Showing posts with label Geneva Convention. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Geneva Convention. Show all posts

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Treason and Conspiracy: How Bush and his 'Material Supporters' Betrayed the Nation!

George W. Bush, personally and officially, must answer to charges that he committed high treason and capital crimes, but also those who provided him with guilty 'material support' knowing that they would be enriched by his treasonous and murderous adventures against the innocent civilians of Iraq! Bush was bought and paid for by a tiny, ruling elite and Bush has represented only their interests. The rest of us were sold-out. There are two terms for this: 'high treason' and 'tyranny'! Both Bush and his financial supporters are guilty and should be tried in US and international courts.
(a) Offense. - Whoever provides material support or resources or conceals or disguises the nature, location, source, or ownership of material support or resources, knowing or intending that they are to be used in preparation for, or in carrying out, a violation of section 32, 37, 81, 175, 229, 351, 831, 842(m) or (n), 844(f) or (i), 930(c), 956, 1114, 1116, 1203, 1361, 1362, 1363, 1366, 1751, 1992, 1993, 2155, 2156, 2280, 2281, 2332, 2332a, 2332b, 2332f, or 2340A of this title, section 236 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 USC. 2284), or section 46502 or 60123(b) of title 49, or in preparation for, or in carrying out, the concealment of an escape from the commission of any such violation, or attempts or conspires to do such an act, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both, and, if the death of any person results, shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life. A violation of this section may be prosecuted in any Federal judicial district in which the underlying offense was comitted, or in any other Federal judicial district as provided by law.

(b) Definition. - In this section, the term "material support or resources" means currency or monetary instruments or financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel, transportation, and other physical assets, except medicine or religious materials.

Cases and Codes : US Code : Title 18 : Section 2339A. Providing material support to terrorists
Bush's war of aggression against the people of Iraq was an act terrorism --even under the terms of the Patriot Act. It is also a violation of US Codes, Title 18, Section 2441!
(a) Offense.— Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a war crime, in any of the circumstances described in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.

--TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 118 > § 2441
§ 2441. War crimes
But that is only a part of the many crimes that will be charged George W. Bush and those who knowingly provided him with 'material support'.
(d) Common Article 3 Violations.—

(1) Prohibited conduct.— In subsection (c)(3), the term “grave breach of common Article 3” means any conduct (such conduct constituting a grave breach of common Article 3 of the international conventions done at Geneva August 12, 1949), as follows:

(A) Torture.— The act of a person who commits, or conspires or attempts to commit, an act specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control for the purpose of obtaining information or a confession, punishment, intimidation, coercion, or any reason based on discrimination of any kind.

(B) Cruel or inhuman treatment.— The act of a person who commits, or conspires or attempts to commit, an act intended to inflict severe or serious physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions), including serious physical abuse, upon another within his custody or control.

(C) Performing biological experiments.— The act of a person who subjects, or conspires or attempts to subject, one or more persons within his custody or physical control to biological experiments without a legitimate medical or dental purpose and in so doing endangers the body or health of such person or persons.

(D) Murder.— The act of a person who intentionally kills, or conspires or attempts to kill, or kills whether intentionally or unintentionally in the course of committing any other offense under this subsection, one or more persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including those placed out of combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause.

(E) Mutilation or maiming.— The act of a person who intentionally injures, or conspires or attempts to injure, or injures whether intentionally or unintentionally in the course of committing any other offense under this subsection, one or more persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including those placed out of combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, by disfiguring the person or persons by any mutilation thereof or by permanently disabling any member, limb, or organ of his body, without any legitimate medical or dental purpose.

(F) Intentionally causing serious bodily injury.— The act of a person who intentionally causes, or conspires or attempts to cause, serious bodily injury to one or more persons, including lawful combatants, in violation of the law of war.

(G) Rape.— The act of a person who forcibly or with coercion or threat of force wrongfully invades, or conspires or attempts to invade, the body of a person by penetrating, however slightly, the anal or genital opening of the victim with any part of the body of the accused, or with any foreign object.

