Profound Quotes

"Neither is it that US foreign policy is cruel because American leaders are cruel. It's that our leaders are cruel because only those willing to be inordinately cruel and remorseless can hold positions of leadership in the foreign policy establishment; it might as well be written into the job description. People capable of expressing a full human measure of compassion and empathy toward faraway powerless strangers - (let alone American soldiers - do not become president of the United States, or vice president, or secretary of state, or national security adviser or secretary of the treasury. Nor do they want to." From 'Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower' by William Blum

From "9-11, Six Years Later": "If one looks at the credentials of skeptics compared to the credentials of defenders of the official line, it is impossible to dismiss skeptics as kooks. There are many people with strong imaginations on the Internet, but serious skeptics stick to known facts, known violations of standard procedures and the laws of physics. The vast majority of the people who call skeptics "kooks" are themselves ignorant of physics and have little comprehension of the improbability that such an attack could succeed without either the complicity or complete failure of government agencies. " Paul Craig Roberts

"Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular? But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right." Martin Luther King, Jr.

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U.N. rights chief urges Obama to prosecute torturers | Reuters

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, May 14 (Reuters) - The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights on Thursday welcomed the election of the United States to the top United Nations rights forum and urged it to prosecute those accused of torture and other abuses.

Navi Pillay said Washington should investigate all U.S. renditions of terrorism suspects and ensure any interrogators who mistreated them are brought to justice for violating an international ban on torture.

Her appeal, in an opinion piece in the International Herald Tribune, came a day after President Barack Obama said he would fight the release of dozens of photographs showing the abuse of terrorism suspects over concern the images could ignite a backlash against U.S. troops deployed abroad.

The United States’ election on Tuesday to the United Nations Human Rights Council could help the cause of human rights and America’s standing in the international community, Pillay said.

She described Washington’s decision to seek a seat for the first time at the 47-member forum as a “welcome step in restoring international trust in U.S. support for human rights”.

U.N. rights chief urges Obama to prosecute torturers | Reuters.

May 14th, 2009 | Tags: , | Category: corruption, law, crime, punishment | Leave a comment |

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