http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/30517-war-criminals-among-us-bush-cheney-and-the-eyes-of-the-world
By
Charles Pierce, Esquire
02
June 15
In which we learn how to say 'war crimes' in Malaysian.
Last
week, Richard Clarke, the man to whom nobody in the administration of C-Plus
Augustus listened because what did he know, anyway?, had a chat with Amy
Goodman in which he minced no words regarding his former employers.
"I
think things that they authorized probably fall within the area of war crimes.
Whether that would be productive or not, I think, is a discussion we could all
have. But we have established procedures now with the International Criminal
Court in The Hague, where people who take actions as serving presidents or
prime ministers of countries have been indicted and have been tried. So the
precedent is there to do that sort of thing. And I think we need to ask
ourselves whether or not it would be useful to do that in the case of members
of the Bush administration. It's clear that things that the Bush administration
did — in my mind, at least, it's clear that some of the things they did were
war crimes."
And, something that most of us missed, there was a court on the other side of the world that
agreed.
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... 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...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. Full transcripts of
the charges, witness statements and other relevant material will now be sent to
the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as the United
Nations and the Security Council.
At the very least, this court parceled out the blame
for the torture program in a fair manner and all the way up the chain of
command. The testimony of the victims was as horrible as you might expect:
The
court heard how Abbas Abid, a 48-year-old engineer from Fallujah in Iraq had his
fingernails removed by pliers; Ali Shalal was attached with bare electrical
wires and electrocuted and hung from a wall; Moazzam Begg was beaten, hooded
and put in solitary confinement, Jameelah was stripped and humiliated, and was
used as a human shield whilst being transported by helicopter. The witnesses
also detailed how they have residual injuries till today.
In related news, Ed Kilgore notes that Cheney continues to glory in his status as the most inexcusable
American who ever lived. It's like giving Pol Pot a late-night TV gig.
At
times, Mr. Cheney seems to relish his villainous public persona. Outside the
rodeo arena, he took a moment to show off the latest feature on his truck, a
Darth Vader trailer-hitch cover, a nod to his alter-ego from the Bush days.
"I'm rather proud of that," he said, flashing his signature uneven
grin.
To paraphrase Rick Blaine, I don't object to a vampire,
I object to a gutless one. I'll buy the stake if someone else buys the garlic.
© 2015 Reader Supported News
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"The master class has always declared the wars; the
subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to
gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and
everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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