Bush's war crimes finally get their day in court

It's been a very long time coming, and President Obama's Justice Department tried its best to prevent this day from happening, but an American court will finally get to decide on whether the invasion of Iraq was a war crime.

things may soon change as former President George W. Bush may be forced to stand trial over the war crimes his administration committed in Iraq. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California recently confirmed that Judges Susan Graber and Andrew Hurwitz will hear oral arguments in the case of Saleh v. Bush, beginning tomorrow December 12th. Other members of Bush’s administration, such as Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz, are also named as defendants in the case.

The case was brought against Bush by Sundus Shaker Saleh, an Iraqi woman who charges Bush and high-ranking officials in his administration with breaking international and US law by planning and executing the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. Saleh maintains that Bush and his colleagues are guilty of the “crime of aggression,” which was defined as the “supreme international crime” at the 1946 Nuremberg Trials.

In the case, Saleh is appealing the immunity provided to Bush and the other defendants by California’s Ninth Circuit court in 2014, after they were urged to do so by President Obama and the Department of Justice. Saleh previously tried to take Bush to court in 2013 until the Department of Justice intervened. The California Court dismissed her case in December 2014, citing the Westfall Act of 1988, which immunizes former federal officials in civil lawsuits if a court determines that the official was acting within the legitimate scope of his or her position. However, this time around, Saleh argues that the invasion of Iraq fell outside the legitimate scope of employment of former President Bush and his administration. Plenty of evidence since the invasion took place has shown that the administration knowingly lied to justify and execute the war by falsely claiming Iraq under Saddam Hussein possessed “weapons of mass destruction.”

The hearing could happen any day now.

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That isn't the Bush Administration's only war crimes problem.

US armed forces and the CIA may have committed war crimes by torturing detainees in Afghanistan, the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor has said in a report, raising the possibility that American citizens could be indicted even though Washington has not joined the global court.
“Members of US armed forces appear to have subjected at least 61 detained persons to torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity on the territory of Afghanistan between 1 May 2003 and 31 December 2014,” according to the report issued by prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s office on Monday.
The report adds that CIA operatives may have subjected at least 27 detainees in Afghanistan, Poland, Romania and Lithuania to “torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity and/or rape” between December 2002 and March 2008.
Most of the alleged abuse happened in 2003-04, the report says.
Prosecutors said they would decide “imminently” whether to seek authorisation to open a full-scale investigation in Afghanistan that could lead to war crimes charges.

So to sum this up, the Bush Administration (and/or people acting on their orders) could theoretically be tried and convicted for war crimes in two different courts, for two different cases.
Will it happen? Unlikely, but there is hope.
After all, it's already happened in 2014.

It’s official; George W Bush is a war criminal.
In what is the first ever conviction of its kind anywhere in the world, the former US President and seven key members of his administration were yesterday (Fri) found guilty of war crimes.
Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their legal advisers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo were tried in absentia in Malaysia.
The trial held in Kuala Lumpur heard harrowing witness accounts from victims of torture who suffered at the hands of US soldiers and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They included testimony from British man Moazzam Begg, an ex-Guantanamo detainee and Iraqi woman Jameelah Abbas Hameedi who was tortured in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
At the end of the week-long hearing, the five-panel tribunal unanimously delivered guilty verdicts against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their key legal advisors who were all convicted as war criminals for torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

Now before Democrats start feeling morally superior, consider this.

Human Rights Watch on Thursday called for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia over the war in Yemen, and said the United States might be complicit in “atrocities” by supplying bombs.

The New York-based group said more than 160 people were killed in one month, mostly by U.S. bombs sold to the Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen’s Houthi rebels. It said the U.S. arms were supplied after earlier violations had been publicized, and were used in airstrikes in September and October.

“The Obama administration is running out of time to completely suspend U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia or be forever linked to Yemen wartime atrocities,” Human Rights Watch researcher Priyanka Motaparthy said

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divineorder's picture

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Pricknick's picture

is a crime in and of itself also.
Nice job Obama.
Damn strait it's unlikely. The last five presidents covered their and all future presidents asses very well. But I wouldn't mind seeing it impossible for any of them to ever leave this country again. We shouldn't allow our garbage to be exported.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

reflectionsv37's picture

I always point out the Bush et al. conviction. At least I don't have to worry about them showing up here anytime soon.

I'v had a standing invitation to the whole group to come over and I'll take them sailing. All they need to do is fly into Kuala Lumpur and I'll pick them up at the airport... With video camera in hand!

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“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
George W. Bush

Pluto's Republic's picture

But in winning, they lost everything. The US Empire will crush any nation that defies or embarrasses it. Sometimes with deadly sanctions. Sometimes worse.

