May 11th, 2009
Posted by Ateqah Khaki, National Security Project at 4:46pm	Torture

Obama Can’t Fix the Military Commissions

As news reports continue to suggest that the Obama administration is preparing to revive the military commissions system established at Guantánamo, the ACLU’s John Adams Project's Director Denny LeBeouf explains why President Obama can’t “fix” the military commissions in a Salon.com opinion piece. As Director of the project, Denny has been present at nearly all of the military commissions proceedings in the 9/11 trial.

She explains that the “[s]ince their adoption by the Bush administration, military commissions had been understood around the world as a sham — a false front designed to look like a criminal justice system but rigged to guarantee convictions and death sentences.” Denny details that one of the most disturbing aspects of the commissions process is the “degree to which they create ‘shortcuts’ that make it easier to obtain convictions than it would be in real courts” — including confessions extracted by torture, hearsay and secret evidence. In addition to using evidence obtained by torture, the commissions were also set up to protect the identity of torturers.

As the Obama administration’s 120-day review period of Guantánamo detainees comes near its end, we are calling on President Obama to entirely scrap the failed military commissions process. Where there is actual evidence of criminal activity, our federal courts are well positioned to accommodate legitimate national security interests without compromising the fundamental rights of defendants. It is of the utmost importance that these cases are tried in a court that upholds due process, and in which judges and attorneys are held to constitutional obligations and accountable to the rule of law. Our time-tested civilian courts are equipped to handle complex national security cases, and have done so successfully before and after September 11.

In the piece, Denny writes:

It is not easy to invent a criminal justice system — the one that operates in federal courts across the land is the product of more than 200 years of refinement by all three branches of our American government. Thousands of Supreme Court opinions have polished many of the rough edges off the process…

The military commissions system is 5 years old. The law itself is fraught with internal inconsistencies, besides being blatantly weighted in favor or prosecution. It has been the subject of three Supreme Court opinions, all of them reversals…

The president should not attempt to ‘fix’ the unfixable military commissions. This president was elected in part because he promised to close Guantánamo and end the commissions…

We all want America restored. Ending the military commissions, the Torture Tribunals, is a necessary step in that process.

You can read the entire piece here.

Permalink |	Torture

Tags: national security project

1. good Says:
   May 12th, 2009 at 3:44am

   http://www.travestinet.com

2. TypoNerd Says:
   May 12th, 2009 at 6:00pm

   It's the "John Adams Project's " director, not the "John Adam’s Project" director.

3. Suzanne Ito, ACLU Says:
   May 12th, 2009 at 10:05pm

   Fixed. Thanks for catching that, TypoNerd.

4. Hawaiian style Says:
   May 12th, 2009 at 11:05pm

   Military Commissions; Kangaroo court.

   No man is above the law. If that's true then the "Detainees", i.e., PRISONERS must be below the law.

   We are a Nation of Laws, when we talk the talk. When we walk the...well we don't really walk the walk, we would rather look forward, which translates to look the other way.

   You think I'm being unfair? We have the past VP saying torture kept us safe, i.e., he admits we tortured, he admits he and the President signed off on torture, he alleges torture gave us productive intel. He says everything except, TORTURE IS AGAINST THE LAW AND HE AND HIS CRONIES BROKE THAT LAW.

   Has Washington become so calloused about following the law, that no one cares? Is the fact that all these officials hid behind the most transparent legal fiction just being accepted, and the past, when we prosecuted other war criminals for waterboarding, just being forgotten?

   It's no wonder the American Reputation in the world is so low. We bully our allies, we do preemptive war, we spy on our own citizens, we call our own citizens enemy combatants and imprison them without habeas corpus, lawyers, charges or any due process. We build gulags and ship prisoners back and forth to keep them under the US legal radar. We even have our agencies that torture trying to hide behind a fig leaf defense. You know, " I was just following orders." This is the defense that Nazi war criminals that killed millions of humans were not allowed to use ... either.

   Doesn't this sound like a pretty common definition of a Banana Republic?

   I'm an American dammit. I don't like politicians that choose which law to follow and which to ignore. I don't like it that money buys politicians hook, line and soul.

   I believe the Constitution is an amazing piece of work by great and courageous men. It is not something that should be ignored or changed by fiat from a man who would be a WAR PRESIDENT or a Congress that is afraid to say no to illegal spying.

   Mr Holder, either you follow the law or you too will become a politician.

