Stanford Anti-War Alumni, Students Call for Condi War Crimes Probe

During the Vietnam War, Stanford students succeeded in banning secret military research from campus. Last weekend, 150 activist alumni and present Stanford students targeted Condoleezza Rice for authorizing torture and misleading Americans into the illegal Iraq War.

Veterans of the Stanford anti-Vietnam War movement had gathered for a 40th anniversary reunion during the weekend. The gathering featured panels on foreign policy, the economy, political and social movements, science and technology, media, energy and the environment, and strategies for aging activists.

On Sunday, surrounded by alumni and students, Lenny Siegel and I nailed a petition to the University President's office door. The petition, circulated by Stanford Say No to War, reads:

"We the undersigned students, faculty, staff, alumni, and other concerned members of the Stanford community, believe that high officials of the U.S. Government, including our former Provost, current Political Science Professor, and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow, Condoleezza Rice, should be held accountable for any serious violations of the Law (included ratified treaties, statutes, and/or the U.S. Constitution) through investigation and, if the facts warrant, prosecution, by appropriate legal authorities."

I stated, "By nailing this petition to the door of the President's office, we are telling Stanford that the university should not have war criminals on its faculty. There is prima facie evidence that Rice approved torture and misled the country into the Iraq War. Stanford has an obligation to investigate those charges."

After the petition nailing, I cited the law and evidence of Condoleezza Rice's responsibility for war crimes -- including torture -- and for selling the illegal Iraq War:

As National Security Advisor, Rice authorized waterboarding in July 2002, according to a newly released report of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Less than two months later, she hyped the impending U.S. invasion of Iraq, saying, "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." Her ominous warning was part of the Bush administration's campaign to sell the Iraq war, in spite of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency's assurances that Saddam Hussein did not possess nuclear weapons.

A week before the nailing of the petition, Rice made some Nixonian admissions in response to questions from Stanford students during a campus dinner designed to burnish Rice's image on campus.

In October 1968, Stanford anti-war activists had nailed a document to the door of the trustees' office which demanded that Stanford "halt all military and economic projects concerned with Southeast Asia."

Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and president of the National Lawyers Guild. She is the author of Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law and co-author of Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent. Read her articles at www.marjoriecohn.com.

Comments

[wagadog]

"During the Vietnam War, Stanford students succeeded in banning secret military research from campus." might not have been the best way to start off this piece.

All they did was move the work they were doing for the spooks to a nominally "independent" research institute, SRI. STANFORD Research Institute. Plenty of Stanford faculty and research staff have second offices there. Well THAT'S showing them, isn't it? http://www.sri.com/about/

If they succeed in getting Condi off campus, she'll just move to SRI and maintain ALL of the same contacts and research contacts and collaborations on campus -- without the teaching and service obligations. Probably have enhanced military consulting options. She'd love it.

Please don't throw her in the briar patch!

No. Keep her on campus where she can be challenged and pestered by students day in and day out -- treated like a school teacher, or everybody's mom. Keep her on campus where every word she writes can be scrutinized, where she'll have to defend her deeply flawed ideas in committee meetings and other.

It'll drive her nuts. And whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad. Why look at poor Dick Cheney these days!

/me shakes head.

[glades]

Ambrose Bierce defined lawyers as those "skilled in circumventing the law". By that standard, she's at the top of the heap. So don't take her course, already. Have a word with your endowments committee and your parents.

[Quintspect]

Stanford administrators, in hiring a person who has been a part of the criminality of the Bush presidency, show themselves to be intellectually and morally unqualified unqualified to
manage any respectable institution of learning. Sadly, and ruinously, many education administrators are in that class of mentality.

[just4shiggles]

I certainly hope that they keep pursuing this until something is actually done about it. The cries from the right to "let bygones be bygones" is getting louder and louder but I don't want that to stop this process. We must convict all involved in making the decision to torture and we cannot just let it go and move on. Our countries reputation really needs a boost thanks to these people, but that's not the only reason that they should be punished for their war crimes. No one is above the law.

[Quintspect]

Favorite directives of those believing themselves accountable to none:

"Let bygones be bygones." "That's water under the bridge." "Let's move forward."