No nation wants to suffer the hideous "adversities" that have flattened Malaysia after their war crimes trial against the US. It was an object lesson about consequences for the entire world:

Kuala Lumpur — It’s official; George W Bush is a war criminal.

May 12, 2012

In what is the first ever conviction of its kind anywhere in the world, the former US President and seven key members of his administration were yesterday (Fri) found guilty of war crimes.

Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their legal advisers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo were tried in absentia in Malaysia.

The trial held in Kuala Lumpur heard harrowing witness accounts from victims of torture who suffered at the hands of US soldiers and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Not long afterward, Malaysia Airlines lost two aircraft under strange circumstances — Flight 370 vanished into thin air somewhere near the top secret US military base, Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean. And Flight 17 was blown apart, fittingly, right above the US-sponsered NeoNazi overthrow of the democratically elected Ukraine government. Both shocking catastrophes happened just five months apart, throwing the airline into financial turmoil and leading to its nationalisation.

Prior to 2014, Malaysia Airlines had the world's Number One safety record for an International airline — just two fatal accidents in 68 years of operation, including the hijacking in 1977 of Flight 653 that resulted in 100 deaths.

Now, the crowning jewel of Malaysia has gone dark. It is just another local airline.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

jurisdiction to proceed is a victory. We will see all sorts of delaying tactics; requests for changes of venue; appeals to the Supreme Scroats; etc.

I think it's more likely the international court will be successful. If so, there will be people unable to travel to many places in the world for fear of arrest.

Thanks for the news.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

What could be more un- and anti-American than applying long-settled international law to The Exceptional Nation? After all, 'Murca makes the laws; they aren't required to obey them.

It would take a mind as evil as Putin's to come up with such an unholy scheme.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

…a 72-hour mandatory stay in a psychiatric hospital for observation. "We need to peel that sociopathic brain like an onion, Doctor, and try to find the crazy seed hiding inside. He says his conscience tells him to torture some folks… and kill some others every Tuesday."

The two party system has made America bipolar.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Carol Joy's picture

Now whistle blower speaks of how the "water boarding" part of the torture performed on detained Iraqis was only the tip of the iceberg.
I remember Seymour Hersh saying he would be getting videos or pictures of rapes of children at Abu Gharib. And he would be getting those out on the media (Way, way back, like 2006 or so.) But they never got to Hersh, or the PTB made sure the media would not go there.

At this link is a video of a Kevin Shipp talk:
jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/cia-whistleblower-on-geo-engineering/

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Believing in the improbable can make your life a miracle.

solublefish's picture

A 9-11 'Truther'? and anti-vaxxer? No this is not worth watching.

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joe shikspack's picture

i found some of the livestream of the arguments in saleh v bush here:

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snoopydawg's picture

The judge on the left asked "We have some people who did stuff that was authorized by congress. And they did it and it may have been terrible, why wasn't that under the scope of their employment?"
Doesn't that go under the I was just following orders
Another statement he made in the scope of their employment,
"These folks were hired to for foreign policy and it may have been awful foreign policy, but couldn't they have been on a detour and a frolic? "
Torturing people is a detour and a f'cking frolic?
Oh good lord! Doesn't that judge know about the Geneva convention law that states that torture is a war crime?
Then the Black judge talks about motive. He starts by saying that 'they didn't have motive to start a war before they took office, would you still have this argument?'

I have posted the letter from the people who wrote the PNAC accords that they sent to president Clinton asking him to remove Saddam from office and why it would need to take the military to do that.
I should send that letter to this lawyer so he can prove that the build up for the Iraq war was in the works before they took office.
That's the proof he needs to make his case, right?

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joe shikspack's picture

i found it odd how the judges (particularly the one on the left of the screen) focused on the trivial truth that it is a president/administration's "job" to make war without considering the conditions attached to that war-making power by the law. one would think that fomenting a war with lies and propaganda would be outside of the scope of the "job," rather than just an indication that the president/administration was doing its "job" badly.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

According to the Constitution (that worthless piece of paper everyone pays lip service to and then ignores, or worse), declaring war is the responsibility of CONGRESS.

If we ever again have a Congress that isn't a total waste of space-time....

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

snoopydawg's picture

The questions that they asked were as you wrote, trivial.
And as other maven wrote below, don't they know that the president isn't the one who gets to decide when this country goes to war.
But congress has for some reason abdicated their duties to declare wars.
Barbara Lee keeps trying to stop these illegal actions, but no one is listening to her.

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Alligator Ed's picture

the court of original jurisdiction pretty much precludes any action against the individual "pursuant to their duty" from liability, with one exception: personal gain. The government attorney argues that personal gain is strictly to be measured in financial terms. Personal gain is more than just financial. It can consist of esteem, praise, recognition of a great act, and/or fulfilling on an inherently illegal personal agenda.. I contend that by the self-serving behavior of the combined defendants, all of whom were disciples of PNAC, was indeed self-serving for purely personal interests. Did Cheney divest himself of Halliburton stocks before the war?