(H) Sexual assault or abuse.— The act of a person who forcibly or with coercion or threat of force engages, or conspires or attempts to engage, in sexual contact with one or more persons, or causes, or conspires or attempts to cause, one or more persons to engage in sexual contact.

(I) Taking hostages.— The act of a person who, having knowingly seized or detained one or more persons, threatens to kill, injure, or continue to detain such person or persons with the intent of compelling any nation, person other than the hostage, or group of persons to act or refrain from acting as an explicit or implicit condition for the safety or release of such person or persons. ...

--TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 118 > § 2441. War crimes
Bush and what is commonly referred to as the Military/Industrial complex, consisting of the US military apparatus and the various 'military contractors' who maintain lobbies and offices in Washington DC, undertook a war of naked aggression against the people of Iraq. Every 'justification' for the 'war' has since been proven to have been fraudulent in every respect. Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations, for example, was a deliberate fraud consisting of ten year old satellite photos, a plagiarized student paper, and outright lies, obviously concocted by the White House. [See: The Lie of the Century] Who else? There were NO WMD! In every other respect, Saddam Hussein was not then no was he ever an 'imminent threat' to the security of the United States or its citizens. The US attack and invasion of Iraq was and remains a war crime. Bush's order to attack and invade is a capital crime under US Codes and is a war crime under international law and conventions to which the US is bound by treaty and law.

In consideration of 'material support' provided him by his supporters inside the said 'Military/Industrial Complex, George W. Bush undertook a campaign of lies and propaganda in order to justify the war of aggression against Iraq, the true purpose of which was the acquisition of oil and other resources --in other words: the enrichment of those defense contractors and other corporations who stood to benefit materially and have, in fact, benefited from a war of aggression that violates US treaties, international law, and US Codes which require the death penalty for those violations resulting in death!

The US government itself has defined 'material support' in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 to include providing tangible support such as " 'money, goods, and materials and also less concrete support, such as 'personnel' and 'training'" to 'terrorists'

As Bush is a 'mass murderer' and a terrorist in violation of US criminal codes, anyone, therefore, who has knowingly provided him with 'material support' shares his guilt! That includes GOP 'fat cats' who literally lined up to finance Bush's campaign knowing that he would wage an illegal war on their behalf. The final shakeout of those who share Bush's guilt will most certainly include the leadership of the GOP, their biggest corporate sponsors, and media whores who provided favorable coverage quid pro quo!

I charge that the vast majority of those providing Bushco with substantial, perhaps 'huge', financial support did so knowingly! This is guilty knowledge that makes them a part of the conspiracy to pillage Iraq (a war crime), defraud the American people, and dismantle the Constitution in the process.

These well-heeled miscreants supported Bush with 'money, goods, and materials' knowing that Bush would concoct a phony reason for war, knowing that Bush would slaughter millions of innocent people, knowing that Bush would do so on their behalf. The guilty felons and corporate mass murderers bought and paid for George W. Bush. He was expected to deliver. He had been made an offer that he could not refuse. He would not have refuse in any case. It was as much his idea as it was his 'material support'.

Aiding and abetting this crime against humanity was the leadership of the GOP, a criminal conspiracy that pays off its 'base' with huge tax cuts. The effect of these policies are irrefutable and available at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the BEA, the Census Bureau and numerous other organization. In summary, because of GOP policies, a tiny elite of about one percent of the population now owns more than the remaining 99 percent combined.

Soon, however, the GOP will have killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. Or to mix a metaphor, it will have slaughtered its own 'fatted cow'. The end is near when only one percent of the nation's population owns more than the remaining 99 percent combined! That has been the desired goal and the de facto outcome of GOP mendacity at least since the regime of Ronald Reagan.

The GOP leadership is a crime syndicate whose job is the transfer of wealth to a tiny, crooked, elite base. War is but one mechanism by which this achieved. Check the list of defense contractors! Check how much they've made in the mass murder business! How many 'liberals' do you think are among them?

