Ramsey Clark, Former Attorney General of the United States and Principled
Critic of the U.S. Warfare State, Dies at 93
By Frank Dorrel - April 13, 2021 0 Covert Magazine
At gala dinner in New York, hundreds pay tribute to Ramsey Clark and
International Action Center
Ramsey Clark speaking at Riverside Church in New York in 2013. [Source:
iacenter.org]
On April 9th, Ramsey Clark passed away at his home surrounded by his family.
Clark was Attorney General of the United States from 1967-1969 under Lyndon
Johnson, during which time he led the way on voting rights for
African-Americans, and school desegregation and drafted the landmark Civil
Rights Act of 1968, better known as the Fair Housing Act, which addressed
housing discrimination.
Mr. Clark with President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House in 1967. As
the Vietnam War came to dominate the Johnson administration, Mr. Clark later
said, the president was well aware of his opposition to it.
Ramsey Clark, left, with President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House in
1967. [Source: nytimes.com]
As the most progressive Attorney General in U.S. history, Clark also ordered
a moratorium on federal executions and prison construction; banned wiretaps
in criminal cases; and refused to enforce a law that was intended to
countermand the Supreme Courts restrictions on the questioning of criminal
suspects under the so-called Miranda.
Clark was critical of the Vietnam War, though in 1967, he told President
Johnson that antiwar demonstrators had been infiltrated by communists, and
the same year in Boston, he prosecuted famed pediatrician Dr. Benjamin
Spock, Yale Chaplain William Sloane Coffin and three other antiwar activists
for conspiring to undermine selective service laws.
Draft Resistance Indicted
Left to right: Dr. Benjamin Spock, Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Mitchell
Goodman, Michael Ferber. Clark felt guilty about prosecuting them for
conspiring to undermine selective service laws and later defended antiwar
activists. [Source: woodstockwhisperer.info]
Clarks guilt for these actions inspired his later antiwar activism.
In 1970, he defended the Harrisburg Seven, antiwar activists led by the Rev.
Philip Berrigan, the radical Roman Catholic priest, who were charged with 23
counts of conspiracy, including plotting to kidnap Henry A. Kissinger, and
in 1972, traveled to Hanoi to meet with North Vietnamese officials and
publicly criticized U.S. war conduct.
Mr. Clark, left, in North Vietnam in 1972. He met with Communist officials
in Hanoi and publicly criticized American conduct of the Vietnam War.
Mr. Clark, left, in North Vietnam in 1972. He met with Communist officials
in Hanoi and publicly criticized American conduct of the Vietnam War.
[Source: nytimes.com]
In subsequent years, Clark publicly denounced U.S. support for the Shah of
Iran, the bombing of Libya (in 1986 and 2011), Grenada, Bosnia, Kosovo,
Panama, Afghanistan and Iraq, among other countries, and criticized U.S.
support for the Tutsis in Rwanda whom he believed started the war there and
killed more than the Hutu.[1] (see CAM exclusive on this)
In 1991, Clark filed a complaint with the International War Crimes Tribunal
accusing President George H.W. Bush of war crimes after spending two weeks
visiting Iraq and documenting the effects of the war on its people.
Clark found that U.S. smart bombs hit more than military targets,
decimating homes, destroying vital infrastructure, and killing thousands of
innocent civilians, and that U.S. sanctions compounded the human misery.
In his 1992 book The Fire This Time: U.S. War Crimes in Iraq, Clark wrote
that a whole nation [Iraq] lay helpless beneath an alien military that
could attack and destroy with impunity
U.S. planes [in the assault on Iraq]
had flown more than 109,000 sorties, raining 88,000 tons of bombs, the
equivalent of seven Hiroshimas, and killing indiscriminately across the
country.[2]
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[Source: amazon.com]
Clark helped found the New York-based International Action Center in the
1990s which, among other activities, organized street protests in 1999
condemning the U.S.-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
In 2018, Clark said that he considered U.S. foreign policy to be the
greatest crime since WWII. American aggression had already created
incalculable levels of misery for the world. The poor of the planet are made
poorer, dominated and exploited by the foreign policies of the U.S. and its
rich allies. The U.S. invasion of Iraq was a war of aggression, an offense
called the supreme international crime in the Nuremberg Judgment.
