[A-List] Fwd: Iraq Veterans Against the War Calls for Prosecution of Bush Administration Officials for War Crimes

[Suzanne de Kuyper]

The Neo-cons will never permit it.  They are not too bright a group.
Lawlesnes means that the elite are as vulnerable to being dispossesed
as are the poverty stricken, just takes more time to come around to be
taken over by some other more elite.  Hammurabi knew this awhile ago.
 School learning is no longer cool in America, unless Harvard is a
possibility.  The newly homeless in the U.S.A. have few choices.  In
fact, none.    If the veteran's group wins it will be a political ploy
to showcase changes that will not happen, as if they will, in fact are
changing right now.  Like the Mosque at Ground Zero.   While the
genocide of Gaza is protected zealously.  The criminal U.S. bombing of
Falluja never shown by it's newly born deformed.  Suzanne


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Suzanne de Kuyper <suzannedk at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Aug 14, 2010 at 12:22 PM
Subject: Fwd: Iraq Veterans Against the War Calls for Prosecution of
Bush Administration Officials for War Crimes
To: "Radical anti-capitalist environmental discussion."
<rad-green at lists.econ.utah.edu>


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sid Shniad <shniad at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 9:03 PM
Subject: Iraq Veterans Against the War Calls for Prosecution of Bush
Administration Officials for War Crimes
To:


http://www.ivaw.org/node/6087

IVAW Calls for Prosecution of Bush Administration Officials for War Crimes

At its seventh annual national convention in Austin, Texas, IVAW
called for the prosecution of senior Bush administration officials for
allegedly conspiring to manipulate intelligence in order to justify
the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

IVAW alleges that Bush administration officials conspired to create
the perception that Saddam Hussein presented an imminent threat to the
United States in order to bypass an uncooperative U.N. Security
Council and secure a congressional Authorization for Use of Military
Force against Iraq. The growing body of evidence, including testimony
from British officials in the ongoing Chilcot Inquiry, indicates that
Bush officials could be charged with criminal offenses against the
United States and violations of international law for making false
claims to national self-defense.

Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution vests the power to
authorize use of military force in the Legislative Branch, not the
Executive. In order to do so responsibly the Congress must be provided
with accurate and objective intelligence. Bush officials’ alleged
distortion of the intelligence picture created a climate of fear and
uncertainty in which the constitutional power of Congress was
subverted.

IVAW further alleges that the Bush administration’s alterations to
Iraqi laws were made for the intended benefit of U.S. multinational
corporations and are illegal under international law. Efforts to
pressure Iraqi officials to open up the country’s oil industry to
foreign investment exacerbated the insurgency and undermined the U.S.
military’s ostensible mission there.

IVAW finally asserts that senior Bush officials are responsible for
the illegal treatment of Iraqi and Afghan officials in U.S. custody
and that this treatment was detrimental to the security of American
citizens.

Tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of deaths have resulted from
the Bush administration’s disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Millions of Iraqis have been internally displaced and hundreds of
thousands are forced to subsist as refugees in neighboring countries.
Thousands of American men and women have lost their lives and tens of
thousands suffer from wounds sustained while fighting there. Families
and communities across the United States are now suffering from
veteran suicides, homelessness, substance abuse and domestic violence.
The long-term cost of this war, including the provision of VA support
for our returning veterans, is estimated to run into the trillions.

It is time for America to hold the officials responsible for this war
to account for their decisions. On behalf of the Iraqis and Americans
who have sacrificed everything to restore stability to Iraq, IVAW
calls for justice.

###

Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) is a national membership
organization consisting of veterans and active duty service members
who have served in the US military since September 11, 2001. IVAW
currently has over 1,600 in 50 states as well as Canada, Europe, Iraq
and Afghanistan. To learn more about IVAW visit us at www.ivaw.org.

