Michael Ratner Quotes (10 Quotes)

This vigilantism demonstrates the utter breakdown of the government. These private security forces have behaved brutally, with impunity, in Iraq. To have them now on the streets of New Orleans is frightening and possibly illegal.

It is not debatable whether the president can order electronic eavesdropping once Congress has passed a law making it criminal to do so. It is impeachable. The fact that we are sitting in 21st century America debating the issue of presidential power is ridiculous to me.

This could be a big break if Pappas testifies as to why those dogs were used and who ordered the dogs to be used. It's a steppingstone going up the chain of command, and that's positive. It might demonstrate that it wasn't just a few rotten apples.

It's chilling to read it, not because of one incident but because of what you see here, the United States was running here, was a two-and-a-half year interrogation camp,

They couldn't show people what they were really doing, because what they were really doing was illegal and inhumane, ... It's such a fraud. It reminds me of the special concentration camps set up in World War II. They would take the Red Cross there to see there was an orchestra and all sorts of nice things.

Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights alluded to Plessy v. Ferguson , the notorious 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the separate-but-equal ... The legacy of that thought is what we saw at the Superdome.

The President decided that he was no longer running the country as a civilian President. He issued a military order giving himself the power to run the country as a general.

I find it extremely hypocritical that Washington is investigating this group for the 'crime' of traveling to Cuba. The U.S. government is flagrantly violating even the most basic norms of human rights - such as indefinite detention without charges, denial of fair trials and, most importantly, torture. There are far greater crimes at play here than Witness Against Torture's travel logistics.

The Supreme Court has not closed the doors of justice to the detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. This is a major victory for the rule of law and affirms the right of every person, citizen or non-citizen, detained by the United States to test the legality of his or her detention in a U.S. Court.

It is an outrage that the U.S. government put him before a tribunal that is essentially a court of conviction not of justice.