Saddam, though a murderous thug had nothing to do with 911 nor did his regime personally threaten the integrity of the United States (*). G.W.Bush, I believe was in large part the instigator, not a stupid tool (although he is really both) but was personally involved in a competition to outdo his father by conquering all of Iraq. *Of course there are the Petroleum interests that substantiate claims of financial gain.

If the Westfall Act is considered Constitutional, then the U.S. has vacated the so-called International Rule of Law because no domestic action, including wars of aggression would be considered grounds for prosecution/indictment.

URL for this video

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snoopydawg's picture

Every one of our so called wars have been has been for someone's personal gain and it's usually been the corporations as Smedley told us after he retired from service.
Both he and Eisenhower warned us about the MICC, but not until after they both left office.
Eisenhower let the MICC get all their power then realized what he had unleashed.
I don't know that if Smedley had tried to warn us when he was still serving if it would have made any difference, but people usually don't speak out until it's too late.
My $.02

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asterisk's picture

George W. said Saddam Hussein had tried to assassinate Bush's father (George HW). This is a personal reason to go to war. The US public was not willing to invade Iraq for that reason.

My opposition to the invasion faltered somewhat when Colin Powell said there were WMDs because I trusted Powell. At that point I still wanted more proof of WMDs, but all the pro-war hawks I know were worried Iraq was about to attack the US with WMDs. It was the lies about the WMDs that took us into war, not an assassination attempt on George HW Bush.

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solublefish's picture

I would say it is the proper role of the justices to treat the claims of the plaintiff with skepticism - they want to know if there is a case here; and given the rather serious nature of this case, they may be exercising more caution than usual.

But wow, such questions! Still, all those you mentioned here seem to turn on the issue of the action being "within the scope of their employment", so it may be that the justices see this as the major obstacle to the plaintiff's claim in the jurisprudence and are sounding it out. And they did allow the claim to proceed.

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by shielding him after the fact.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

snoopydawg's picture

threatened the USA a war criminal according to Nuremberg laws?

Invading any country that hasn't threatened another is the ultimate war crime

So every president since that law was installed in the Geneva convention that invaded countries is essentially a war criminal.
How much different would this country be if Ford hadn't pardoned Nixon?
However, both Bush and Cheney are on record stating that they ordered torture.
And Obama should also be considered a war criminal for the use of drones and destroying Libya and Syria because none of those countries threatened the USA.
Maybe some people in those countries talked about harming the USA, but that didn't give Obama the right to drop bombs on the whole country.
Then there's the three Americans he killed without allowing them due process.
I will settle for the Bush and Obama cabal though.
Especially the people who were involved in giving the sarin gas to their moderate rebels so Obama could have an excuse to overthrow Assad.

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Amanda Matthews's picture

Hopey-Changey by his jug ears and throw his ass in with 'em. Maybe they can have their own wing at Gitmo.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Pricknick's picture

right up until

jug ears

I've got some honkers myself. But that term is just bad.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

avoided the irrelevant reference to physical characteristic (jug ears) and stuck with the behaviors that render these players war criminals or accessories to war crimes.

Personally, I think it would send one of the most powerful messages possible to convict any of these people, especially presidents. And to free Manning and pardon Snowden and withdraw the questionable charges against Assange.

"When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are ruled by criminals." --Anonymous

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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti

Amanda Matthews's picture

trying to bag a Pulitzer, and since there is worse on here every day about the guy, it's also being totally ignored as well.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

gist of the comment and find that the rest detracts from points worth making. What you do with that observation is, of course, entirely up to you.

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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti

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CB's picture

Torture report to remain classified for another 12 years.

https://www.rt.com/usa/370195-obama-senate-report-remains-classified/
The 525-page executive summary of the report was released in late 2014 and citied CIA documents that showed the interrogation program was more brutal than previously understood. It provided details on the abuse of 119 prisoners, including five men facing trial by military commission at Guantanamo for their alleged roles planning and aiding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The summary showed that the ‘enhanced’ interrogation didn’t yield any unique intelligence that couldn’t have ordinary been acquired from regular interrogation techniques.

But, we already know how degraded it was. How would you like your dinner served up your anus?

16 Horrifying Excerpts From the Torture Report That the CIA Doesn't Want You to See

If we know about these 'enhanced' techniques, what worse ones is Mr. Nobel Peace Prize Winner hiding? I'll put money on those involving sexual deviancy and feces. These were a favorite at the Abu Ghraib torture site.

