From The Ramparts

George W Bu$h Be Tried As A War Criminal?

Will George W. Bu$h Be Prosecuted As A War Criminal?

“Under the Nuremberg standard, Bush is definitely a war criminal. The US Supreme Court also exposed Bush to war crime charges under both the US War Crimes Act of 1996 and the Geneva Conventions when the Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld against the Bush administration’s military tribunals and inhumane treatment of detainees. President Bush and his Attorney General agree that under existing laws and treaties Bush is a war criminal together with many members of his government. To make his war crimes legal after the fact, Bush has instructed the Justice (sic) Department to draft changes to the War Crimes Act and to US treaty obligations under the Geneva Conventions. One of Bush’s changes would deny protection of the Geneva Conventions to anyone in any American court.” Bush Seeks Retroactive Laws To Protect Himself From War Crimes Prosecution by Paul Craig Roberts http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts169.html

As imbecilic as some in the alternative media portray him and as out of it as most of his inner circle depict him in their memoirs, George W. Bu$h is really sly like a fox. He knowingly launched an illegal invasion and occupation of three nations (if you count Haiti) that posed no threat to the US, he ordered torture and sanctioned all kinds of inhumane treatment of civilians and supposed “enemy combatants” and he has deliberately violated the US Constitution at will. After invading and occupying Afghanistan and Iraq, in the second half of 2006 Bu$h ordered his Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to find ways to circumvent Geneva Convention rules and absolve him of any culpability as a war criminal. Bu$h even went to great lengths to seek out members of Congress to ask them to pass retroactive legislation that would protect him and members of his cabinet from being tried as war criminals under existing US codes and protocols of the Geneva Convention. Does that sound like Bu$h is an idiot, oblivious to the consequences of his actions?
Despite his media contrived image as a “man of God”, Bu$h knows he is a war criminal but he also knows as a sitting president the US Constitution protects him from indictment or arrest. He knows once he leaves office things will change and he is fair game. As his popularity and approval rating sank precipitously and remained at the lowest level of any sitting president, Bu$h is keenly aware many are chomping at the bit to bring charges against him and his cronies in an international tribunal, or the International Criminal Court once he leaves office.
As Bu$h’s imperialist occupations drag on with no end in sight, as revelations about atrocities mount, even the gullible and comatose US public is beginning to sense something is amiss; that AmeriKKKa is heading in the wrong direction. Despite the incessant jingoism and militarist propaganda that is the bedrock of Bu$h’s bogus War on Terrorism, after five grueling years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, AmeriKKKans are becoming extremely war weary. As we see the debilitating consequences of these wars on our daily lives, staggering inflation, gas prices souring, record military spending, corruption and waste trumping domestic needs, government effectiveness and credibility evaporating as a compliant Congress rubber stamps Bu$h’s military misadventures over the wishes of the people, people are now considering the need for justice. Sensing this, in 2006 Bu$h moved to protect himself and his administration from prosecution for war crimes. “The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments. Officials say the amendments would alter a U.S. law passed in the mid-1990s that criminalized violations of the Geneva Conventions, a set of international treaties governing military conduct in wartime. The conventions generally bar the cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment of wartime prisoners without spelling out what all those terms mean. The draft U.S. amendments to the War Crimes Act would narrow the scope of potential criminal prosecutions to 10 specific categories of illegal acts against detainees during a war, including torture, murder, rape and hostage-taking. Left off the list would be what the Geneva Conventions refer to as ‘outrages upon [the] personal dignity’ of a prisoner and deliberately humiliating acts -- such as the forced nakedness, use of dog leashes and wearing of women's underwear seen at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq -- that fall short of torture. ‘People have gotten worried, thinking that it's quite likely they might be under a microscope,’ said a U.S. official. Foreigners are using accusations of unlawful U.S. behavior as a way to rein in American power, the official said, and the amendments are partly meant to fend this off.’” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/08/AR2006080801276_pf.html
In 2006 the Democrats sold “we the people out” by taking impeachment off the table; so now the only recourse for justice is trying the Bu$h cabal as war criminals. Scott McClellan’s new book as well as statements by Paul Wolfowitz and numerous former Bu$h administration members and NeoCons provide ample evidence Bu$h should indeed be hauled into court and tried as a war criminal as soon as he leaves the White House. “The United States already has a statute on the books relevant to US criminal acts in repeated abuse of Iraqi prisoners in violation of the Geneva Conventions; the question is, how can that statute be made to work, particularly in light of inhuman treatment of so many Iraqi prisoners in US custody - in some cases resulting in death. Legal scholars and experts in International Criminal Law are presently researching the idea of a legal brief that sets forth the potential for criminal/legal liability on the part of top Bush Administration officials including President Bush himself. Such a brief will define the need for an independent, non-Justice Department-led investigation which will educate the press, the public, and Congress to the point where enough pressure builds for serious investigations to begin. Members of Congress, for example, could call on disclosure of information about the President’s knowledge and authorization of illegal Iraqi interrogations. For example, when was Bush informed about the Iraqi prisoner abuses, and what did he do to stop the abuse, and did he ever authorize the torture of prisoners. Congress could also call upon the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate the President. Under such auspices key members of the Bush administration will be questioned about non-disclosure on Bush’s authorization of illegal Iraqi interrogations; likewise the Attorney Generally will be formally questioned about the appointment of a Special Prosecutor and the official's own statements concerning Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq in tandem with questions concerning prisoner abuse in Iraq and other outstanding questions relating to International Criminal law.” Bush Administration War Crimes in Iraq http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bush_Administration_War_Crimes_in_Iraq
The article quoted above is about international war crimes, not the domestic crimes Bu$h has committed such as illegally spying on all AmeriKKans without warrant or reason or his clear violations of the US Constitution and US Bill of Rights. These crimes need to also be addressed! The question is, will justice prevail? Is it possible to get true justice and if so when will Bu$h and his fellow sociopaths be held accountable for their mendacity, genocide and other high crimes and misdemeanors?

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 8:55 AM