Clark continued: Our overriding purpose, from the beginning right through
to the present day, has been world dominationthat is, to build and maintain
the capacity to coerce everybody else on the planet: nonviolently, if
possible; and violently, if necessary. But the purpose of our foreign policy
of domination is not just to make the rest of the world jump through hoops;
the purpose is to facilitate our exploitation of resources. And insofar as
any people or states get in the way of our domination, they must be
eliminated or, at the very least, shown the error of their ways.
See this remarkable speech by Ramsey Clark criticizing U.S. foreign policy
as a representation of plutocratic interests and its unjust war against the
Third World. This dedicated video segment featuring Clark had its own
YouTube post but was inexplicably taken down just after Clarks death. CAM
has reposted it in our Covert TV YouTube channel thanks to Frank Dorrels
excellent film entitled What Ive Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy: The
War Against The Third World, which features the clip. [Source: youtube.com]
In 2008, the United Nations General Assembly awarded Clark its prize, which
it gives every five years to human rights defenders.
Clark told The Washington Post that his work had always been motivated by
the attempt to prevent war and strengthen international institutions and
protect human rights and create social and economic justice.
He confessed in another interview that he was often overwhelmed by the
enormity of human misery on the planet; the enormity of poverty and
suffering; the contrast between raw power and the vaster poverty of the
impotent, and hoped to at least make a small difference.
Watch Citizen Clark: A Life of Principle | Prime Video
2018 documentary about Clarks life extolling his human rights work.
[Source: amazon.com]
Miguel Díaz-Canel - Wikipedia
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel [Source: wikipedia.org]
After news broke of Clarks passing, tributes poured in including from
Cubas President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who wrote on twitter that Clark was an
honest and supportive man that stood by our side during crucial battles and
denounced the great injustices committed by his country worldwide. #Cuba
pays him grateful tribute.
Mary Anne Grady Flores of the Ithaca Catholic Workers in another tribute
wrote that Clark was a friend of the Catholic Workers [peace group], a
great defender of Plowshares anti-nuclear activists, a defender of
Palestine, Cuba and Nicaragua, (to name a few) and defender of all issues
concerning justice throughout the world.
Sara Flounders. [Source: workers.org]
Sara Flounders, who worked with Clark at the International Action Center,
further noted that Clark took big personal risks in challenging criminal
U.S. policies, [and was] brilliant in sifting through material to pull out
the relevant facts in writing wrenching reports. He always tried to work
with and listen to activists on the local level and encourage people to work
together. His view, as hed say at almost every rally, speaking engagement,
press, conference, or forum was: the power is in the people.'
Mary Anne Grady Flores (@gradyflores) | Twitter
Mary Ann Grady Flores and Ramsey Clark. [Source: twitter.com]
Controversial Clients
Clark garnered controversy by defending U.S. adversaries such as Slobodan
Milosovicwhom Clark praised for standing tall [in the face of U.S.
aggression] and for his heroic individual resistanceSaddam Hussein, and
Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World
Trade Center.[3]
Clark said: if you believe in the rule of law, youre never afraid to
represent anyone.
His particular interest in representing Saddam Hussein began when media
reports started coming in of Mr. Husseins arrest in a spider-hole hideout
in the desert. Clark said he was shocked by the images he saw and the
savage presentation of [Mr. Hussein], disheveled, with his mouth open,
people probing in his mouth, the dehumanization.
