He said he also disagreed with positions taken by Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who have declinedFormer President Jimmy Carter
to promise to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq over the following four years if elected president next year.
This criticism by Carter should be taken up widely by progressives and the peace movement; both have been very slow--- alarmingly slow--- to criticize Obama and Clinton. I would never vote for Clinton or Obama. Why should these opportunists and voices for capitalism dictate the terms of political debate in this country? Anyone can see just from looking at who is financing their campaigns they are the choice of big-business. Neither Obama nor Clinton has put forward a single position of substance when it comes to solving problems working people are experiencing... their reactionary positions on the war in Iraq is just one example of many. Both are playing games with the health care issue as well as the war in Iraq; what we need in this country is socialized health care... single-payer, universal health care is one step in this direction and neither Clinton nor Obama support such a modest reform. Jimmy Carter brings forward a welcome and healthy focus on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights which would serve us well when considering most social and economic issues. Carter is right in stating Bush should not be allowed to redefine human rights issues which the United Nations did an excellent job in defining 60 years ago... December 10 marks another anniversary of this document and progressives should be making plans to widely disseminate and discuss this important document. Jimmy Carter continues to be a breath of fresh air and healthy voice in an otherwise very sick American political environment. Unfortunately, such views are mostly being dangerously silenced by the big-business dominated media in this country.
Jimmy Carter: US Tortures Prisoners
October 10, 2007. The Associated Press
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CARTER_WHITE_HOUSE?SITE=NYONE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
WASHINGTON - The U.S. tortures prisoners in violation of
international law, former President Jimmy Carter said
Wednesday, adding that President Bush makes up his own
definition of torture.
'Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned
the basic principle of human rights,' Carter said on CNN.
'We've said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to those
people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we've said we
can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a
crime.'
Bush, responding to an Oct. 4 report by The New York Times on
secret Justice Department memorandums supporting the use of
'harsh interrogation techniques,' defended the techniques
Friday by proclaiming: 'This government does not torture
people.'
Carter said the interrogation methods cited by the Times,
including 'head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid
temperatures,' constitute torture 'if you use the
international norms of torture as has always been honored -
certainly in the last 60 years since the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated.
'But you can make your own definition of human rights and say
we don't violate them, and you can make your own definition
of torture and say we don't violate them,' Carter said.
In an interview that aired Wednesday on BBC, Carter ripped
Vice President Dick Cheney as 'a militant who avoided any
service of his own in the military.'
Carter went on to say Cheney has been 'a disaster for our
country. I think he's been overly persuasive on President
George Bush.'
Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell declined to speak to
Carter's allegations.
'We're not going to engage in this kind of rhetoric,' she
said.
In the CNN interview, the Democratic former president
disparaged the field of Republican presidential candidates.
'They all seem to be outdoing each other in who wants to go
to war first with Iran, who wants to keep Guantanamo open
longer and expand its capacity - things of that kind,' Carter
said.
He said he also disagreed with positions taken by Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who have declined
to promise to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq over the following four years if elected president next year.