Benjamin Britton > Recent Status Updates

I will not tire of declaring that if we really want an effective end to violence we must remove the violence that lies at the root of all violence: structural violence, social injustice, exclusion of citizens from the management of the country, repression. All this is what constitutes the primal cause, from which the rest flows naturally.
SEPTEMBER 23, 1979

"Ninety-nine percent of what we do is legal." I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Chief of Staff to Dick Cheney

"Bellinger was in a political minority in the White House, however. His concern for international law and world opinion was ridiculed by the hard-line lawyers of the so called War Council. Addington particularly disdained Bellinger,"

Genuine well-being for all will be the true common good in which genuine channels of true democracy are opened, so that, without fear of repression, all without exception can contribute their bit toward enabling all Salvadorans to fulfill in themselves that model of “persons who are educated, peaceable, and kind to all, for the benefit of the whole human family."

"In the future, enemy prisoners would have to be held safely outside the reach of U.S. Law, where they could be questioned without legal interference and tried under rules more favorable to the prosecution- if they were tried at all."

"Given this tragic history of missed opportunities, it is little wonder that swiftly, before anyone was in the phrase of mind to call for public accountability, Tenet pinned the President down at Camp David on Saturday after September 11 and extracted a promise. Tenet wanted no investigation into the CIA's record on Al Qaeda."

"In fact, neither the economic liberalization that began around 1980 nor the state interventionism that began in 1945 deserves such praise or blame. France, Germany, and Japan would very likely have caught up with Britain and the United States following their collapse of 1914-1945 regardless of what policies they had adopted."

"We have modified in some important respects out analysis of the legal standards applicable... For example, we disagree with statements in the August 2002 Memorandum limiting 'severe' pain under the statue to 'excruciating and agonizing' pain... 'equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.'" Daniel Levin Dec. 30, 2004

"Even if an interrogation method, however, might arguably cross the line drawn in Section 2340, and application of the statute was held to be an unconstitutional infringement of the President's Commander-in-Chief authority, we believe that under current circumstances certain justification defenses might be available that would potentially eliminate criminal liability." Jay S. Bybee Aug 1, 2002

"Above all, knowledge diffusion depends on a country's ability to mobilize financing as well as institutions that encourage large-scale investment in education and training of the population while guaranteeing a stable legal framework that various economic actors can reliably count on. It is therefore closely associated with the achievements of legitimate and efficient government."