Last week, Liberation News published an article responding to the outrageous conviction of Bradley Manning on espionage charges. In it, we listed 12 ruling-class criminals who should be in prison instead of whistle-blower Manning. Since then, we have received a flood of responses from our readers suggesting additional politicians, cops, war criminals and others guilty of crimes against poor and working people who should also be included on our list.
Our original list was in no particular order nor intended to be exhaustive. It would take a lifetime to detail the offenses committed by all the defenders and beneficiaries of exploitation and injustice. From the lowliest beat cop to the luxury conference rooms of Wall Street and Washington—the whole system is guilty. Here are some thoughts from Liberation News readers about the list and who else they think should be included.
Killer cops and state repression
Many readers wanted to elaborate on the crimes committed against poor and working people who are caught up in the racist system of mass incarceration—an apparatus that includes police brutality and corruption as a point of entry for millions. Laura urged: “Officer John Moody of the Manteca Police department needs to be on this list. Shot Ernest Duenez Jr. 11 times after stalking him. Ernest was unarmed and murdered on his lawn while caught in a seatbelt. DA ruled this justified.”
Johann highlighted the role of the police in repressing political activity, suggesting that “Whoever was in charge of [the] police based terror attack on protesters and reporters at the St. Paul RNC in 2008” be included. That would be then-St. Paul Police Department Chief John Harrington, who was rewarded for his outstanding brutality two years later with a seat in the Minnesota Senate.
Governor of California Jerry Brown is another worthy addition to the list. John explained: “In early July, 30,000 prisoners in California went on hunger strike to protest the use of extended solitary confinement—something that is nothing but psychological torture. So far the state has refused to even discuss with the hunger strikers and one has died already. As head of the state, Brown is the person directly responsible.”
The thought of George W. Bush in prison was very exciting to many readers, and it is easy to see why. Bush committed countless crimes from Iraq to New Orleans, devastating lives and rolling back rights both in the United States and around the world. But many readers noted that the current administration has continued or even intensified those same practices and thought that President Barack Obama should also be included in the list.
We received one comment from Richard, saying: “One of the basic crimes of war by international treaty is waging aggressive war which Obama has certainly done as well as violating numerous other international accords. The fact that the U.S. has not signed many international treaties is no defense. Especially to the point is the continued use of torture in the U.S. prison system, in Guantanamo and by contract in numerous ‘black sites’ (Somalia for example).” Jodda agreed, listing among the reasons “[d]rone attacks, kill lists, the invasion of Libya, the hunt for Snowden, keeping Manning in prison, torture, war, deportations. …”
Doug was outraged at the enormous domestic and international spying apparatus operated by the National Security Agency, urging us to include on the list “[National Intelligence Director] James Clapper, [NSA Director] Gen. Alexander, and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts as some of the top conspirators in building the NSA surveillance regime.”
Imperialist war criminals
The largest number of ruling-class criminals Liberation News readers nominated were associated in one way or another with U.S. imperialism. One was John Yoo, who contributed to the infamous “torture memos” while part of the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. He played a central role in providing the legal rationale for water boarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” that are used to torment prisoners held captive by the U.S. war machine. Yoo is currently a law professor at University of California, Berkeley.
Jeanne nominated “[Staff] Sergeant Frank Wuterich, the squad leader who encouraged and led his marines to kill 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha and was given only a demotion for the murders and ensuing cover-up.”
Readers were also eager to identify more architects of the Iraq War who could take Bradley Manning’s place in prison. Donald Rumsfeld, then-secretary of defense and key figure in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, was named several times in reader responses. Sandra suggested Paul “Bremer who went into Iraq and sold off 200 national corporations owned by the people BEFORE allowing an election. So much for the democracy argument [justifying the Iraq War].” Bremer was in charge of the “Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq,” effectively the dictator of the country, until the invading forces could find an Iraqi collaborator to act as head proxy for their rule.
Felicity wrote to nominate Madeline Albright, U.N. ambassador then secretary of state during the Clinton administration, “for deciding on TV ( May 12, 1996) that the lives of half a million Iraqi children were ‘worth it.’” Felicity is referring to the genocidal sanctions imposed on Iraq between the Gulf War and the 2003 invasion, which the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimated to have caused the death of half a million children under the age of five.
If the volume and enthusiasm of the reader responses Liberation News received is any indication, the idea of freeing Bradley Manning and jailing the criminals who run society is a popular one. This is no far-fetched daydream; through organization, struggle and the determination of poor and working people we can live in a world where the war criminals are in prison and the people who exposed them are celebrated like the heroes they are.