This is not politics! This is organized crime and Bush is at the forefront, the titular head of what St. Thomas More described as a "'conspiracy of rich men procuring their own commodities under the name and title of the commonwealth'.
There is wide-spread acknowledgment, even within the party itself, that the Republican brand is currently poisonous. Faced with massive losses in November, GOP leadership has green-lighted a save-yourself mentality, allowing its endangered members to go against the party line if it means helping their electoral chances.

But if the situation seems bad on the electoral level, insiders warn that it's even worse when you get down to infrastructure and machinery. Facing an avalanche of losses, the GOP is stuck with an antiquated system of fundraising, a tired leadership, and a president many Americans loathe.

"There is a phenomenal arrogance like a fog that has clouded people's thinking and ability to see what is real," said Nicole Sexton, a longtime Republican fundraiser and former Director of Finance for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "We have to go down in history as some of the worst messengers. And President Bush has been horrible. Everything he does deems calculated and insincere. The same was true with Bill Clinton but he at least had the ability to seem sincere. With Bush, people are throwing stones and tomatoes at him [and he hasn't changed]."

--GOP Insider Eviscerates Bush And Party: Just "Phenomenal Arrogance"
' With all due respect to Vince Bugliosi, I have been saying for YEARS that Bush has committed mass murder, war crimes, and other capital crimes, under various statutes and International Treaties. I commend him for coming forward so forcefully and eloquently.
A two-day conference on obtaining prosecutions of high level American war criminals will open September 13th, in Andover, Mass. The conference will explore the legal grounds for, and plan for, obtaining prosecutions of President Bush and top officials of his Administration for war crimes.

In the tradition of America’s Chief Prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials after World War II, Justice Robert Jackson, the Conference’s purpose is “to hold high US officials accountable in courts of law and, if guilt is found, to obtain appropriate punishments. Otherwise,” said the Conference’s convener, Lawrence Velvel, “the future will be threatened by additional examples of Executive lawlessness by leaders who need fear no personal consequences” for their actions, leading to “the possibility of more Viet Nams, more Iraqs, and more repression.”

--Conference to Lay Plans to Prosecute High Level US War Criminals, Global Research
An October 2006 poll by New York Times and CBS News indicated that some 84 percent of Americans don't believe George W. Bush is telling the truth about what he knew prior to the attacks of 911. In the same year, Zogby reported that 45 percent of Americans support an investigation of George W. Bush by an International Tribunal. Such a tribunal should re-investigate whether officials of the US government allowed or consciously and deliberately helped or facilitated the attacks.

In the same year, 911truth.org commissioned Zogby which found that about half the population of New York believes that members of the Bush administration 'knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act." 911 was, therefore, a deliberate act of mass murder perpetrated upon the American people by the man who presumes the office of 'dictator'. Since that is the title he prefers to 'president', then I suggest we stop calling him "President Bush'. He is merely Bush or, more properly, Mass Murderer Bush, if you must attach a title. Bugliosi to Congress: "The Bush administration has gotten away with thousands and THOUSANDS of murders!"

Recently, Bugliosi offered Congress incriminating, documentary evidence to substantiate his charges that George W. Bush is guilty of mass murder. He urged the committee to make a 'criminal referral' to the Justice Department to begin a criminal investigation of Bush and members of his administration to determine whether first degree murder charges should be brought against 'certain members of this administration'. Clearly --Bugliosi thinks the evidence supports not just an 'indictment' but a conviction..


Bugliosi to House Judiciary Committee: Bush is 'beyond all reasonable doubt" guilty of mass murder.

Before the Judiciary chaired by Rep. John Conyers, Bugliosi stated: 'beyond any reasonable doubt' George W. Bush is guilty of the mass murder of our US troops and Iraqi civilians." "The Bush administration," Bugliosi told the committee, "has gotten away with thousands and thousands of murders.

