Eye-Witnesses Coming Forward

"Opinion"

05/30/2008

Paul Munnis


It is the closing months of the Bush Administration and certain allegations of crime are coming to the forefront.

When G.W. Bush chose to invade Iraq, we were told by Kaffe Annan, at that time the UN Chief, that Mr. Bush violated international law and waged a war of illegal aggression against Iraq.

As a result, it is alleged that the U.S. and the Bush Administration are still in violation of International law in Iraq.

When the Iraq War ended then Mr. Bush chose to occupy Iraq and we are told that he committed another international crime of “illegal occupation” of a foreign country.

The loss and disruption of Iraqi and American lives that resulted has been on a large scale and is considered criminal in scope.

When the pretext for the invasion was given, a lack of claimed weapons of mass-destruction proved obvious as we watched the Bush Administration do everything it could to refute the charges of premeditated and illegal invasion brought to the 9/11 Commission.

When Richard Clarke told us about these matters during the 9/11 hearings he went on to say the WMD was a contrived argument and that the war had been pre-meditated for many months preceding the invasion. He was echoed by Scott Ritter a U.S. inspector assigned to the UN WMD inspection team. The UN inspection team and others who were on the ground as inspectors for the UN could find no support for Mr. Bush’s arguments of WMD before the invasion. When Mr. Bush tried to use older UN Resolutions as a basis for invasion he was told his grounds were shallow, there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that the UN did not condone his rationale for invasion based upon the prior UN Resolutions. The UN felt there was not sufficient reason to think that the issue had reached a point where there were no other options available. In other words the UN said: “No,” to the Bush plan to invade Iraq.

Together with Tony Blair of Great Britain the U.S. ignored the UN and they invaded Iraq in the name of “liberation” is the claim.

Scott McClellan is the second eye witness to come forward concerning the early days leading up to the war and he corroborates much of the Richard Clarke testimony thus validating the testimony given to the 9/11 Commission by Richard Clarke, a former GOP staff insider. McClellan was the Bush Press Secretary who issued the press releases containing many of the Bush lies and cover-up stories. He was an insider too. McClellan is stating that he witnessed the plotting of the lies, the cover-up, and that he was part of a deliberate propaganda campaign to mislead the American people and the world.

The result is that now two credible insider witnesses are available to testify in trials against Bush and Chaney over crimes committed against humanity. What’s more their testimony has been published as books and they thus form a record.

Meanwhile Congress is locked into a battle over “Executive Privilege,” as they attempt to subpoena other major witnesses including Harriet Miers, James Woo, Karl Rove, and other Administration people who are thought to be complicit in these matters in a criminal sense. They refuse to testify under oath and Bush is providing them with Constitutional cover. Yet Congress is going ahead and issuing the subpoenas as prelude to a Court test.

A second charge has been made against the Bush / Chaney Administration – one of a willful and knowledgeable violation of the Geneva Accords against the use of torture and abuse of POW’s.

FBI witnesses are lining up left and right and are giving eye witness accounts of the violations of law at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and at several POW camps run by Americans in Iraq. This is damning testimony for the Bush Administration. Mr. Bush’s legal woes are increasing by the hour.

Furthermore, the CIA has acknowledged that it has been involved in a program called “Extraordinary Rendition,” wherein suspected terrorists are kidnapped, taken to foreign countries, and tortured to obtain information, another violation of international laws.

In a different matter the Bush Administration violated the law in permitting spying on American citizens and a variety of telecomm companies collaborated with them in violation of the law. This is thought to be a domestic criminal matter and not to be confused with the international crime allegations.

Will all of this hurt Bush today?

No I don’t think so, I think that both Bush and Chaney have immunity from international prosecution as long as they remain as heads of State. (See Wikipedia for more information concerning immunity), Thus they will not be arrested or prosecuted while they are still in office. The Supreme Court is not likely to permit them to be tried while in office by a U.S. Court either. Nancy Pelosi has said Congress will not impeach Mr. Bush over the domestic crimes although Congress will not grant immunity to the telecom companies. Furthermore the clock is running out on the Bush term of office and there is little point in miring Congress down in the matter except for evidence gathering.

Will it hurt Mr. Bush after he leaves office? I think so. I think that attempts will be made by Human Rights groups to prosecute Bush and other Administration operatives who could be arrested and tried by an International Tribunal on two sets of charges: “Crimes Against Humanity” and “Crimes of Torture and Abuse.”

We do not think these charges will be handled in the U.S. Courts but rather managed in International Courts located in Den Hague, Holland.

That is where Milosevic was tried. At the time of his death in prison, Milosevic faced 66 charges, including those of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. He was called the "Butcher of the Balkans" because of the ethnic cleansing campaign, in which Bosnian Serbs systematically killed Bosnian Muslims.

I think it could become a future prison site for Mr. Bush and members of the Bush Administration such as Dick Chaney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Condoleeza Rice. Others like John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, and a lawyer now hiding from Congressional subpoena Mr. James Woo, are alleged to have provided cover for the Bush Administration for these crimes and thus are also likely to be named in tribunal indictments.

When and if this all happens it will be very humiliating for the U.S. to have a two time elected president tried as a common criminal and possibly executed or given a life sentence for multiple murders. Yet that is a real possibility and we Americans will have to accept that on an international level the perception of wrong-doing by the U.S. where Iraq is concerned is already global.

We note that Tony Blair of the UK could be joining these guys in the docket too. Charges have been made and witnesses have come forward charging Blair with planning this unauthorized invasion against Iraq.

The moral principle that governs an act of war is that war must be the last resort. It was not the last resort in the case of Iraq, it was a contrived set of charges so as to provide cover to invade and occupy a foreign nation according to the UN and now corroborated by Clarke and McClellan.

Harry Truman said of the presidency: “The Buck Stops Here.” That could be proven true once more in Mr. Bush’ case.

Making it even worse for Mr. Bush are eye-witness reports of an organized cover-up of willful lies to America and to the world. Now there are credible witnesses who have published their testimony and eye witness accounts. The legal future of the Bush / Chaney bunch looks grim. They could be charged as the “Butchers of Baghdad.” With a death count that makes Milsovic’s 8,000 dead seem small by comparison.

It is entirely possible that in these closing days of the Bush Administration others will come forward. Some may figure that they need to publish books containing their testimony in order to earn revenue for paying trial lawyers in the coming years. Others might figure that it will go lightly for them if they volunteer their witness. Still others may seek to excuse their complicity. No matter, in time the truth will have out.

The wheels of justice can turn slowly and it will take time for all of this to happen. We could be two presidents into the future before anything of substance happens, yet justice will have its day in court.