By John Vibes
Years ago, the case of Turkmen Vs. Ashcroft set the precedent that the Bush administration could be held accountable for the actions that it took to harm innocent people during the war on terror. However, the case has been in limbo for several years as constant appeals have been filed against the ruling.
Recently, The Second Circuit Court of Appeals finally rejected the appeal and ruled that people can, in fact, sue members of the government for enacting policies that result in trauma or injury. It is likely that this ruling sets a precedent for all members of the government and not just the Bush administration.
The Turkmen Vs. Ashcroft case involved a number of immigrants who were rounded up and tortured after the 9/11 attacks and were later found to be completely innocent. Muslim prisoners were fed pork intentionally by the guards who would abuse and insult them on a regular basis, leaving them in deplorable conditions, in total isolation with the lights on 24 hours per day. These people were never even charged with any crimes, they were detained without a trial.
“We simply cannot conclude at this stage that concern for the safety of our nation justified the violation of the constitutional rights on which this nation was built. The question at this stage of the litigation is whether the [eight arrested foreigners] have plausibly pleaded that [feds] exceeded the bounds of the Constitution in the wake of 9/11. We believe they have,” judges Rosemary Pooler and Richard Wesley wrote in their decision.
However, the ruling was not unanimous, Judge Reena Raggi was one of the few judges that objected to the ruling, saying that the judiciary branch did not have authority in this situation.
“Congress, not the judiciary, is the appropriate branch to decide whether the detained aliens should be allowed to sue executive policymakers in their individual capacities for money damages,” she wrote.
Journalist Thom Hartman said in a recent column that,
Like any self-proclaimed democracy, the United States can and should be a moral force for good in the world. But it can’t be one when it lets the biggest war criminals in its history get off scot-free. The decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals allowing lawsuits against people like former Attorney General John Ashcroft is a step in the right direction. It opens up a new path for our country, a path that offers us the chance for a national redemption of sorts.
Governments are one of the legal shields that tyrants like to hide behind. Some of the most ruthless and notorious killers of all time were able to retire from politics without any penalties because they acted through the power of government. Allowing victims of violence to hold these politicians accountable could discourage future politicians from being so brutal. looking through history, especially recent history, nearly everyone in the highest reaches of government has blood on their hands.
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John Vibes is an author and researcher who organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference. He also has a publishing company where he offers a censorship free platform for both fiction and non-fiction writers. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. You can purchase his books, or get your own book published at his website www.JohnVibes.com.
John Vibes writes for TrueActivist.com
Oh Please tell me that, because of this court ruling, the next president will be able to bring criminal charges against Obama, Hillary, Pelosi, Harry Reid and, just possibly, the great Racist, Al Sharpton and all of their other Communist and Muslim co-participants. What a great day that will be. They all need to serve the rest of their lives in Prison for what they have done to the people in this country as well as throughout the world.
I’d say you failed to note that same pursuit and punishment for those who indeed BEGAN THIS NOW SELF-PERPETUATING INSANITY and WHO WALK AMONG US…ey? Being partisan at this point in US politics can be described with one word…myopia…widen the perspective of your indictment and we all can join in there Jim.
Add Eric Holder and Jesse Jackson to the list. Barack Hussein Obama, the Muslim-In-Chief, will hopefully be held accountable for all the carnage from the terrorist attacks that he has invited on the US people by allowing Illegal Immagrants and Muslim Terrorists into America. His presidential oath to protect The American People from their enimies “Foreign and Domestic” has been just a joke to him and his administration as they themselfs are the greatest Domestic threat to the US Citizens.
I am willing to bet any takers that Obama will Pardon, Bowe Bergdahl, as he exixts his presidency.
Bullshit! This will never happen. Criminals are running the world.
Totally agree with you. But I still hope it will.
Hope prevents you from thinking clearly.
It’s not too late to prosecute Bush/Cheney regime for lying to Congress, the public, and the UN to justify the criminal war in Iraq.
Helping Bosnian and Albanian Muslims against Serbs was a criminal war too – Serbs were beheaded, blackmailed, expulsed, bombed, radioactively polluted…!
The US must first clean OWN RADIOACTIVE GARBAGE in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Libya…
Since the bulk of their ill gotten gains are quite probably resting comfortably in an Israeli bank for just such a happenstance, I would much rather they be marched up the stairs of a guillotine or gallows on HBO. Letting the common folk pelt them with feces etc. as they walk through the cheering crowds crying like the squealing swine they are. Then, perhaps we could turn our revved-up angst to the remainder of the Judas Class in D.C., stop all gifts to Israel, outlaw AIPAC as a foreign spy agency, close our embassy and watch all those nations with a score to settle discuss their animal-like behavior towards the global “Goim”. But, I dream of course. The cops/military in this nation would (continue to), rip us apart to protect their owners, no, not “we the people”, their REAL owners in D.C./Tel Aviv/City of London. This may be a bit “off topic”, but can someone explain this to me; If roughly 45% of our vicious Israeli trained cops are former “our boys”, who selflessly dashed off to protect our shores and constitution, why do they come back, become cops then murder us, rape us, steal what little we have, (civil forfeiture), and urinate on our constitution? Perhaps we should take a more objective look at them?
Well it sounds like you pretty much have it figured out, but I doubt there is anything you or anyone else can do about it. If you are in office of your country, your a crook, & that is how it is. We the little people just go along for the ride or we go to prison for some made up BULLSH**.
”The philosophy of the day represents the conclusions of men, who, how developed soever intellectually, are still rudimentary in respect of the spiritual consciousness, and fall short, therefore, of their spiritual and true manhood–the manhood which belongs to the highest plane. Being to such extent not human but subhuman, and ignorant of the meaning and potentialities of man.”
Hopefully the Turkmen in Aschcroft are not –and most likely are not the same individuals but the same ethnic group– those war criminals that killed the Russian parashooter on November 24, 2015 and his rescuer marine. They have civil rights and so have the Russians. The next lawsuit has to be against the tyrant Erdogan, who shoot the Russian jet to protect the Turkmen in Syria.
“….Allowing victims of violence to hold these politicians accountable could discourage future politicians from being so brutal….”
Wishful thinking.
People will continue voting for crooks.
“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” – Albert Einstein
What a bone head….all caught up on spelling as opposed the the truth. Must be a a frustrated retired elementary school teacher. Go pull yourself.
Rule #1 of insults: don’t misspell the insult. BTW, bone head (sic) is one word: got it, bonehead?