"I will give you words from Bush's own mouth," he continued to an enthralled audience in committee chambers, "that will prove shocking to most of you folks in this chamber."

"Whether Democrat or Republican, all Americans should be outraged by what the Bush administration has done. How dare they do what they did?"

Meanwhile, Bush --on behalf of his well-heeled co-conspirators and 'material support' --has taken to new heights nefarious efforts to shut up his opposition. Due to right wing policies and media consolidation throughout the regimes of Reagan and Bush Sr, the media is but a right wing echo chamber. No one can, therefore, reasonably deny a voice to folk for whom Thomas Jefferson's Monticello is symbolic of free speech and a revolution in support of it!

Bush may have been within the letter of the law to quash 'free speech' at Monticello, but to do so on Jefferson's soil, is a poke in the eye! The downside for Bush is that it tips his hand. It betrays his anti-Jefferson mindset, his anti-Democratic, dictatorial, fascist bent.

Bush omitted the most important thing ever said by Thomas Jefferson and it was stated --upfront --in the Declaration of Independence.
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government...

--Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence
Bush is nothing new. 'Conspiracies of rich men' have always tried to hijack the apparatus of state for nefarious ends. Some historians may argue the point that 'nations' themselves derive from the thug gangs hired by the rich and powerful to protect the interests of privilege.
...when I consider and weigh in my mind all these commonwealths, which nowadays anywhere do flourish, so God help me, I can perceive nothing but a certain conspiracy of rich men procuring their own commodities under the name and title of the commonwealth.

They invent and devise all means and crafts, first how to keep safely, without fear of losing, that they have unjustly gathered together, and next how to hire and abuse the work and labour of the poor for as little money as may be. These devices, when the rich men have decreed to be kept and observed for the commonwealth’s sake, that is to say for the wealth also of the poor people, then they be made laws.

But these most wicked and vicious men, when they have by their insatiable covetousness divided among themselves all those things, which would have sufficed all men, yet how far be they from the wealth and felicity of the Utopian commonwealth? Out of the which, in that all the desire of money with the use of thereof is utterly secluded and banished, how great a heap of cares is cut away! How great an occasion of wickedness and mischief is plucked up by the roots!

--Sir Thomas More (1478–1535), Utopia, Of the Religions in Utopia

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Saturday, June 21, 2008

Release 'Detainees''; Charge and Imprison Bush for Capital Crimes

The Bush administration is trying once again to rewrite history and the law, specifically 'the official evidence against Guantanamo Bay detainees'. Typically the legal eagles in the Bush regime have it backward. Bushco should not be given a second chance to fabricate a case when it had none to begin with. Detainees have already been in detention for years in violation of US Codes and our international treaties. Bush has had years to make a case and has failed to do so. To make 'detainees' --illegally detained to begin with --wait still longer for justice is, in itself, another crime to be charged to George W. Bush.

A capital crimes case against Bush is better than the 'case' Bush has against the 'detainees'. This is a regime that commits war crimes and tries to make them legal after the fact --a recipe for dictatorship and tyranny.

A Federal judge will review the so-called evidence against detainees in the wake of the recent high court decision. Typically, Bushies want more time to fabricate another 'case'. What was wrong with the case they had was this: they didn't have one!
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration wants to rewrite the official evidence against Guantanamo Bay detainees, allowing it to shore up its cases before they come under scrutiny by civilian judges for the first time.

The government has stood behind the evidence for years. Military review boards relied on it to justify holding hundreds of prisoners indefinitely without charge. Justice Department attorneys said it was thoroughly and fairly reviewed.

Now that federal judges are about to review the evidence, however, the government says it needs to make changes.

The decision follows last week's Supreme Court ruling, which held that detainees have the right to challenge their detention in civilian court, not just before secret military panels. At a closed-door meeting with judges and defense attorneys this week, government lawyers said they needed time to add new evidence and make other changes to evidentiary documents known as "factual returns."