[hipocampelofantocame]

just4shiggles: I certainly couldn't agree with you more and support your position
wholeheartedly.

[coolmessanger]

There is no room for a criminal to teach at Stanford

[coolmessanger]

Rice is partly responsible for the death of thousands of inocent people.
Not only should she be denied the right to teach at one of the most prestigious american universities but she should be prosecuted for her crimes just like Rove, Cheney, etc.

[motamanx]

Did Condi ever do anything that was any good? She got on a plane, had a photo op, then came home. Aren't there any meaningful treaties, any positive effects of her tenure as Secretary of State? I can't think of one. Can you?

[bleek]

Such a long, long way from Stanford to D.C., geographically, philosophically and morally.

[Ourrias]

And Boalt Hall (University of California, Berkeley's School of Law) needs to expel John Yoo (author of the torture memos) from its law school faculty.

There is simply no room on the payroll of any California state university for a war criminal - - and I don't give a damn if he has tenure.

Regents of the University of California: Show some intergrity and fire John Yoo! Tenure be damned!

[madbonger618]

As National Security Advisor it was Dr. Rice's job to make sure The President had all the relevant information to make the decision to go to war. Since everybody in the Bush administration says they had faulty intelligence either her fault for allowing the President to make a decision with bad intelligence or it was a conspiracy to invade Iraq without a reason.

[TainoBoy]

They need to get a life and leave Condi alone already.... Gosh! who the herk they are?

[fredisfred]

Just some citizens trying calling out a war criminal for her crimes. Now go back to your soap opera.

[TainoBoy]

Fred, I waiting on you man... why should I watch our soap operas by myself?

[AngieMom57]

Tell that to the family members of those who were tortured.

[TainoBoy]

I don't see them here... let bygone be bygone already

[seesaw73]

you mean tell that to the family members of the TERRORISTS who were tortured. As a person who hasn't forgotten all we lost on 911, I am glad my country decided to use some harsher tactics to keep that from happening again! If the terrorists catch you, dare I say, they will do a lot worse to you than pouring a little water on your face or keeping you sleep deprived!

[Bronxdude]

Dr. Rice: Do not pass go, go directly to jail!

[ladyvader]

Don't forget. Do not collect 200 dollars. Which in Condi's case is more like millions of dollars.

[TainoBoy]

Oh please, let it go already... enough with this torture thing!

[Quintspect]

Is that what you would say while being waterboarded? "Oh, please let it go already...enough with this torture thing!"

[Derelict outlaw]

I agree that Stanford has no place or call to investigate further.

It is the responsibility of us citizens to prosecute the entire Bush regime and go down to Texas and get him out of his little hidey hole just like Sadamm, and make certain that we condemn the tactics and policies of the administration, admit our crimes and go forth committed to never sinning in these particular ways again.

It's at least as important as making a giant international spectacle of the Clinton promise to swear off casual unprotected sex with his staff. It's at least as important as that.

[Quintspect]

Tenure can be lossed for conviction of a felony or any offense involving moral turpitude… or other conduct which falls below minimum standards of professional integrity." I would say that
participating in the fraudulent induction of this country into a war against a country that did not attack the United States, causing the deaths of one or more innocent people, is an act of moral turpitude.
Further, her having been on the board of directors of Chevron Oil, one of the most aggressive seekers of oil contracts in Iraq, and not having excused herself from serving in a capacity with obvious conflict of interest with the well being of the people of the United States, and failing to recuse herself, therefore, falls far short of professional integrity and minimal standards of morality.

[Counterglow]

I didn't know she was on Chevron's board. Thanks for the info.

[coco51]

Is it Stanford U that's calling for the investigation or paying students and alumni demanding that Standford FIRE as in "the university should not have war criminals on its faculty." The petition goes on to say, " There is prima facie evidence that Rice approved torture and misled the country into the Iraq War. Stanford has an obligation to investigate those charges." In other words, Stanford has in it's employ someone who the complainants believe has committed a crime the same would be applicable if Rice had an illicit relationship with a student, or a board member had stolen money.

The complaint is valid.

[Quintspect]

At the very least, Rice should be suspended until after she is found innocent through the due process she denied others.

[GTFOOH]

Stanford is made up of mostly US Citizens!