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snoopydawg's picture

for those men who were on hunger strikes? I'm not going to describe how heinous they were and what the conditions were like. If anyone wants to know they can research it.
But I can't understand how any human could treat another human the way those men were treated when they were rectally force fed.

Or any of the other things that were done to so many people who were probably innocent.

And why the hell did DiFi go to such great lengths to get the torture report if she wasn't going to do anything about it? And her agreeing that it needs to be hidden for 12 years says a lot about her character. I know, she doesn't have any, but still.

Another of Obama's great legacy. Not prosecuting anyone who was involved in torture. And he didn't end it. It's still happening in Afghanistan and on navy black ships as well as the rendition program.
I keep mentioning that he is the first American Black president elected, but what he hasn't stopped during his tenure says a lot about his character.
I'm glad that MLK isn't alive to see what he had done, but Cornell West has been speaking out against him for his entire tenure.
And that's why he is person non grata on DK. He tells people the truth about Obama and his worshippers don't like it.
They are all sad because the GREATEST PRESIDENT SINCE FDR is leaving office.
And many of them will say that he ended two wars and hasn't started any new ones. I don't know who they think destroyed Libya and Syria, but I guess it wasn't Obama with the help from Hillary because she isn't a warmonger.

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solublefish's picture

And why the hell did DiFi go to such great lengths to get the torture report if she wasn't going to do anything about it? And her agreeing that it needs to be hidden for 12 years says a lot about her character.

Well, you don't get to be the Vice Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence unless you believe in the basic mission of the CIA. In that light, I think what her actions say is that she also believes in the rule of law, and requires - as the Constitution dictates - that the various agencies of the federal government (and even when necessary the President itself) submit themselves to the will of the Congress and, ultimately to the judgement of the People.

I agree with you, though: I think we can reasonably wonder whether having a CIA is not inherently incompatible with democracy and the rule of law. Frankly, I believe the answer is self-evident: the care and feeding of the beast REQUIRES the suspension of law, or its modification to create special privileges for this agency and its personnel, which alienate them from the body of The People they are supposed to serve and which immunize them from accountability to those same people. Quis custodiet custodens? The inherently corrosive effect of the agency on the rule of law and on democracy are made further manifest in the organization's historical disregard for the rule of law, both internationally and nationally - a disregard that was not accidental but necessary and fundamental to the mission of the agency.

Feinstein is, I think, what many Democratic politicians of her generation are, what Mario Savio called "a well-meaning liberal". Me, I am of the opinion that the CIA - along with the rest of the apparatus of the 'national security state' - ought never to have been created in the first place; for they, in concert with the MIC, have done more to subvert democracy and the rule of law in the 20th century US than any other group (saving only corporations). The Cold War brought with it the deliberate destruction of the 'communist' and 'socialist' Left, not only here in the US but everywhere in the world (think Greece in '47, Iran in '53, Guatemala and Vietnam in '54, for starters). And we wonder why 'social democracy' has died all across the West? Chickens will range for food, but they always come home to roost.

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David Talbot's 2016 masterpiece, The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government.

You will be unsurprised at how right you are. Allen Dulles was corporate lawyer to U.S. companies that armed Hitler, and his legacy as Director of the CIA poisons the world to this day.

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solublefish's picture

But as you say, I will likely be 'unsurprised' at it all. I am reading Kinzer's book on the Dulles brothers currently. But much of their story I already know, from prior reading on the Cold War and American 'neo-colonial' imperialism.

But Kinzer's book on the brothers does have its minor revelations. I am not shocked to learn that Foster was such a prig, but I had no idea Allie" was such a swinger. Perhaps all that 'deviant' sexual stuff Mailer put in Harlot's Ghost had some basis in reality?

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blazinAZ's picture

I have never forgiven Obama for that casual, offhand statement.

disgusting

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

Alligator Ed's picture

For a guy that's supposedly so eloquent, he certainly has a knack for trivializing the most grievous acts or actors. For instance, the time when "Jug Ears" (thanks, Amanda) called ISIL "the J.V. team".

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solublefish's picture

"we lynched some folks (get over it)". How's that feel, BO?

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The DoJ will find some reason to throw the case out, or will throw the trial to avoid convicting anyone and creating a precedent. It's for Barry's protection, don't you know?

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

My fantasy is that one day George W., Cheney, Rummy and the rest of his cronies find themselves brought to the scene of the crime; brought to Iraq and thrown off the back of a truck in middle of downtown Baghdad where they would come face to face with some of that famous Arab hospitality. There is probably not an Iraqi person alive who would not eagerly wish to show George and the boys their heartfelt appreciation for all that has transpired during the last 13 years. Being fairminded, I would even be willing to give George and his pals a 30 second head start.

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reflectionsv37's picture

they would be greeted in the streets with flowers and sharp knives.

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“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
George W. Bush

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