Attorneys for the detainees criticized the idea, saying the government is basically asking for a last-minute do-over.

"It's sort of an admission that the original returns were defective," said attorney David Remes, who represents many detainees and attended Wednesday's meeting. "It's also an admission that the government thinks it needs to beef up the evidence."

-- APNewsBreak: US asks to rewrite detainee evidence
Rather than giving the Bush administration a second chance to 'beef up the evidence', Bush should be preparing a defense against charges his criminal regime held the detainees for years in violation of numerous international prohibitions, laws, as well as US criminal codes. The Bush administration should be beefing up its defense against charges that it committed capital crimes.

That assumes, of course, that Bush has a defense.

To give Bushies a 'redo' now is absurd. The Detainees have already been held for years in violation of every civilized principle, common law, US Codes, the principles of Nuremberg and Geneva. Bush should not be given a 'redo'. He should be given an indictment!

There is an open and shut case against Bush for his having authorized the commission of capital crimes. He even boasted about it in his State of the Union Address of 2003.
All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way -- they are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies. (Applause.)

--Bush, State of the Union, 2003
Bush either has a case against the 'detainees' or he does not. If his criminal gang had had cases, it would have made them long ago. Some seven years or so is more than enough time when, in fact, Bushco should have had 'probable cause' --at the time --to imprison 'detainees' at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and other US hell holes through the Eastern European gulag. Bush then should have been given a reasonable amount of time in which to make cases or drop them. It is past time to 'put up or shut up! It is time, rather, to be filing capital crimes and other criminal charges against Bush.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Rumsfeld is warned: “A torturer is an enemy of all humankind”

Former US secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld now faces criminal charges in France for ordering the torture of prisoners in Iraq and at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Charges aganst Rumsfeld were filed with a French court while Rumsfeld was in Paris for talks sponsored by Foreign Policy magazine.

The charges, supported by some of the world’s most prominent human rights law groups, formally charge Rumsfeld with "....authorizing and ordering torture".
Those responsible have rarely been called to account. Nonetheless, the need to prosecute those responsible for atrocities has been recognised ever since the International Military Tribunals of Nuremberg and Tokyo. The impunity of responsible persons abets new crimes. The recourse to legal instruments is becoming ever more important in order to effectively uphold human rights.

--European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR)

ECCHR is joined by the French League for Human Rights, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and other groups throughout Europe.

Can similar charges against Bush be far behind?
“Rumsfeld must understand that he has no place to hide,” Ratner [ECCHR] added in a statement after filing the complaint. “A torturer is an enemy of all humankind.”

The charges against Rumsfeld were brought under the 1984 Convention against Torture, ratified by both the United States and France, which has been used in France in previous torture cases.

The criminal complaint states that because of the failure of authorities in the United States and Iraq to launch any independent investigation, it is the legal obligation of states such as France to take up the case.

Ratner and his colleagues in France’s legal community contend that Rumsfeld and other top US officials are subject to criminal trial because there is sufficient evidence to prove that they had authorized the torture of prisoners held on suspicion of involvement in terrorist acts.

“France is under the obligation to investigate and prosecute Rumsfeld,” said FIDH president Souhayr Belhassen. “It has no choice but to open an investigation.”

--Rumsfeld Charged with Torture in French Court

It was Rumsfeld’s presence on French soil that gives French courts jurisdiction to prosecute him. Pssst! Don't tell Bush about this.

According to Raw Story Bush ordered 'torture' tactics himself, giving "marching orders" to Gen. Michael Dunlavey. The general claims that he then asked the Pentagon to approve the "harsher interrogation methods at Guantanamo"
More than 100,000 pages of newly released government documents demonstrate how US military interrogators "abused, tortured or killed" scores of prisoners rounded up since Sept. 11, 2001, including some who were not even suspected of having terrorist ties, according to a just-published book.

