George Bush: Worst War Criminal

Column on Bush’s war crimes.

 

 

                                     George Bush: World’s Worst War Criminal

Lately, some of the world’s most notorious war criminals, including Liberia’s Charles Taylor, Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir and Radovan Karadzic, former president of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, are now being called to account for their crimes. But there’s another war criminal that has caused the deaths of more people than any of the aforementioned and hasn’t been held accountable for his crimes: George Bush.

 

All war criminals should be hunted down and prosecuted. The great Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal, comes to mind. Starting around 1947, Wiesenthal relentless pursued the greatest war criminals of the Jewish Holocaust until 2003, when he retired. Because of his endeavors several of the most infamous Nazi murderers were brought to justice. Killers like: Adolf Eichmann, one of the authors of the “Final Solution;” Karl Silberbauer, who arrested author Anne Frank; Franz Stangl, commandant of the Sobibor and Treblinka death camps and female executioner Hermine Braunsteiner-Ryan, who was involved in the torture and murder of thousands of Jewish women and children. She was discovered living in Maspeth, Queens, New York around 1968.

 

Over the last few weeks, two of the main international news stories involve the capture of Radovan Karadzic and Omar al-Bashir. On July 14, 2008, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Louis Moreno-Ocampo  submitted evidence to a three judge panel that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir had “masterminded and implemented” a plan of genocide against three ethnic groups: the Masalit, Fur and Zaghawa peoples of Sudan. Moreno-Ocampo has asserted that President Bashir bears personal responsibility for the campaign of deportation, rape and murder in Darfur, Sudan. The three judge panel is still deliberating the evidence against President Bashir.

 

Amid this backdrop is news of the capture of Radovan Karadzic on July 21, 2008 in Belgrade. Karadzic, indicted in 1995 by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY,) is charged with being responsible for the murders of over 7,500 Muslims.

As president, and Supreme Commander of the Bosnia Serb armed forces, Karadzic launched the 1995 “Srebrenica Massacre” as well as the “Siege of Sarajevo,” the most protracted siege in the history of contemporary warfare. It lasted from April 5, 1992 to February 29, 1996. More than 12,000 people were killed, with some 50, 000 wounded. 

 

Karadzic, known as the “Beast of Bosnia,” also became synonymous with the term “Ethnic Cleansing.”  During his reign of terror those considered “non-nationalist Serbs” were also killed, often because they refused to participate in the persecution and slaughter of Muslims.  Karadzic was extradited to The Hague on July 30, 2008.

 

 

Another African butcher, Charles Taylor is currently on trial for the atrocities he committed in his native Liberia and in neighboring Sierra Leone. Taylor’s trial before the Special Court of Sierra Leone is now observing its annual recess. The trial will resume on Monday August 18, 2008.

 

Which now leads to this question: how can we allow the greatest war criminals in the Bush Administration to ride off into the sunset without paying any penalty? Last week, on a congressional hearing entitled “The Imperial Presidency” the growing realization of the criminality of this White House was echoed by many, including several Republican and conservative voices, among them: famed prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi; former Republican Congressman Bob Barr and conservative constitutional law wiz Bruce Fein.

 

Fein, a scholar connected to conservative institutions like the Heritage Found and the American Enterprise Institute and Bob Barr, currently running for president under the Libertarian Party banner, argued on the dangers of allowing a president unchecked power. Barr also criticized the FISA Amendment Act of 2008, which helps to insulate the illegal conduct of the Administration in eavesdropping on innocent Americans without a warrant.

 

But Vincent Bugliosi, Manson Murder prosecutor, was most provocative in his assessment that the Bush White House can and should be prosecuted for murder. Bugliosi zeroed in on Bush’s October 7, 2002 speech pointing out when Bush told Congress and the nation that Iraq was an impending threat this directly contradicted a National Intelligence Estimate assessment Bush had received a few days earlier that said Iraq wasn’t an “imminent threat.” Bugliosi’s book “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder” is a bestseller despite corporate media’s failure to review it, or, interview him.

 

The scope of the Administration’s criminality is astounding. Think of all the scandals: Memo-gate, Plame-gate, attorney firings, illegal wiretapping, and signing statements to undermine Congress etc. Most of these actions are impeachable offences in of themselves.

 

But the Bush White House’s lies regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is not only impeachable but in a just world should lead to a war crimes trial in The Hague. Bugliosi is right. George Bush should be charged for murder. But not just for the murder of the 4,000 plus American soldiers. He should also be charged with the mass murder of a million Iraqis. Ironically, America offered rewards for the capture of Charles Taylor and Radovan Karadzic. What about Bush?

 

EXTRA

 

Did you hear that on July 30, the House Judiciary Committee voted 20-14 to find Karl Rove in contempt for his refusal to answer a May 22, 2008 subpoena regarding the attorney firings and the partisan nature of the hiring practices of the Justice Dept? Since this subpoena was issued Rove has given the Congress and the American people his middle finger. By leaving the country after the subpoena was issued he declared to Congress screw you. It remains to be seen what penalty he will face for this flagrant violation of law.

 

 

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