of my right of employment as an independent sole practitioner.Isidoro Rodriguez, Esq. v. Editor-in-Chief, Legal Times, et al., DC Ct. Of App. No. 07-5234Isidoro Rodriguez, Esq. and Isidoro Rodriguez-Hazbun v. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children et al., D.C. No. 03-0120 (Roberts, J.)Martinez v. Lamagno and DEA, 515 U.S. 417 (1995)

   Therefore, consistent with Dr. Matin Luther King. Jr., statement because "[i]njustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," there must be an investigation and review of the collusion of DOJ and the Judicial Branch to violate the mandates of Congress, disregard the Rule of Law, and assume away the limitations under the Constitution (see 2005 Petition: http://www.liamsdad.org/others/isidoro.shtml). As explained by the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Lee, 106 U.S. 196, 220 (1882),

   [n]o man in this country is so high that he is above the law. No officer of the law may set that law at defiance with impunity. All the officers of the government, from the highest to the lowest, are creatures of the law and are bound to obey it. It is the only supreme power in our system of government, and every man who by accepting office participates in its functions is only the more strongly bound to submit to that supremacy, and to observe the limitations which it imposes upon the exercise of the authority which it gives. (Emphasis added).

   Sincerely,

   Isidoro Rodriguez, Esq.

   1.The evidence is that DOJ and Judicial Branch have conspired to unilaterally declare themselves absolutely immune from suit for conspiring to usurp the authority of Congress and assume away Constitutional restrictions and prohibitions. To this end the Courts have denied access to an impartial jury trial and assumed away the rights under the Ninth Amendment to avoid the restrictions the power of government (http://home.earthlink.net/~isidoror).

   2.Isidoro Rodriguez, Esq. v. Ed.-in-Chief, Legal Times, et al., DC Ct. Of App. No. 07-5234 (Feldman, J.)(Court held government “absolutely immune for tortious and criminal acts); see also, Isidoro Rodriguez, Esq. and Isidoro Rodriguez-Hazbun v. NCMEC, et al., D.C. No. 03-0120 (Roberts, J.); and, See Martinez v. Lamagno and DEA, 515 U.S. 417 (1995)(A FTCA suit I filed where DOJ under Eric Holder argued that there was no liability for a DEA agent causing an accident while driving drunk and having sex).

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