page_title: Ramsey Clark
section_title: International activism
hierarchical_section_title: Ramsey Clark / International activism
caption_attribution_description: বাংলা: Description: Ramsey Clark, the former Attorney General of the United States visited Nandigram in November 2007 and expressed his solidarity to the poor peasants of the area who were tortured by the CPI(M). Source: Self-uploaded Date: November 29, 2007 Author: Sekharlk সূত্র - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ramsey_Clark_in_Nandigram.jpg
context_page_description: William Ramsey Clark is an American lawyer, activist and former federal government official. A progressive, New Frontier liberal, he occupied senior positions in the United States Department of Justice under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, notably serving as United States Attorney General from 1967 to 1969; previously he was Deputy Attorney General from 1965 to 1967 and Assistant Attorney General from 1961 to 1965.
  As attorney general, he was known for his vigorous opposition to the death penalty, his aggressive support of civil liberties and civil rights, and his dedication in enforcing antitrust provisions. Clark supervised the drafting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Civil Rights Act of 1968. Since leaving public office Clark has led many progressive activism campaigns, including opposition to the War on Terror, and he has offered legal defense to controversial figures such as Charles Taylor, Slobodan Milošević, Saddam Hussein, and Lyndon LaRouche. Clark is one of only two living members of Johnson's Cabinet, along with Alan Boyd.
context_section_description: In 1991, Clark's Coalition to Stop US Intervention in the Middle East opposed the US-led war and sanctions against Iraq. Clark accused the administration of President George H. W. Bush, Dan Quayle, James Baker, Dick Cheney, William Webster, Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf and "others to be named" of "crimes against peace, war crimes" and "crimes against humanity" for its conduct of the Gulf War against Iraq and the ensuing sanctions; in 1996, he added the charges of genocide and the "use of a weapon of mass destruction". Similarly, after the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Ramsey charged and "tried" NATO on 19 counts and issued calls for its dissolution.
  As a lawyer, Clark has been criticized by both opponents and supporters for some of the people he agreed to defend, such as foreign dictators hostile to the US; Clark has stood beside and defended his clients, regardless of their own admitted actions and crimes.
  In 2004, Clark joined a panel of about 20 prominent Arab and one other non-Arab lawyers to defend Saddam Hussein in his trial before the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Clark appeared before the Iraqi Special Tribunal in late November 2005 arguing "that it failed to respect basic human rights and was illegal because it was formed as a consequence of the United States' illegal war of aggression against the people of Iraq." Clark said that unless the trial was seen as "absolutely fair", it would "divide rather than reconcile Iraq". Christopher Hitchens claimed that Clark was admitting Hussein's guilt when Clark reportedly stated in a 2005 BBC interview: "He [Saddam] had this huge war going on, and you have to act firmly when you have an assassination attempt".
  Clark was not alone in criticizing the Iraqi Special Tribunal's trial of Saddam Hussein, which drew intense criticism from international human rights organizations. Human Rights Watch called Saddam's trial a "missed opportunity" and a "deeply flawed trial" and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found the trial to be unfair and to violate basic international human rights law. Among the irregularities cited by HRW, were that proceedings were marked by frequent outbursts by both judges and defendants, that three defense lawyers were murdered, that the original chief judge was replaced, that important documents were not given to defense lawyers in advance, that paperwork was lost, and that the judges made asides that pre-judged Saddam Hussein. One of those outburst occurred when Clark was ejected from the trial after passing the judge a memorandum stating that the trial was making "a mockery of justice". The Chief Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman shouted at Clark, "No, you are the mockery... get him out. Out"!
  On March 18, 2006, Clark attended the funeral of Slobodan Milošević. He commented that: "History will prove Milošević was right. Charges are just that: charges. The trial did not have facts." He compared the trial of Slobodan Milošević with the one of Hussein by stating: "both trials are marred with injustice, both are flawed." He characterized Slobodan Milošević and Saddam Hussein as "both commanders who were courageous enough to fight more powerful countries."
  In June 2006, Clark wrote an article criticizing US foreign policy in general, containing a list of 17 US "major aggressions" introduced by "Both branches of our One Party system, Democrat and Republican, favor the use of force to have their way." (the list includes the Clinton years) and followed by "The United States government may have been able to outspend the Soviet Union into economic collapse in the Cold War arms race, injuring the entire planet in the process. Now Bush has entered a new arms race and is provoking a Second Cold War..."
  Clark's List of "Major Aggressions" by the United States of America
  (1) Regime change in Iran (1953) the Shah replacing democratically elected Mossadegh; Eisenhower (R);
  (2) Regime change in Guatemala (1954) military government for democratically elected Arbenz; Eisenhower (R);
  (3) Regime change in Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville) (1961) a
caption: Ramsey Clark visiting Nandigram, India. November 2007
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