[R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Arresting John Bolton

[Bill Totten]

The Charge Sheet

Monbiot.com (May 27 2008)


On Wednesday 28th May 2008, I will attempt a citizen's arrest of John
Robert Bolton, former Under-Secretary of State, US State Department, for
the crime of aggression, as established by customary international law
and described by Nuremberg Principles VI and VII.

These state the following:

"Principle VI

The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under
international law:

(a) Crimes against peace:

(i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression
or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;

(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment
of any of the acts mentioned under (i).

...

"Principle VII

Complicity in the commission of a crime against peace, a war crime, or a
crime against humanity as set forth in Principle VI is a crime under
international law."

The evidence against him is as follows:

1. John Bolton orchestrated the sacking of the head of the Organisation
for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Jose Bustani. Bustani
had offered to resolve the dispute over Iraq's alleged weapons of mass
destruction, and therefore to avert armed conflict. He had offered to
seek to persuade Saddam Hussein to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention,
which would mean that Iraq was then subject to weapons inspections by
the OPCW. As the OPCW was not tainted by the CIA's infiltration of
UNSCOM, Bustani's initiative had the potential to defuse the crisis over
Saddam Hussein's obstruction of UNMOVIC inspections.

Apparently in order to prevent the negotiated settlement that Bustani
proposed, and as part of a common plan with other administration
officials to prepare and initiate a war of aggression, in violation of
international treaties, Mr Bolton acted as follows:

In March 2002 his office produced a 'White Paper' claiming that the OPCW
was seeking an "inappropriate role" in Iraq.

On 20th March 2002 he met Bustani at the Hague to seek his resignation.
Bustani refused to resign.

On 21st March 2002 he orchestrated a No-Confidence Motion calling for
Bustani to resign as Director General which was introduced by the United
States delegation. The motion failed.

On 22nd April 2002 the US called a special session of the conference of
the States Parties and the Conference adopted the decision to terminate
the appointment of the Director General effective immediately. Bolton
had suggested that the US would withhold its dues from OPCW. The motion
to sack Bustani was carried. Bustani asserts that this 'special session'
was illegal, in breach of his contract and gave illegitimate grounds for
his dismissal, stating a 'lack of confidence' in his leadership, without
specific examples, and ignoring the failed No-Confidence vote.

In his book Surrender is Not an Option (2007) Mr Bolton describes his
role in Bustani's sacking (pages 95-98) and states the following:

"I directed that we begin explaining to others that the US contribution
to the OPCW might well be cut if Bustani remained".

"I met with Bustani to tell him he should resign ... If he left now, we
would do our best to give him 'a gracious and dignified exit'. Otherwise
we intended to have him fired".

"I stepped in to tank the protocol, and then to tank Bustani".

Bolton appears, in other words, to accept primary responsibility for
Bustani's dismissal.

Bustani appealed against the decision through the International Labour
Organisation Tribunal. He was vindicated in his appeal and awarded his
full salary and moral damages.

2. Mr Bolton helped to promote the false claim, through a State
Department Fact Sheet, that Saddam Hussein had been seeking to procure
uranium from Niger, as part of a common plan to prepare and initiate a
war of aggression, in violation of international treaties.

The State Department Fact Sheet was released on the 19th December 2002
and was entitled 'Illustrative Examples of Omissions From the Iraqi
Declaration to the United States Security Council' . Under the heading
'Nuclear Weapons' the fact sheet stated –

"The Declaration ignores efforts to procure uranium from Niger.
Why is the Iraqi regime hiding their uranium procurement?"

In a US Department of State press briefing on July 14th 2003 the
spokesman Richard Boucher said "The accusation that turned out to be
based on fraudulent evidence is that Niger sold uranium to Iraq" .

Bolton's involvement in the use of fraudulent evidence is documented in
Representative Henry Waxman's letter to Christopher Shays on the 1st
March 2005. Waxman says "In April 2004, the State Department used the
designation 'sensitive but unclassified' to conceal unclassified
information about the role of John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for
Arms Control, in the creation of a fact sheet distributed to the United
Nations that falsely claimed that Iraq sought uranium from Niger".

"Both State Department intelligence officials and CIA officials reported
that they had rejected the claims as unreliable. As a result, it was
unclear who within the State Department was involved in preparing the
fact sheet."

Waxman requested a chronology of how the Fact Sheet was developed. His
letter states -

"This chronology described a meeting on December 18 2002, between
Secretary Powell, Mr Bolton, and Richard Boucher, the Assistant
Secretary for the Bureau of Public Affairs. According to this
chronology, Mr Boucher specifically asked Mr Bolton 'for help developing
a response to Iraq's December 7 Declaration to the United Nations
Security Council that could be used with the press'. According to the
chronology, which is phrased in the present tense, Mr Bolton 'agrees and
tasks the Bureau of Nonproliferation', a subordinate office that reports
directly to Mr Bolton, to conduct the work.

"This unclassified chronology also stated that on the next day, December
19 2003, the Bureau of Nonproliferation "sends email with the fact
sheet, 'Fact Sheet Iraq Declaration.doc'", to Mr Bolton's office
(emphasis in original). A second e-mail was sent a few minutes later,
and a third e-mail was sent about an hour after that. According to the
chronology, each version 'still includes Niger reference'. Although Mr
Bolton may not have personally drafted the document, the chronology
appears to indicate that he ordered its creation and received updates on
its development."

Both these actions were designed to assist in the planning of a war of
aggression. The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg ruled that
"to initiate a war of aggression ... is not only an international crime;
it is the supreme international crime".

Copyright © 2006 Monbiot.com | site by Tom Dyson

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/05/27/arresting-john-bolton/

____________________

Bolton dodges attempted 'war crimes' arrest

Guardian (May 29 2008)


The environmental campaigner George Monbiot last night tried and failed
to make a citizen's arrest of the former Bush administration official
John Bolton over alleged "war crimes" committed during the invasion of
Iraq in 2003.

As Bolton, a former US ambassador to the UN, ended an hour-long
discussion at the Hay festival, Monbiot, who had earlier challenged him
for alleged breaches of the postwar Nuremberg Principles, defining war
crimes, moved towards the stage waving a charge sheet. But security
staff intervened and bundled Monbiot out of the tent as twenty
supporters chanted "war criminal" and waved placards. The comedian
Marcus Brigstocke, who tried to pursue Bolton as he left the other side
of the tent, was also blocked by security staff.

When challenged by Monbiot during the debate to say why - in planning,
preparing and waging war against Saddam Hussein - he was any different
from Nazi war criminals condemned at Nuremberg, Bolton cited Iraq's
defiance of the UN resolutions 687 and 678, which underpinned the 1991
Iraq war and ceasefire. That released other parties from the obligation
to the ceasefire, he told Monbiot.

Earlier, Bolton had defended the US's right to launch pre-emptive
nuclear attacks and to promote regime change or, if necessary, a
military attack on Iran to prevent it acquiring nuclear weapons. As a
lawyer, he said, he was not prepared to offer a view either on rendition
or torture of suspects, because he had not studied the issues - a claim
that provoked dismay.

Afterwards, Monbiot, a contributor to the Guardian, said: "I'm
disappointed I couldn't reach him, but I made what I believe to be the
first attempt ever to arrest one of the perpetrators of the Iraq war,
and I would like to see that followed up".

guardian.co.uk (c) Guardian News and Media Limited 2008


http://books.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2282556,00.html


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