Commission Finds President George W. Bush and His Administration Guilty of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity
The Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by
the Bush Administration released its final verdict on Wednesday,
September 13, 2006.
Click here for a first-hand report of delivering the verdict to the White House.
Find the full text of the verdict in PDF form here.
An unprecedented Commission of Inquiry has found the President of
the United States and his administration guilty of war crimes and
crimes against humanity. The five-member panel of jurists unanimously
found the administration’s actions “shock the conscience of humanity”
in five areas – wars of aggression, illegal detention and torture,
suppression of science and catastrophic policies on global warming,
potentially genocidal abstinence-only policies imposed on HIV/AIDS
prevention programs in the Third World, and the abandonment of New
Orleans before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina.
A delegation, headed by 27-year CIA veteran Ray McGovern and former
US diplomat and retired US Army Reserve Colonel Ann Wright, will
deliver the verdict to the gates of the White House at noon today
following an 11AM press conference.
THE VERDICT
In their summary, the Commission jurists found that: “Each of these
constitutes a shocking crime in itself, and taken together the full
horrors are all the more unconscionable. It is also clear that this is
an administration that demonstrates an utter disregard for truth and
flagrantly lies about the reasons for its actions.
“In arriving at this decision the jurists were particularly alarmed
by the degree to which the Bush Administration’s actions in all five
indictments were informed by the extreme right. …. although the
specific conduct differs among the indictments, the result is the same:
human life was debased and devalued by gratuitous acts of violence,
torture, narrow self interest, indifference, and disregard.”
In arriving at their verdict, the Commission’s panel of jurists
examined a wealth of evidence with care and rigor. Consistent standards
were employed, with well-established international law referenced where
applicable
The panel of jurists consisted of Adjoa A. Aiyetoro, William H.
Bowen School of Law, Little Rock; former executive director, National
Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL). Dennis Brutus, former prisoner,
Robben Island (South Africa), poet, professor emeritus, University of
Pittsburgh. Abdeen Jabara, former president, American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee. Ajamu Sankofa, former executive
director, Physicians for Social Responsibility-NY. Ann Wright, former
US diplomat and retired US Army Reserve Colonel.
THE HEARINGS
The Commission’s year-long investigation included five days of
public hearings in October 2005 and January 2006 in New York City. The
45 expert and first-hand witnesses included former commander of Abu
Ghraib prison Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, former British ambassador to
Uzbekistan Craig Murray, former UN official Denis Halliday, former UN
arms inspector Scott Ritter, Guantanamo prisoners” lawyer Barbara
Olshansky, and Katrina survivors.
The verdict’s release comes with war crimes again on front pages
following President Bush’s defense of secret prisons, rendition, and
practices constituting torture under existing law, his demand that the
War Crimes Act be fundamentally weakened, and his threats against Iran.
In a preface to the printed verdict, historian Howard Zinn writes:
“The Bush Administration has been following a course, which can only
now be described as a series of crimes against humanity. . . . What
could be a higher crime than sending the young people of the country
into a war against a small country on the other side of the world,
which is no danger to the United States, and in fact a war which is
condemned by people all over the world and a war which results in, not
only the loss of American lives and the crippling of young Americans,
but results in the loss of huge numbers of people in Iraq? These are
high crimes.”
Find more information visit http://www.bushcommission.org/
And take part in Bush Crimes Days, Sept. 19-21.
Delivering the
“Guilty” Verdict on the Bush Administration
By
Beth H. (Bush Crimes Commission volunteer)
On
Wednesday, Sept. 13, I walked with 75 other people to the White House to
deliver a verdict of Guilty to the Bush administration. This verdict is the
result of nearly a year of work on the part of many people from the Bush Crimes
Commission (bushcommission.org) including prominent progressive leaders, a
courageous former diplomat and a US Army Colonel as well as some of the people
who were the immediate victims of the criminal abuse and negligence perpetrated
by the Bush administration, from Iraq to Guantanamo to Katrina and beyond.
At
the gate of the White House a remarkable scene played out. The 50 page
indictment and verdict was offered to those on the other side of the gate. But
the document was refused and we were told that we must send it to the White
House by mail. “How can you refuse us?” asked Ray McGovern, former
CIA analyst. “We are American citizens and you work for us.” It is
our constitutional right to present our wishes, demands and judgments to the
President who represents us. Ultimately he had to reach through the gate and
drop the document on the ground while security personnel, a yelping dog on a
short leash, and various “inside” press recorded the event with
suspicious eyes, video cameras, and cell phones.
Now
sign toting citizens began to use their voices. Quickly the sound of protest
swelled as the White House washed in chants of “Bush Step Down!” What
a rush! The power we have is awesome. It takes so little from so few to get the
attention of those who seemed so far away.
Then
we moved on. We walked to the Justice Department and delivered our message
there. But what if? What if just this small event happened every Wednesday? As
we marched through the streets of Washington
D.C. holding our signs up to the
passing traffic, it was more than a few who honked and gave a thumbs up. They
are a flood waiting for one more drop. What if the whole country knew that this
demand at the White House would be made for 30 minutes every Wednesday at noon?
What if every tourist put this protest on his calendar? What if the crowd did
not disappear, but kept coming back week after week after week?