Operation Red Dawn - Wikipedia
Clark was appalled by the image of Saddam Hussein pried out of a spider-hole
by U.S. soldiers and chose afterwards to defend him. [Source: wikipedia.org]
I represented Indian peoples for many years, and I cant tell you how many
Indians Ive worked with called after they saw the picture and said, Thats
exactly the way they treated us. And this is hardly the road to peace if
you want respect for human dignity.
Mr. Clark at the trial of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in 2005, with Mr.
Husseins legal advisers Najeeb al-Nauimi, center, and Issam al-Ghazzawi.
Mr. Clark at the trial of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in 2005, with Mr.
Husseins legal advisers Najeeb al-Nauimi, center, and Issam al-Ghazzawi.
[Source: nytimes.com]
Clark added that he hoped to help ensure a fair trial of Hussein, which
would be difficult to ensureand was critically important to the future of
democracy in Iraq and in terms of reconciliation of peoples, and in terms
of belief in truth and justice as a priority over force and violence. Its
about addressing the concept of victors justice, which is only the exercise
of power. If you really want peace, you have to satisfy people about the
honor of your purpose.
Influence of His Father
Born in Dallas in 1927, Clark grew up in a family steeped in Texas culture
and politics. His father, Tom Clarkwho was appointed by Harry S. Truman as
Attorney General in 1945, and became a Supreme Court Justice in 1949taught
him the ways of the outdoorsman and the values of the rugged individualist.
On weekends they camped, fished, and hunted. Toms involvement in local
politics had Ramsey attending rallies and speeches, hanging posters, and
handing out flyers. Tom Clarks work as one of the few local attorneys
willing to represent African-Americans had a profound impact on his son.
A person in a suit
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Justice Tom Clark [Source: wikipedia.org]
Ramsey witnessed his fathers guilt and despair when one client, a black
teenager accused of raping a white woman, was found guilty and sentenced to
death.
Neither Toms legal arguments nor his certainty of the young mans innocence
had been enough to save his life. Another client, Charlie Ellis, hired Tom
to save his familys home, slated by the city for demolition to build a
parking lot. They won the case, and the Ellises paid in kind by doing the
Clarks laundry.
Every week Ramsey and his mother drove 30 minutes to pick up and drop off
their clothes. From his seat in the car, he watched the Ellis children in
their dirt yard, laughing and playing, just like he and his cousins did. He
sensed something was wrong, though he was too young to understand what it
was.
Father, Son, and Constitution: How Justice Tom Clark and Attorney General
Ramsey Clark Shaped American Democracy: Wohl, Alexander: 9780700619160:
Amazon.com: Books
Book about Ramsey and his father. [Source: amazon.com]
Ramseys early career followed expectations. He joined the Marines in 1944
and served as a courier in post-War Europe, where he saw terrible scenes of
destruction that shaped his life-long aversion to war. Afterwards, Clark
earned three degreesa bachelors, a masters, and a law degreein four
years. He married his college sweetheart Georgia Welch, fathered two
children, and returned to Dallas to become a partner at his uncles law
firm. On behalf of Safeway Stores, he argued his first case before the U.S.
Supreme Court. Tom Clark, appointed to the Court in 1949, recused himself to
avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.
A political outsider in a state that leaned more and more conservative,
Ramsey stayed away from Texas politics. At the same time, he became bored
with corporate law. I got tired of fighting over other peoples money, he
explained.
Then came an opportunity, in the form of John F. Kennedythe chance to make
a difference. In 1961, Clark became the Department of Justices Assistant
Attorney General for Lands. Moving his way up the government ladder, he was
appointed Lyndon Johnsons Attorney General in 1966. His years in public
service would change the course of his life.
Mr. Clark in 1965, the year he was appointed deputy attorney general, with
Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach. Mr. Clark would succeed Mr.
Katzenbach the next year.
Mr. Clark in 1965, the year he was appointed deputy attorney general, with
Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach. Mr. Clark would succeed Mr. Katzenbach
the next year. [Source: nytimes.com]
Early in his tenure, Clark focused on managing government lands and spent
much of his time procuring property, either through purchase or by force,
for the construction of missile sites, space stations, reservoirs, and other
public facilities.