In Administration of Torture, two American Civil Liberties Union attorneys detail the findings of a years-long investigation and court battle with the administration that resulted in the release of massive amounts of data on prisoner treatment and the deaths of US-held prisoners.

"[T]he documents show unambiguously that the administration has adopted some of the methods of the most tyrannical regimes," write Jameel Jaffer and Amrit Singh. "Documents from Guantanamo describe prisoners shackled in excruciating 'stress positions,' held in freezing-cold cells, forcibly stripped, hooded, terrorized with military dogs, and deprived of human contact for months."

Most of the documents on which Administration of Torture is based were obtained as a result of ongoing legal fights over a Freedom of Information Act request filed in October 2003 by the ACLU and other human rights and anti-war groups, the ACLU said in a news release.

The documents show that prisoner abuse like that found at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was hardly the isolated incident that the Bush administration or US military claimed it was. By the time the prisoner abuse story broke in mid-2004 the Army knew of at least 62 other allegations of abuse at different prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, the authors report.

The ACLU also found that an Army investigator reported Rumsfeld was "personally involved" in overseeing the interrogation of a Guantanamo prisoner Mohammed al Qahtani. The prisoner was forced to parade naked in front of female interrogators wearing women's underwear on his head and was led around on a leash while being forced to perform dog tricks.

“It is imperative that senior officials who authorized, endorsed, or tolerated the abuse and torture of prisoners be held accountable," Jaffer and Singh write, "not only as a matter of elemental justice, but to ensure that the same crimes are not perpetrated again.” ...

--Raw Story, General claims Bush gave 'marching orders' on aggressive interrogation at Guantanamo

Amid these revelations comes news that the prosecution of Blackwater on murder charges has run into a snag. The US State Department had given the US sponsored terrorist organization, Blackwater, immunity from prosecution. Only persons planning to commit crimes are interested in obtaining prior immunity from prosecution. It saves them having to cover it all up afterward.
Both Hitler and Stalin came to realize that it was possible to eradicate the unpredictability of human affairs in "the true central institution of totalitarian organizational power": the concentration camp. What Arendt saw is that eradicating unpredictability requires altering the nature of human beings. In the camps the internees' deprivation of all rights, even of the ability to make a conscientious choice, does away with the dynamic conflict between the legality of particular positive laws and the idea of justice on which, in constitutional governments, an open and unpredictable future depends. On the one hand, in Arendt's concept of totalitarianism, human freedom is seen as inconsequential to "the undeniable automatism" of natural and historical processes, or at most as an impediment to their freedom. On the other, when "the iron band of terror" destroys human diversity, so totally dominating human beings that they cease to be individuals and become a mere mass of identical, interchangeable specimens "of the animal-species man," those processes are provided with "an incomparable instrument" of acceleration.

--[Hannah] Arendt's concept and description of totalitarianism

A "state" wishing to eradicate "unpredictability of human affairs" must make of its own apparatus an inhuman machine utterly lacking empathy. SS members become mere interchangeable parts in a killing machine. Master and slave alike cease to be entirely human. This is the state as machine. Such a state requires its Auschwitz, its Abu Ghraib, its Guantanamo.
In World War I enemy aliens were regularly interned "as a temporary emergency measure," (see "Memo: Research Project on Concentration Camps") but later, in the period between World Wars I and II, camps were set up in France for non-enemy aliens, in this case stateless and unwanted refugees from the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Arendt also noted that in World War II internment camps for potential enemies of democratic states differed in one important respect from those of World War I. In the United States, for instance, not only citizens of Japan but "American citizens of Japanese origin" were interned, the former maintaining their rights of citizenship under the Geneva Conventions while the latter, uprooted on ethnic grounds alone, were deprived of theirs by executive order and without due process.

--Evil: The Crime against Humanity, Jerome Kohn, Director, Hannah Arendt Center, New School University

Nixon proclaimed: if the President does it, it's not illegal. Nazis were only following orders. Blackwater was only following orders. And the resolution adopted at Wannsee made the Holocaust legal. The opinions of Yoo and Alberto, they would have you believe, relieved Bush of US obligations to Geneva. Now, we learn that Blackwater had been given immunity from prosecution!!

