{"id":248559,"date":"2016-06-08T08:50:52","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T08:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/justice-for-torturers\/"},"modified":"2016-06-08T08:50:52","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T08:50:52","slug":"justice-for-torturers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/justice-for-torturers\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice for Torturers?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Originally posted at TomDispatch<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

If you happen to be a potential American war criminal, you\u2019ve had a few banner
\n weeks. On May 9th, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter presented<\/a>
\n former Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger with
\n the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award, that institution\u2019s
\n\u201chighest honorary award for private citizens.\u201d
\n In bestowing it on the 92-year-old who is evidently still consulting for the
\n Pentagon, he offered this praise: \u201cWhile his contributions are far from
\n complete, we are now beginning to appreciate what his service has provided our
\n country, how it has changed the way we think about strategy, and how he has
\n helped provide greater security for our citizens and people around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly people \u201caround the world\u201d will remember the \u201cgreater
\n security\u201d offered by the man who, relaying an order from President Richard
\n Nixon for a \u201cmassive\u201d secret bombing campaign in Cambodia, used
\n a line<\/a> that may almost be the definition of a war crime: \u201cAnything
\n that flies on anything that moves.\u201d The result<\/a>:
\n half a million tons of bombs dropped on that country between 1969 and 1973 and
\n at least 100,000 dead civilians. And that\u2019s just to start down the
\n well-cratered road to the millions<\/a>
\n of dead he undoubtedly has some responsibility for. Public service indeed.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, speaking of American crimes in the Vietnam era, former Nebraska
\n Senator Bob Kerrey, who ran for president of the U.S. and then became the president
\n of the New School in New York City, was just
\n appointed<\/a> to \u201clead\u201d Fulbright University Vietnam, the first
\n private American-backed school there. Its opening was announced<\/a>
\n by President Obama on his recent visit to that country. Only one small
\n problem: we already know of some children who won\u2019t be able to apply for
\n admission. I\u2019m thinking of the progeny-who-never-were of the 13
\n children killed by a team of U.S. SEALs under Kerrey\u2019s command and on
\n his orders in South Vietnam in 1969 (along with a pregnant woman, and an elderly
\n couple whose three grandchildren were stabbed to death by the raiders) \u2013
\n all of whom were reported at the time as dead Vietcong guerillas.<\/p>\n

It seems that if you are a distinguished citizen of the most exceptional country
\n on the planet, even war crimes have their rewards. Consider, for instance, the
\n millions
\n of dollars<\/a> that were paid for memoirs by top Bush administration officials
\n responsible for creating an American offshore torture regime at CIA \u201cblack
\n sites<\/a>\u201d around the world. Must-reads all! With that in mind, turn to
\n TomDispatch<\/em>
\n regular<\/a> Rebecca Gordon, author most recently of American
\n Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9\/11 War Crimes<\/em><\/a>,
\n to consider what \u201cjustice\u201d for such figures might look like in a
\n …<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally posted at TomDispatch. If you happen to be a potential American war criminal, you\u2019ve had a few banner weeks. On May 9th, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter presented former Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger with the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award, that institution\u2019s \u201chighest honorary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-248559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}