   American's reputation is in your hands.

   Totally in YOUR HANDS, sir. Will you let this country falter or will you do your part to save her. Will you be instrumental in stopping future torture or will you leave the door open?

   Will you go down as an Attorney General on the side of John Adams, or Alberto Gonzales?

   Sir??????????

5. Leatherneck Says:
   May 13th, 2009 at 7:51pm

   "Masters of Deceit," J. Edgar Hoover, page 228: "Fronts probably represent the party's most successful tactic in capturing non-Communist support. Like mass agitation and infiltration, fronts espouse the deceptive party line (hence the term "front"), while actually advancing the real party line. In this way the party is able to influence thousands of non-Communists, collect large sums of money, and reach the minds, pens, and tongues of many high-ranking and distinguished individuals. Moreover fronts are excellent fields for party recruitment."

   Dr. Fred Schwarz, executive director of the International Christian Anticommunism Crusade, "Communist Legal Subversion," page 75, HCUA: "Any attempt to judge the influence of Communists by their numbers is like trying to determine the validity of the hull of a boat by relating the area of the holes to the area which is sound. One hole can sink the ship. Communism is the theory of the disciplined few controlling and directing the rest. One person in a sensitive position can control and manipulate thousands of others."

   One quick way to evaluate the ideology of organizations is through consideration of the statements and claims of their leaders. So it seems neccessary for a realistic appraisal of the civil rights policy of the American Civil Liberties Union that we develop the factual background of their prominent officials and leaders.

   It has taken us months of painstaking research to prepare this pamphlet; it will take you only minutes to read it. So please read it and then pass it on and inform others of the information you are about to learn.

   SECTION 1

   These are a few of the past and present prominent officials and leaders of the American Civil Liberties Union.

   1. Roger Baldwin, founder and guiding light of the ACLU for over 30 years, is now a member of the National Committee of the ACLU. Mr Roger Baldwin has a record of over 100 communist-front affiliations and citations (documented in detail, CONGRESSIONAL RECORD May 26, 1952). In an article written for Soviet Russia Today (September 1934), Roger Baldwin said: "When the power of the working class is once achieved, as it has been only in the Soviet Union, I am for maintaining it by any means whatsoever." "The class struggle is the central conflict of the world, all others are coincidental."

   Entry of Roger Baldwin in the Harvard reunion book on the occasion of the 30th anniversary reunion of his class of 1905 (1935), "I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and sole control of those who produced the wealth: communism is the goal."

   2. Dr. Harry Ward, first chairman of the ACLU. Dr. Harry Ward has a record of over 200 Communist front affiliations and citations listed by the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities (HCUA). Dr. Harry Ward was chairman of one of the largest Communist fronts to flourish in this country, "The American League for Peace and Democracy," which was placed on the Attorney General of the United States list of subversive organizations on June 1, 1948. Dr. Ward is the author of "Soviet Democracy" and "Soviet Spirit," two pro-Communist books which clearly show Dr. Ward's love for the Soviet system of government. The California Senate Fact Finding Committee on Un-American Activities, in their 1948 report, page 246, said: "The Communist affiliation of Dr. Harry F. Ward is indicative of the Communist sympaties of the members and sponsors of the "Friends of the Soviet Union."

   3. Abraham L. Wirin, chief counsel for the Southern California Chapter of the ACLU, sometimes referred to as "Mr. ACLU."

   In 1934 A. L. Wirin formed a law partnership with Leo Gllagher and Grover Johnson (reference: Daily Peoples World, Mar. 5, 1934, official publication of the Communist Party on the west coast). Mr Leo Gallagher ran for State office on the Communist Party ticket in 1936 and Grover Johnson, when asked by a governmental investigating agency if he had ever been a member of the Communist Party, refused to answer the question on the grounds that he might incriminate himself.

   In 1954, A. L. Wirin was a candidate for the executive board of National Lawyers Guild (reference: Los Angeles Daily Journal, Jan 13, 1954). The National Lawyers Guild has been cited as a Communist Front organization by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA) September 21, 1950. (Four years before, Mr. Wirin was a candidate for the executive board.)

   4. Dr. Albert Eason Monroe, executive director of the Southern California Chapter of the ACLU:

   In 1952, Dr. Albert Eason Monroe, U.S. Navy serial No. 316900, was discharged from the U.S. Naval Reserve under conditions other than honorable.