There is no crime that cannot be made "legal" by a tyrant, a suck up, or a liar! But that proposition is just one of the seemingly endless series of absurdities and outrages with which the GOP has oppressed the people of the US. What had been merely the very worst administration in US history has become one of the world's most repugnant tyrannies. The opposition to Bush must now rally 'round an over arching objective: bringing Bush himself to justice in the US for capital crimes and to trial in a world court for war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against the peace .

Naming Names at Gitmo

[NYT] Well into the night of Sunday, Jan. 2, 2005, lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz sat alone at his desk in the headquarters of the American detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, consumed with a new project.

He often worked late. From the time Diaz enlisted in the Army as a 17-year-old high-school dropout, hard work had been his ticket. He had earned his college degree while serving as an artillery sergeant and then completed law school a semester early, driving a mail truck on the weekends. In 10 years as a Navy lawyer, his performance evaluations had been outstanding. As his six-month tour at Guantanamo neared its end, his stint as the deputy legal adviser there looked like more of the same. ...

An update:

Kucinich questions Bush's mental health

"Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich questioned President Bush's mental health in light of comments he made about a nuclear Iran precipitating World War III." The man who speaks the truth is the most sane. ...

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Sunday, September 17, 2006

George W. Bush Planned to Commit War Crimes Abroad Even Before 911

Lesson No. One: Bush is thrown into Abu Ghraib, violated and made to wear a dress! A pop quiz for Bush:
Did you feel violated? Did you feel like your "human dignity" had been violated? Did you feel as small as you really are? Did you lose your self-esteem —or only your big mouthed braggadocio? Would you like to repeat the experience?
Remember, George, this is not a "no child left behind" program; there are no right or wrong answers and you will not be coached to "test". You can be honest —for a change.

Seriously —had this nation chosen to lead the world instead of bullying it, GWB would not be standing up —belligerently, arrogantly, desperately —in front of the American people admitting to the world that he does not understand the meaning of the phrase: outrage against human dignity.

This debate is occurring because of the Supreme Court’s ruling that said that we must conduct ourselves under the Common Article 3 of the Geneva Genetion, and that Common Article 3 says that, you know, there will be no outrages upon human dignity.

That’s like — it’s very vague. What does that mean, “outrages upon human dignity”? That’s a statement that is wide open to interpretation. And what I am proposing is that there be clarity in the law so that our professionals will have no doubt that that which they are doing is legal. You know, it’s — and so the piece of legislation I sent up there provides our professionals that which is needed to go forward.

—George W. Bush, quoted in the New York Times

I submit that those who perpetrate outrages to human dignity are those who don't know what it is, i.e. "evil doers" who lack human empathy. There is a short of list of such people: Adolph Hitler, Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin, Torquemada, Richard Topcliffe, Mao, Mussolini et al.

The matter is open to interpretation only among those —primarily the GOP —who have schemed from the git go to exempt the US from war crimes prosecutions long before the so-called war began. A bill entitled To protect United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the United States Government against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which the United States is not party was introduced by Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) as an amendment to H.R. 1646, The Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 2001, on May 8, 2001. It passed the House 282-137 on May 10 and introduced as S. 857 in the Senate on May 9 by Senators Jesse Helms (R-NC), Zell Miller (D-GA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), John Warner (R-VA), Trent Lott (R-MS), Richard Shelby (R-AL), and Frank Murkowski (R-AK).

The bill authorized the President "...to use all means (including the provision of legal assistance) necessary to bring about the release of covered U.S. persons and covered allied persons held captive by or on behalf of the Court [International Criminal Court, ICC, in the Hague]. That means that Bush could attack the Hague to effect a rescue of US war criminals on trial there.