[Quintspect]

So are most people in this country who violate our laws and social mores, American citizens.... And....?

[jdlund]

Wait, why does Stanford have an obligation to investigate those charges? Presumably if a faculty member commits a crime it is for the police to investigate said crime. Sure if it was school code infractions like plagiarism or sleeping with a student then yes the University itself should investigate. But if it's criminal they aren't the people who should be going down that road. Despite the fact that it's a private institution, private actors investigating crimes, as a rule, could cause serious due process issues.

Here I will admit it's different. Due process issues will not likely result from any investigation, because the "investigation" will be nothing more than reading the newspapers. There's no real evidence outside of them since everything else will be classified. Also it is highly unlikely that Condi, who can easily hide behind the fact that she was acting under the President's directives, will ever face criminal prosecution. Still, it isn't Stanford's place to investigate this. They have neither the resources or trained ability to do anything other than say "yeah from this newspaper article it sure looks suspicious."

In the end all they can do is hire her or not hire her. Since they chose the former, all these people are doing is harassing a colleague, and I just don't approve of work place harassment no matter how well intentioned. Don't get me wrong, I don't think Rice is innocent and there should be a formal investigation just not by Stanford.

[treboi]

finally someone with some sense...

[javagirl322]

Amen...

[Quintspect]

You shouldn't even have to look up the causes (which you failed to do) for loss of tenure.... any more than you should have to look up the laws to see if they are o.k. to break....

[Counterglow]

I'm not so sure about that. Rice's role in the whole mess has only become obvious with the recent release of those formerly classified documents. I'm not sure of exactly what would cost a tenured professor their job, but I'm certain it doesn't have to involve an actual violation of the law. in the wake of 9-11, there was a professor who said the US couldn't expect to behave badly on the world stage and not face consequences. His statement was widely reported as an endorsement of the atrocity, and he either lost his job or came very close, though all he had done was exercise his right of free speech.

[nominn]

FYI, the legal concept of "due process" applies to state actions, not actions by private individuals or organizations (take a look at the 5th and 14th amendments to the Constitution). Under its bylaws, Stanford may or may not have an "obligation" to investigate Rice. The university does, however, have a right to investigate whether or not one of its faculty or staff meets the univerity's requirements for employment or tenure.

[Quintspect]

Educational institutions actually do have "due process" procedures of their own.

One example, is, if a university, college, or K-12 violates a student's Section 504 (anti-disc­rimination statute) rights, the student must "exhaust administrative procedures" before
appealing to federal court, or else the case can be tossed out.

[Quintspect]

You may be right, of course, about a private institution that does not receive federal funds, eluding the requirement of having administrative procedures that meet due process criteria.

[wagadog]

The ONLY reason universities investigate "sleeping with" a student is for the free discovery -- in case it was a prosecutable rape. They do the discovery ahead of time, in order to destroy either the evidence, or the victim's credibility before it gets to the criminal investigation. Otherwise, they don't give a sh*t.

Honestly. Academic administrators? Are you kidding? Have you ever MET one?

Rape of a paying student, torture of a non-tuition-paying accused...big diff. Look, if it isn't rocket science. All they care about is keeping those greenbacks rolling in, from the feds, from parents and from alums. If they can discredit the victims, that's all they need to do. That's their job. NEXT!

[Norge]

http://www.freeenterprizeinstitute.com

http://www.soaw.org

[Norge]

Fine.
Rise is one of the neo-cons with their Jakobian phy. at the free enterprise institute, http://www.freeenterpriseinstitute.com who with their well laid plans did not accomplish their so called mission.

Perhaps justice will prevail, if not in this life then perhaps in a joining universe when they all depart through the last door.

Rolf Krogsæter

[Quintspect]

Any decent person, when warned that a terrorist organization was planning to hijack planes to bomb U.S. citizens on their own soil, would have picked up the telephone and caused all of our airports to be secured. However, Condoleeza Rice received un-ambiguous, clear briefings that Al Qaida was going to use planes to attack us on our own soil. She, Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the oil people who bullied, bought, and lied their way into power in this country, as stated in the
Project for A New American Century (PNAC) documents, wanted a Pearl Harbor to justify
attacking and taking militarily the Middle East oil reserves--- We are talking conspiracy for profits, and high crimes.