   In 1950, Dr. Monroe was fired from his position as head of the English department of San Francisco college for refusing to sign a loyalty oath. (The purpose of loyalty oaths is to protect the unsuspecting individual from lending his name to a Communist cause and from becoming a Communist dupe. The requirements of loyalty oaths have multiplied the obstacles to the Communists in recruiting memberships for their front organizations and maintaining discipline over fellow travelers in Government service. Few people will swear to an oath knowing it to be false and knowing that they might be liable to indictment and imprisonment for perjury. This requirement places a most difficult hurdle in front of the Communists attempting to ensnare an unsuspecting recruit into their conspiracy.)

   In 1953, Dr. Albert Eason Monroe was listed as being chairman of the Federation for Repeal of the Levering Act (ie., loyalty oaths), which was cited as being a Communist front organization by the California State Senate Committee on Education in its 1952 report to the State legislature.

   5. Rev. A. A. Heist, executive director of the Southern California Chapter of the ACLU in 1952, and Dr. Monroe's predecessor. Rev. A. A. Heist was a signer of the statement to the President of the United States, defending the Communist Party (reference: Daily Worker Mar 5, 1941). In 1952, the Reverend Heist resigned his position in the ACLU to become director of a new organization which he founded, called the Citizens' Committee to Preserve American Freedoms (CCPAF). This organization is run by its executive secretary, Mr. Frank Wilkinson, an identified Communist. At a meeting of the district council of the southern California district of the Communist Party, United States of America, Dorothy Healy, well-known Communist and chairman of the district council, said, "The party preferred public protest meetings against the HCUA to be held by the Citizens Committee To Preserve American Freedoms rather than under party auspices because Communists could attend without danger of being exposed as party members." (Reference HCUA, H. Rept. 259, Apr 3, 1950, "Report on the Southern California District of the Communist Party". The Citizens Committee To Preserve American Freedoms was cited as being a Communist front organization by the HCUA on April 3, 1959.

   The Reverend Heist stated in a speech to an audience of high school and junior college students in Pasadena that "the Constitution of the United States is outmoded, outdated, and impotent." (One of the stated goals of the ACLU is to preserve the Constitution.)

   In 1948, the Reverend Heist protested the withdrawal of the use of their hall by Occidental College to an identified Communist poet, Langston Hughes, who was to speak on a poem of his entitled, "Goodbye, Christ," which called for "Christ, Jesus, Lord God Jehovah" to "beat it" and "make way for a new guy named Marx, Communist Lenin, Peasant Stalin, and worker me." (Reference: Hollywood Citizen News, February 26, 1948.) This would not be a strange protest from an atheistic Communist, but when it comes from a Methodist minister?

   6. Carey McWilliams, a member of the national committee of the ACLU in 1948, who now figures prominently in the affairs of the ACLU, has been identified in sworn testimony, according to Government documents, as a member of the Communist Party. Carey McWilliams has a record of over 50 Communist-front affiliations and citations. He is the editor of "Rights," the official publication of the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee which has been cited as a Communist front by the HCUA (November 8, 1957).

   7. Prof. William A. Kilpatrick, prominent member of the ACLU on the east coast, was for many years head of Teacherc College, Columbia University. In his book, "The Teacher and Society," published in 1939, Professor Kilpatrick said that "the revolution by force and violence was probably necessary in Russia, but it would not be necessary in America. Here, the same goals could be acheived by effectuating change within the framework of the Constitution."

   8. William Z. Foster, former head of the Communist Party, United States of America, was a former member of the National Committee of the ACLU. 9. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, former member of the National Committee of the ACLU until 1940, is a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, United States of America.

   In the report on "Communist Propaganda in America" (published 1935, A.F.L.) as submitted to the State Department, by William Green, the late president of the American Federation of Labor, Mr. Green states that: "During all the years since the establishment of the Soviet regime in Russia, propaganda in the United States has been conducted, not only through agencies directly set up by the Communist high command, but through agencies and organizations in which non-Communists of good standing and repute have been induced to participate. A careful studyof these organizations shows that they are so related through interlocking directorates that apparently some hundreds of organizations are dominated by an interlocking group of directors numbering not more than 60. Their tactics may perhaps be called the tactics of irritation, since their purpose is to create dissatisfaction as widely as possible and to bring into disrepute the authorities, and the established institutions of the country. As an example, the American Civil Liberties Union may be cited."

