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Ramsey Clark

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File:Ramseyclark-portrait.jpg
Ramsey Clark as Attorney General in 1967

William Ramsey Clark (born December 18, 1927) is a lawyer and political activist . He worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, which included service as the 66th United States Attorney General under President Lyndon B. Johnson. He later became better known for his continuing advocacy on behalf of left leaning political causes, and his role as defense attorney in the trials of controversial figures. Clark currently serves on the defense team for former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who is facing trial in Iraq for war crimes. He was a recipient of the Gandhi Peace Award and is the son of another Attorney General and Justice of the Supreme Court, Tom C. Clark.

Early life and career

Born in Dallas, Texas, Clark served in the United States Marine Corps in 1945 and 1946, then earned a B.A. degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1949, an M.A. and a J.D. from the University of Chicago in 1950.

He was admitted to the Texas bar in 1950, and to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1956. From 1951 to 1961, Clark was an associate and partner in the law firm of Clark, Reed and Clark.

Kennedy and Johnson Administrations

Clark served in the Department of Justice as the Assistant Attorney General of the Lands Division from 1961 to 1965, and as Deputy Attorney General from 1965 to 1967.

On March 2, 1967, President Johnson appointed him to be Attorney General of the United States, an appointment probably influenced by Johnson's expectation that Clark's father, Associate Justice Tom C. Clark, would resign from the Supreme Court to avoid a conflict of interest. Johnson wanted a vacancy to be created on the Court so he could appoint Thurgood Marshall, the first African American justice. The elder Clark resigned from the supreme court on June 12, 1967.

Clark served as Attorney General until Johnson's term as President ended on January 20, 1969.

Clark played an important role in the history of the American Civil Rights movement. During his years at the Justice Department, he

As Attorney General during part of the Vietnam War, Clark oversaw the prosecution of the Boston Five for “conspiracy to aid and abet draft resistance.” Four of the five were convicted, including pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock and Yale chaplain William Sloane Coffin Jr.

In addition to his government work, during this period Clark was also director of the American Judicature Society (in 1963) and national president of the Federal Bar Association in 1964–65.

Controversial Activism

Following his term he worked as a law professor and was active in the anti–Vietnam War movement. He visited North Vietnam in 1972. In 1974 he was the Democratic Party's candidate for the United States Senate from New York, losing to Jacob Javits.

File:Ramsey Clark & LBJ.jpg
Attorney General Clark & President Lyndon B. Johnson.

More recently, Clark has become controversial for his political views and publications.

Clark is affiliated with VoteToImpeach, an organization advocating the impeachment of President George W. Bush. He has been an opponent of both Gulf War conflicts. "Impeachment is the most important issue facing Constitutional government in the United States. Impeachment will determine whether the American people will hold the Bush administration accountable for its High Crimes and Misdemeanors" [1]. Clark is the founder of the International Action Center, an organization claiming North Korea is not a violator of human rights [2]. It holds significant overlapping membership with the Workers' World Party. Clark and the IAC helped found the protest organization A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism).

Like other lawyers defending unpopular figures, such as French lawyer Jacques Vergès — who defended, among other figures, Slobodan Milošević and Tarek Aziz —, Ramsey Clark has been criticized for some of the people he agreed to defend and for his controversial statements concerning these clients. Hence, in 2004, Clark joined the defense team in Saddam Hussein's trial before the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Clark returned to Iraq in late November 2005 to appear before the Iraqi Special Tribunal 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." On November 28, 2005 in a BBC interview while defending Saddam, Clark claimed that some of the acts of which the former Iraqi President was accused were done out of necessity, saying: "He [Saddam] had this huge war going on, and you have to act firmly when you have an assassination attempt" [3].

On 18 March 2006, Clark attended the funeral of Slobodan Milošević. He has declared: "History will prove Milošević was right. Charges are just that, charges. The trial did not have facts." He also described Slobodan Milošević and Saddam Hussein as "[b]oth commanders" who "were courageous enough to fight more powerful countries."

Judicial activities

Clark has been criticized for his work by a number of organizations and individuals, while at the same time receiving praise from other groups (Amnesty International, the ACLU, the NAACP, etc) for his defense of the human rights of Palestinians, American Indians, and the people of Iraq, among others. As a lawyer, he has also provided legal counsel and advice to controversial figures from both the left and the right-wing, including:

See also

Preceded by United States Attorney General
1967–1969 		Succeeded by

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