Resolution in Support of the Prosecution of Senior Bush Administration
Officials for War Crimes

Alleging the Bush administration's premeditated manipulation of
intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq;

Understanding that the manufactured public perception of an imminent
threat to the United States led to military action that would
otherwise have been considered illegal under constitutional and
international law;

Affirming that Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution
vests the power to authorize hostilities in the Legislative branch,
not the Executive, and recognizing that in order to do so responsibly
the former must be provided accurate and objective intelligence;

Acknowledging the tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of deaths
that have resulted from the U.S. invasion of Iraq;

Alleging the Bush administration's illegal authorization of torture
and coercive interrogation against detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan;

Alleging the Bush administration’s self-interested alterations to
Iraqi economic, financial and other laws as illegal under
international law, which the United States as occupying power is bound
to adhere to;

Alleging the Bush administration's support of U.S. oil companies'
efforts to gain control over Iraqi oil fields while the country
remained under military occupation;

Understanding how these alleged acts fueled the insurgency and
resulted in increased casualties on all sides;

Recognizing further how these alleged acts contributed to terrorist
recruitment into Al Qaeda, to the detriment of the security of
American citizens;

Interpreting the U.S. Attorney General's declination to prosecute
former Bush administration officials for these alleged crimes as due
to a lack of political resolve stemming from insufficient sustained
public pressure;

Understanding that prosecution of these officials is vital and
necessary in order to prevent future, more egregious violations of the
Constitution and international law, which Bush administration
officials allegedly subverted;

IVAW hereby declares its support for the prosecution of senior Bush
administration officials as a matter of justice, accountability and
the rule of law.

Background Sources

Kwiatkowski, Karen. “The New Pentagon Papers.” Salon; 10 March 2004.

“The secret Downing Street memo.” The Sunday Times; 1 May 2005.

Senate Report 109-330: “The Use by the Intelligence Community of
Information Provided by the Iraqi National Congress.” Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence, 109th Congress; 8 September 2006.

Senate Report 109-331: “Postwar Findings About Iraq’s WMD Programs and
Links to Terrorism and How They Compare with Prewar Assessments.”
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 109th Congress; 8 September
2006.

“Review of the Pre-Iraqi War Activities of the Office of the Under
Secretary of Defense for Policy.” Department of Defense Deputy
Inspector General for intelligence; 2007.

Senate Report 110-345: “Report on Whether Public Statements Regarding
Iraq by U.S. Government Officials Were Substantiated by Intelligence
Information.” Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 110th Congress;
5 June 2008.

Prados, John. "PR Push for War Preceded Intelligence Findings."
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 254; 22 August
2008: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB254/index.htm

Stein, Jeff. “CIA Piles on Suskind’s Book.” Spytalk Blog; CQ Politics;
22 August 2008:
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?tag=forged%20letter...
(Accessed 9 August 2010)

"Chilcot inquiry: Iraq invasion had no 'legal basis in international
law'". Telegraph; 26 January 2010:

Article 1, Section 8, U.S. Constitution: "The Congress shall have the
Power To...declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make
Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water...."

Iraq Body Count: http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ (Accessed 5 July 2010);
Murphy, Dan. "Iraq Casualty Figures Open Up New Battleground."
Christian Science Monitor; 13 October 2006.

“Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody.” Senate
Committee on Armed Services, 110th Congress; 20 November 2008.

Klein, Naomi. "Baghdad Year Zero." Harper's; September 2004.

Palast, Greg. "Secret US Plans for Iraq's Oil." BBC Newsnight; 17 March 2005.

Muttitt, Greg. “Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq’s Oil Wealth.”
PLATFORM; 2005.

Gallu, Joshua. “Will Iraq’s Oil Blessing Become a Curse?” Spiegel; 22
December 2006.

Hiatt, Steven. "A Game as Old as Empire: The Secret World of Economic
Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption." Berrett-Koehler Publishers;
San Francisco: 2007.

"In Their Own Words: Reading the Iraqi Insurgency." International
Crisis Group; 15 February 2006.

Lawrence, Bruce. “Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin
Laden.” Verso, 2005.