   To support Mr. Green's statement of "the interlocking directorates," we discovered that when we looked at the record of the top 15 past and current leaders of the ACLU, we found that they had a combined record of over 1000 Communist front affiliations and citations.

   Section II

   What others think of the ACLU

   1. Daily Worker, March 22, 1957. In reference to an ACLU meeting (New York chapter) featuring John Gates, editor of the Daily Worker, "it remains an axiom of our time, that to defend the rights of Communists is to defend the rights of all Americans." (We as a nation are forced to spend $50 billion a year to defend ourselves from the Communists.)

   2. California Senate Fact Finding Committee on Un-American Activities, 1948 report, page 107: "The ACLU may be definitely classified as a Communist front or transmission belt organization." "At least 90 percent of its efforts are on behalf of Communists who come in conflict with the law."

   3. House Committee To Investigate Communist Activities in the United States, report 2290 entitled, "Investigation of Communist Propaganda": "It is quite apparent that the main function of the ACLU is to protect the Communists in their advocacy of force and vilence to overthrow the U.S. Government."

   4. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, special commission to investigate Communist avtivities: "The ACLU, with its front of respectability and with its large membership of sincere, worthy citizens, has provided important legal talent and a camouflage of decency behind which Communist forces have agitated and promoted their campaigns."

   Section III

   Odd Coincidences

   1. The ACLU, long an advocate of unlimited freedom of the press and freedom of speech, asked Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson to withdraw a pamphlet entitled "How to Spot a Communist," prepared by the 1st Army and used by the Watertown, Mass., arsenal (New York Times, June 12, 1955).

   2. The ACLU protested the publishing by the League of Decency of a list of movies and books that the league considered immoral. (Reference: Daily Worker, Mar. 22, 1957). (It has long been known that one of the primary aims of the Communist Party is to subvert the morals of the American public.)

   3. The ACLU, when queried by Columnist Lawrence Fertig as to why "They did not defend the most basic of all civil liberties--the right of a man to earn his living without paying tribute to any other individual or private organization" (right to work laws in various States), replied, "there are no civil liberties grounds on which such statutes should be supported," (reference: Fortnights magazine, July 1955).

   4. The ACLU has voiced the opinion many times that "they welcome investigation," but they unleash their vitriolic abuse upon the American Legion and brand the American Legion as a fascist group because they not only investigated the ACLU, but have requested the HCUA every year since 1953 to investigate the ACLU.

   5. The ACLU has been the recipient of numerous grants from the Garland Foundation (American Fund for Public Service) which is the notorious bankroll for Communist front organizations. The Garland Fund is characterized by the California Senate Fact Finding Commission, 1948 report, page 247, as "the source of revenue for Communist causes is generally referred to as the Garland Fund."

   The Garland Fund has also been cited by the United States House Special Committee on Un-American Activities as follows: "The Garland Fund was a major source for the financing of Communist Party enterprises," (reference: H. Rept. 1311, Mar 9, 1944).

   Among those who have served as directors of the Garland Fund and who were directly responsible for the disbursement of funds to the different Communist Front organizations and who were or are now prominent members of the governing body of the ACLU are: Roger Baldwin, Harry F. Ward, William Z. Foster, Robert Morss Lovett, Morris L. Ernst, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Oswald Garrison Villard, and E. M. Borchard.

   6. Frank Wilkinson, an identified Communist and chief hatchetman for the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee and the Citizens Committee to Preserve American Freedoms in the "Operation Abolition" program, who, so far as we know, is not even a member of the ACLU, seems to be so prominent in the affairs of the ACLU. Also, an odd coincidence that a new organization that has been formed and which calls itself the National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee (NCAHUAC) and has eight key members in the organization that have been identified as members of the Communist Party gives its mailing address at 617 North Larchmont Boulevard, Los Angeles 4, Calif., which is also the mailing address of the Citizens Committee to Preserve American Freedoms (CCPAF) and that of the 12 national committee members of the NCAHUAC, eight are currently officers or executive committee members of the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (interlocking directorates?).

   If any ACLU spokesman charges that this report is biased, our answer is that is is biased only on the side of Americanism--that its only fault for those who don't like it is its bias in favor of truth and fact. in our months of investigation we were unable to find one occasion where the ACLU has something good to say about America. We were able, however, to find many occasions where the ACLU and its leaders had something good to say about Soviet Russia or did something that would benefit Soviet Russia.