His attempts to bring fairness to the processand in particular his efforts
to equitably settle lawsuits brought by Native Americans seeking restitution
for property seized from their ancestorscaught Attorney General Bobby
Kennedys attention. As the administrations focus shifted toward Civil
Rights, Bobby Kennedy called on Clark to assist.
Hoping that his Southern accent and Texas roots would open doors closed to a
New Englander, Kennedy sent Clark to Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana
to enforce federal integration orders. Ramsey served with a cadre of federal
agents who walked the campus of Ole Miss with James Meredith to protect him
from violence.
James Meredith - Wikipedia
James Meredith [Source: wikipedia.org]
In early March of 1965, Clark drove along U.S. Route 80 between Montgomery
and Selma, setting up camps for marchers and trying to ensure that armed
racists didnt break the thin blue line protecting civil rights activists.
Imagine, he later reflected, in this country, in 1965, having to march
five days for the right to vote.
Clark witnessed how these activists pushed government policy by forcing
representatives to take stronger action. He noted their patience and
commitment and admired their methods of civil disobedience. After leaving
office in 1969, he was determined to join their ranks, and in 1969, at the
age of 41, after his tenure as Attorney General ended, began the second
stage of his career.
He first wrote Crime in America, a book excoriating the correctional system
hed just overseen. In the work he referred to American prisons as
manufacturers of crime, and proposed a systemic overhaul that favored
rehabilitation over punishment.
[Source: amazon.com]
Clark subsequently took a job with a progressive New York law firm where he
focused his energy on pro bono cases. Over the years, he represented the
American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, the Plowshares 8 (antiwar
activists who tried to sabotage nuclear weapons facilities), the Attica
prison rioters, the families of air force officers disappeared by the
U.S.-backed Pinochet government in Chile, a woman convicted of aiding
Marxist guerrillas in Peru, Libyans killed in U.S. bombing in 1986, and
death row inmates. He joined the board of Amnesty International. He worked
with Coretta Scott King to establish a national holiday in honor of her
slain husband. He ran for U.S. Senate on a platform of cutting the defense
budget by 50 percent and lost.
Clarks activism took him overseas to the worlds hot spots, including
Grenada, Iran, Libya, Panama, North Korea, Sudan and Iraq, where he became a
one-man opposition to the State Department and hoped to hold the U.S.
accountable to the laws and spirit of the Geneva Accords and the U.S.
Constitution.
Peace activist John Parker (with microphone) and unidentified man with Clark
during a mission to Sudan in September 1998 to uncover the truth about the
U.S. bombing of the Al-shifa pharmaceutical plan, which supplied vital
medicine for Sudan and all of Africa. The Clinton administration had claimed
that this plant manufactured nerve gas which proved to be false. [Source:
Photo courtesy of John Parker]
Frequently, Clark would host mock war crimes tribunals. In 2011, he served
as an expert witness in defense of the Creech 14 who attempted to impede
illegal drone killings carried out from a military base in Las Vegas. He was
also a leading spokesman against the imposition of economic sanctions, which
have borne terrible human costs.
Ramsey Clark outside courthouse where he testified on behalf of the Creech
14. [Photo courtesy of Colonel Ann Wright]
Throughout his career, Clarks willingness to provide legal advice and
representation to those on the outskirts of society and dubbed enemies of
the United States brought him both admiration and disdain. To some, he was a
voice of truth in a system defined by hypocrisy. Others saw him as
anti-American, or a piece of lint from the 1960s, to quote conservative
columnist George F. Will.
A man of strong ideals and few words, Clark would provide a simple response.
Democracy is not a spectator sport, he was fond of saying. He believed
that for a country to truly be democratic, the people must participate. They
must hold their government accountable for its actions. And he spent his
life trying to do that.
