Posted by CODEPINK Staff
This Week in Accountability, October 22, 2011
During a visit to the state of Washington, Karl Rove was met with opposition from demonstrators protesting his intent to buy the 2012 election with corporate funds. Leading the charge at the demonstration was former U.S. ambassador Joe Wilson whose wife Valerie Plame was exposed as a C.I.A. agent by members of the Bush administration.
Once again a resolution supporting the closure of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo will go before the Berkeley City Council. As part of the resolution, the is city is being asked to host one or two former detainees who have been freed and cleared of charges as part of a resettlement project. Residents of Berkeley have volunteered to house former Guantanamo detainees.
Former U.S. President George W. Bush was given an un-welcoming in the Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. Brigette DePape, former Senate Page who spoke out against Harper's administration, addressed the protesters.
As activists were outside holding a demonstration against the former president, human rights legal organization, Center for Constitutional Rights was pushing for a lawsuit through the Canadian courts on behalf of a former Guantanamo detainee.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was greeted by demonstrators, with arrest warrants, outside Portland State University where alums, community members and veterans were outraged and appalled by her appearance.
In her roles as National Security Adviser and Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice approved and apologized for numerous war crimes on behalf of the Bush Administration. Using visions of mushroom clouds and other scare tactics, she convinced the American public of the necessity of waging an illegal war. She also allowed torture to displace diplomacy as the hallmark of the US foreign policy. Employing circuitous logic and Nixonian explanations, Rice recently explained away our misunderstandings about torture and international obligations: "By definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations in the Convention Against Torture."