   In our opinion, the ACLU and its brother organizations have mastered the technique of Josef Goebbels and practiced by the Moscow Communists to the nth degree. "Tell a lie, make it big, and tell it often enough so that soon everyone will believe it." They have been spouting forth the statement that "the rights of all Americans are being threatened" so long and so hard that already everyone is looking for the Gestapo FBI, the Fascist police, the minions of that inquisition, the HCUA, behind every bush and every telephone.

   Deep down in the hearts of all good Americans we know that this is a lie and if we stop and think of its source, then we can look at it in its true light.

   Nicolai Lenin said, "We must build communism with non-Communist hands," Please don't let it be your hands.

   A Soviet dialectician's definition of a Communist front

   George Dimitrov, "Advice to the Lenin School of Political Warfare," as quoted in the report of the American Bar Association Committee on Communist Tactics, Strategy and Objectives--CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, August 22, 1958, page 17719. "As Soviet power grows, there will be greater aversion to Communist Parties everywhere. So we must practice the techniques of withdrawal. Never appear in the foreground; Let our friends do the work. We must always remember that one sympathizer is generally worth more than a dozen militant Communists. A university professor, who, without being a party member, lends himself to the interests of the Soviet Union, is worth more than a hundred men with party cards. A writer of reputation or a retired general are worth more than 500 poor devils who don't know any better than to get themselves beaten up by the police. Every man has his value, his merit.

6. john Says:
   May 18th, 2009 at 5:51pm

   please tell the ACLU to go fuck thereselfs

7. Randy and Robin Young Says:
   May 19th, 2009 at 7:54am

   Why is this issue so hard for Mr. Holder to do the right thing? Please use common sense, not political sense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8. Jeff Liu Says:
   May 19th, 2009 at 12:10pm

   When asked why he refused to talk to North Korea's King JongIl, President Bush said: "I don't talk to the people who stave his own citizens." He forgot that his government is even worse, his government torture his own citizens.

   I am a Canadian Citizen, but they ship me down to California and mentally tortured me. Some of the RCMP staffs were envious of an Internet Pharmacy business I had, so they labeled me as a Chinese spy and sabotaged everything I had. The typical tactic they use is to first cut off you economic resources, just as what Bush said of "stave his own citizens", then they will lure you with fake job to any place they want to. From there, you are uprooted and helpless in an unfamiliar environment, they then would surround you with 50 CIA's and upstage a show for you. The show has only one purpose - to mentally crush you. The process was so expertly carried out that I believe there are tons of Americans citizens going through the same machine each year.

   My case is still going on and they are still staving me. If you want to know more about their crime, my email is jeff_liu@alumni.sfu.ca.

9. Morgan-LynnGriggs Lamberth Says:
   May 19th, 2009 at 3:13pm

   Morgan-LynnGriggs Lamberth
   Yea, to the pressure on ObamaBiden-Holder! However, the commissions allow no " evidence " from torture.

10. Keith Richard Radford Jr Says:
    May 20th, 2009 at 9:46pm

    Predator: Someone who attacks, victimizes, plunders, or destroys, especially for one's own gain.
    People are paying for what they can get free, which is Offender Information. They force their feelings of fear on others when they are unfounded. Why do people do this? Why do people drive around with their radio blasting, Some people can not mind there own business and need to have others included in their lives through any means possible. These are the people who go from door to door placing signs that there is a Sex Offender in the neighborhood. Have they talked to anyone who they are damaging? Does that person have a family that they are harming? Chances are they are less than cowards looking for a way to honk their horn. They are the predators. Most sex offenders are not predators. Most people are not inclind to harm others. To make money by causing pain, or gain, is the definition of predator. That is what people have become by taking the low road against sex offenders. If you can not see the use of sex in all this garbage about a military commisions act to hold people in some limbo of life by the thought that they know best how to deal with their own neighbor by using unlawful actions, harrasment, and drons alive or not to terrorize people who only want the unlawful to leave them alone are better by far than the worhtless theives pushing such laws.

11. Ed Says:
    Oct 11th, 2009 at 6:34am

    Keith
    You ARE or are defending a pervert and a Predator how can any one justify doing such a thing to a child day old to 18years is a child so you cannot do what you defend you said Most sex offenders are not predators then go get an 8 year old wife not a kid and quit OFFENDING

12. Ed Says:
    Oct 11th, 2009 at 6:36am

    Sorry typo 18 year old wife

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