Consider the implications of the timing. This measure was introduced months before 911 —yet, it is clear, that even then Bushco was planning a war. How could Bush have been so sure that he would have the pretext for war if 911 had not been an inside job? Just asking! Waiting for a plausible answer!

So —Bush's attempt to undermine the ICC while subverting the meat and potatoes of the Geneva Convention was and remains pre-meditated. Bush had been planning to commit war crimes and atrocities in Iraq and elsewhere even before 911. Else —why would Tom DeLay and the above named Republicans have "conspired" to introduce this enabling act before the US congress?

Elsewhere it is learned that the authorization for torture came from Bush himself.
Among a new batch of documents rights groups have forced the gov't to release, a Bureau communication refers to a presidential Executive Order endorsing some forms of torture witnessed at Iraq prison. ...The email, which was obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, represents the first hard evidence directly connecting the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal and the White House. The author of the email, whose name is blanked out but whose title is described as "On Scene Commander -- Baghdad," contains ten explicit mentions of an "Executive Order" that the author said mandated US military personnel to engage in extraordinary interrogation tactics.

—President Authorized Abu Ghraib Torture, FBI Email Says, NewStandard

Clearly —Bush either understands what "outrages to human dignity" are and chooses deliberately to perpetrate them; or, indeed, he is utterly lacking human empathy and truly does not know what every other human being on earth knows. If Bush "unnerstans" human dignity but orders torture deliberately —knowing it to be unlawful even under US Codes —then his recent hysteria is understandable. Bush is culpable and vulnerable to war crimes prosecutions. [See US Codes; Title 18 § 2441. War crimes]

Here are some "human dignity" lessons for the occupant of our increasingly corporate White House:
  • Human dignity means not being electrocuted.
  • Human dignity means not being photographed in a dress while being electrocuted
  • Human dignity means not having a night stick —or worse —shoved up your rectum by a perverted Halliburton contractor who thinks he's above the law
  • Human dignity means not being photographed naked in a pile of naked bodies while rolling in excrement.
  • Human dignity means not being posed in homosexual positions and photographed by perverted Pentagon personnel and/or defense "contractors" from Halliburton or elsewhere.
  • Human dignity means not being water boarded until willing to confess to anything whether true or not
  • Human dignity means not having your privates played with by US soldiers who think its funny or get a perverted thrill out of it
  • Human dignity means not having US troops and/or Halliburton paid killers knock down your door and murder you and your family [Marines hid evidence of Haditha massacre]
  • Human dignity means not having your head blown off in Shock and Awe whether you liked Saddam or not
  • Human dignity means forcing war criminals out of your country.
  • Human dignity means not having done to you what the Washington Post reports were done to hundreds, thousands of Bush's victims.
What is it about "human dignity" that Bush doesn't understand...and why doesn't he understand it? Is it because the man who dares to call himself "President" is a mass murdering torturer by proxy?

Bush has repeatedly stated that US torture policies are within the law. I say they are not! Acts perpetrated by the George W. Bush administration upon his policy and direction violated US Codes; Title 18 § 2441. War crimes, our Constitution, our treaty obligations, and, of course, the common values of our Western Civilization i.e., the very values that Bush claims he is defending. In fact, he subverts them; in this, he has been much more successful than "terrorists" which he claims "...just hate freedom".

Torture, moreover, is ineffective, repugnant, an abominable evidence of savergy and barbarism. Civilized nations do not torture. Legitimate administrations do not torture. Intelligence gathered by torture is notoriously inaccurate and misleading. Bush's cruelest lie: that the US is involved in a great war on terrorism. It's a fraud and Bush's own words betray him. Colin Powell, who helped lie this nation into aggressive war, may be trying to atone for his sins.

The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism!

—Colin Powell

I would submit to Powell that the lies he helped tell about Iraq completely undermined the "moral basis" for this war from the start. There is no moral basis for this immoral war.

At last, our war is lost when our behavior is no longer distinguishable from that of terrorists. We have become the terrorists. Pogo said it first: "We have seen the enemy and he is us!"