Ramsey Clark Quotations

A great many people in this country are worried about law-and-order. And a great many people are worried about justice. But one thing is certain; you cannot have either until you have both.

If Rosa Parks had not refused to move to the back of the bus, you and I might never have heard of Dr. Martin Luther King.

A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you.

Turbulence is life force. It is opportunity. Let's love turbulence and use it for change.

The measure of your quality as a public person, as a citizen, is the gap between what you do and what you say.

Who will protect the public when the police violate the law?

I didn't volunteer; they asked me. I felt a duty to testify.

Most faults are not in our Constitution, but in ourselves.

Our first concern is the security of the lawyers because without security you can't possibly have a fair trial, if trial at all, and that's not been adequately attended to.

There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well being than the way it handles criminals.

Nearly two months after the brutal execution of one of their members and the summary execution of a second lawyer, and all this time these men and their families have been left essentially unprotected.

He seemed at peace with himself. He realizes the danger. He may be fatalistic about the outcome, but he's certainly unbowed and maybe when he gets into court he gets ... more emotional than he does among his lawyers.

His mind was as clear and as sharp as ever,

History will prove that Slobodan Milosevic was right.

has been in total isolation. He hasn't seen a member of his family, talked to a member of his family, met with a lawyer or met with friends he has known before.

I think it's going to be very, very difficult.

Reconciliation is essential. This trial can either divide or heal. And unless it is seen as absolutely fair, and as absolutely fair in fact, it will irreconcilably divide the people of Iraq.

It creates sectarian passions that destroy rationality and reason and the search for truth.

We never thought we couldn't come back in. The fundamental right to counsel is the right to counsel of choice, not to somebody else's choice.

Today we had further evidence. The court was chaotic about the half the time (with) two people, three people speaking at the same time.

We are living in Iraq, a country that I love, in a very dangerous time. Reconciliation is essential. This trial can either divide or heal.

What incredible insanity is driving us to hold this child, to glorify the grossness of our materialism as if you can buy the soul of a child,

There are many problems with the legality of the court. The United States created the court. The United States spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the court.

This trial can divide or heal. Unless it is seen as absolutely fair, and fair in fact, it will divide rather than reconcile Iraq.

We've had 10 years of malnutrition and sickness,

There is not a person who feels secure. It's impossible to hold a fair trial in such a climate ... A trial is supposed to be a rational process. Fear is the ultimate irrationality. How do you function in fear?

We will be back in court on December 5 and we will demand protection of the counsel.

What was the government doing? What's the meaning of this?

What was the government doing? ... (FBI agents) had absolutely no regard of the lives of any of the people in there. All they had to do was wait them out.

Both commanders were courageous enough to fight more powerful countries.

Cutting off the president (Saddam) was absolutely unwarranted. He has international rights to a public trial.

I've been in many unpopular cases where there's been high community prejudice against the defendants, but here everybody has been hurt, and everybody is angry,

The statutes of the high court in Iraq requires a public hearing but he (the presiding judge) arbitrarily cut it off so that you the press and the rest of the world could not see what he said.

President Saddam Hussein was in very good spirits, very clear minded. We had a good discussion after the court.

A fair trial in this case is absolutely imperative for historical truth.

The whole environment in the country is so violent and threatening it's impossible for it to function.

This case presents as great a challenge of the possibility of a fair trial as any you're likely to see because the emotions are so intense,

There will be motions made in court to enlist its support for a thorough investigation. It was selective violence calculated to destroy the ability of the defense to present its defense,

There is virtually no protection for the nine Iraqi lawyers and their families who are heroically here to defend truth and justice.

It's a creature of the U.S. military occupation, its statute was drafted by the U.S. and rubber-stamped later by people in the U.S. and supported all the time.

The number of deaths have increased every year,

No lawyer Saddam Hussein has known before the U.S. invasion has seen him, ... He never has had anything approaching counsel of his own choosing?. There has been no ability to begin to prepare a defense.

There's too much violence in the country, there's too much division and too much pressure on the court. The project ought to be abandoned. It was a creature of the United States in the first place.

If the orders came from higher officials then you have a real problem. I don't see how you go forward with a trial,

I don't know if they'll ever get their act together. I don't think they can. I think there's too much violence in the country, too much division, too much pressure on the court ... The project ought to be abandoned.

How dare Americans allow their government to cause such misery [in the world].

This country of ours has committed the most serious act of aggression in its history by engaging in a war of aggression without a declaration of war by Congress.

Impeachment appears six times in the U.S. Constitution. The Founders weren't concerned with anything more than with impeachment because they had lived under King George III and had in 1776 accused the king of all the things that George W. Bush wants to do: Usurpation of the power of the people; Being above the law; Criminal abuse of authority.

The great and constant need of those who investigate homicide and practice forensic pathology or criminal law is a warm humanism.

Islam is the only religion that gives dignity to the poor.

Violence is the ultimate human degradation.

Our history shows that the death penalty has been unjustly imposed, innocents have been killed by the state, effective rehabilitation has been impaired, judicial administration has suffered. It is the poor, the sick, the ignorant, the powerless, and the hated who are executed.

A humane and generous concern for every individual, his health and his fulfillment, will do more to soothe the savage heart than the fear of state-inflicted death, which chiefly serves to remind us how close we remain to the jungle.

Democracy is just a word. You have to give it meaning. The US is not a democracy. Most Americans do not vote. We haven't had a real choice for a long, long time now. Wealth rules. Corporations rule. The US is a plutocracy - government by wealthy people. Certain people control multinational corporations. You couldn't get elected in the US without lots of money.

Nothing so diminishes democracy as secrecy.

Honesty is the best policy in international relations, interpersonal relations, labor, business, education, family and crime control because truth is the only thing that works and the only foundation on which lasting relations can build.

The United States is not nearly so concerned that its acts be kept secret from its intended victims as it is that the American people not know of them.

They could call Jesus a terrorist too. I mean, he was pretty tough on money lenders a time or two.

The U.S. has in its stockpiles more nuclear bombs, chemical and biological weapons, more aircraft, rockets and delivery systems in number and sophistication than the rest of the world combined. Included are twenty commissioned Trident II nuclear submarines any one of which could destroy Europe.

Both trials are marred with injustice, both are flawed.

It has never happened in history that a nation that has won a war has been held accountable for atrocities committed in preparing for and waging that war. We intend to make this one different. What took place was the use of technological material to destroy a defenseless country. From 125,000 to 300,000 people were killed... We recognize our role in history is to bring the transgressors to justice.

We're not a democracy. It's a terrible misunderstandin g and a slander to the idea of democracy to call us that. In reality, we're a plutocracy: a government by the wealthy.

Impeachment is the direct constitutional means for removing a President, Vice President or other civil officers of the United States who has acted or threatened acts that are serious offenses against the Constitution, its system of government, or the rule of law, or that are conventional crimes of such a serious nature that they would injure the Presidency if there was no removal.

People who don't cherish their elderly have forgotten whence they came and whither they go.

Our emotions may cry for vengeance in the wake of a horrible crime, but we know that killing the criminal will not undo the crime, will not prevent similar crimes by others, does not benefit the victim, destroys human life and brutalizes society. If we are to still violence, we must cherish life. Executions cheapen life.

The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy.

The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy.

The law requires that the court allow more time.