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Whether a president who starts wars without just cause, or a soldier who slaughters an innocent family, but never faces justice, they both commit atrocities that leave their victims no due recourse. It could be the retroactive “authorization” for crimes, as the recent amendments to the FISA Act in the United States proposes, or the slew of pardons the unimpeached president Bush will necessarily decree for crimes committed by those in his service in some short months time; but whatever the reasons, what we see today from the headlines to the frontlines to the breadlines is a growing culture of impunity, undermining that most basic foundation of our society: Justice.
Without equality before the law, civilization dies. Without the guarantee that those endangering the life and liberty of the polity will be arrested their illegal endevours, and brought before a panel as impartial as is possible to be judged and sentenced accordingly, anarchy prevails: Not the anarchy of literalists, poets, or utopians, where Humankind is finally freed the fetters of the arbitrary diktats of Church and State, but a jungle where savagery rules. It’s a dangerous moment, as empires go; the only stage of development following the crapulent flourishing of unanswerable criminality is collapse.
William Blum is an America author and creator of The Anti-Empire Report, an internet bulletin marking the passage of that sad nation at its most corrupt moment. Blum’s, who gave up his position with the Johnson administration in objection to his nation’s activities in Vietnam, book titles include: ‘Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II,’ ‘Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Super-Power,’ West-Bloc Dissident, a Cold War Memoir,’ and his latest, ‘ Freeing the World to Death: How the United States Gets Away With It.’ He’s also a contributor to the newly released anthology of our times, ‘International Justice and Impunity: The Case of the United States.’ William Blum in the first segment.
And; American war resister, Robin Long was scheduled to appear before a hearing into his status in Canada today in Vancouver. Long was arrested by Canada’s increasingly muscular Border Services agents in Nelson recently, and charged with violating conditions of his residency permit; charges he denies. Sarah Bjorknas is with the Vancouver chapter of the War Resisters Support Campaign and she’ll be here in the second half to bring us up to speed with Robin Long’s application for a stay of deportation.
And; Goods for Cuba caravanista, Janine Bandcroft has reportedly left the country, but we’re not sure if she’ll be able to touch down at the bottom of the hour with her doubtlessly interesting travellogue; but first: Getting away with it with William Blum.
