The Bush Administration - War Criminals

It really is that simple.

Torture is a war crime. We, as a nation, tried and convicted people after World War Two for these crimes. And the Bush Administration approved the use of torture in the middle east wars.

The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects -- documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public.

Now some will try to hide behind the lie that we decided that these actions are not torture. That is just silly. I can decide to call a Bald Eagle a White Crested Super Pigeon but if I hunt one, if I shoot one, I am still breaking the law.

These 'harsh interrogation techniques' are more traditionally known as torture. This is against both international and domestic laws. These actions were approved as a war tactic by the leaders of the land.

Bush is, Cheney is, Rice is, Tenet is, Rumsfeld is and a great numbers of others are, quite simply, war criminals, and for the sake of history need to be treated as such.


Tags
Bush Administration, Iraq, War Crimes

A Pair Of War Crimes Questions

has been asked at Crooked Timber.

I have two main questions:

1. Where, if at all, might charges be brought against Bush and others?
2. How would the hearing of these charges be prevented?

I suspect that the comments will be worth following.

Tags
Bush Administration, Iraq, War Crimes

War Criminals

There is now clear evidence that most of the senior members of the Bush administration are, by our nations own definition, War Criminals. This includes, but is not limited to:

Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, George Tenet and John Ashcroft

They engaged in detailed planning and approved "specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency".

As a reminded, the US has agreed to a set of standards that defines torture as:

any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity

After WWII we held trials and held accountable the leaders of Germany, Japan and Ital for their actions. Members of the Bush administration appear to have engaged in many of the same types of acts that we accused, convicted and punished some of these people for. Who is going to hold them accountable for this vile behavior?




Tags
Bush Administration, Iraq, TWAT, War Crimes