November 04, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


BUSH VS. REALITY

George W. Bush is on tape saying things like there was no connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. He's on tape saying that he didn't know where Osama bin Laden is, that he didn't spend that much time thinking about it. Now on the campaign stump Bush is continuing the mythology that Iraq is central to the war on terrorism and that Osama bin Laden would win a major victory with a U. S. withdrawal. In fact, U. S. intelligence agencies have found documents saying that al-Qaeda wants the U. S. to remain bogged down in Iraq. Staying there, losing our military, draining our resources, and attracting recruits from around the world serves the needs of al-Qaeda. This article by Robert Parry is at www.consortiumnews.com:

Bush told the crowd in Missouri that the terrorists “believe that they should establish a caliphate, a governing body, a governing organization, based upon their ideology of hate that extends, initially, from Indonesia to Spain. That is their declared intention.”

Bush may have inserted the word “initially” to frighten Christians into thinking that al-Qaeda would next subjugate the non-Islamic world beyond “Indonesia to Spain.”

But none of this fits with the real-world assessments by U.S. intelligence agencies. In 2005, they intercepted one al-Qaeda missive purportedly from bin Laden’s deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri. He wasn’t dreaming of world conquest but rather fretting about the consequences of a quick U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq.

In the July 7, 2005, letter, Zawahiri worried that the young jihadists, who had flocked to Iraq to fight Americans, would give up the fight and go home if the Americans left.

WAR CRIMINALS

It wouldn't matter if Iraq had been a rousing success in terms of overthrowing Saddam Hussein and installing a "democratic" government. George W. Bush and his cohorts have committed war crimes in launching an unprovoked war against a sovereign nation, in committing acts of torture, and in the use of weapons like white phosphorous against a mostly civilian population. Bush and the senior officials of his administration should be held accountable as war criminals. This article talks about efforts in Germany to do just that. The article by Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith is at www.thenation.com:

On November 14 a group of lawyers and other experts will come before the German federal prosecutor and ask him to open a criminal investigation targeting Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales and other key Bush Administration figures for war crimes. The recent passage of the Military Commissions Act provides a central argument for the legal action, under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction: It demonstrates the intent of the Bush Administration to immunize itself legally from prosecution in the United States, even for the most serious crimes.

The Rumsfeld action was announced at a conference in New York City in late October titled "Is Universal Jurisdiction an Effective Tool?" The doctrine allows domestic courts to prosecute international crimes regardless of where the crime was committed, the nationality of the perpetrator or the nationality of the victim. It is reserved for only the most heinous offenses: genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture. A number of countries around the world have enacted universal jurisdiction statutes; even the United States allows it for certain terrorist offenses and torture.