Not In Our Name & BushCommission.org – 2006-09-16 00:35:06
http://www.bushcommission.org/?q=node/22
Organize and Speak Out Against Bush Administration War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity!
WEDNESDAY IN WASHINGTON
Beth H. (Bush 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, 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 DC 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?
Not In Our Name, to NION, 305 West Broadway, #199, New York, NY 10013.
• Text of the verdict may be downloaded as an Adobe PDF file from www.bushcommission.org
“Speaking the Unspeakable:
Is the Bush Regime Guilty of War Crimes?”
On the evening of May 3, 2006, an extraordinary panel convened on the Berkeley Campus of the University of California. The Bush Crimes Commission now is proud to make this stunning event available on DVD.
Taking the Commission on a Campus Tour
A nationwide campus tour – “Speaking the Unspeakable: Is the Bush Administration Guilty of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity?” — will bring a panel of prominent whistleblowers, eye-witnesses, victims and experts to give testimony that make visible the reality that this administration has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity — acts that, by their scale or nature, shock the conscience of humankind.
These panels are timely and urgent: they can help cut through the fog of official obfuscation and disinformation to paint a clear picture of the full scope and nature of these acts and clearly establish the culpability of the Bush administration in these horrors. Our aim is to provoke discussion on, and bring to the fore the inherent moral imperative, and attendant political responsibility, of people of conscience in these times.
Listening to the preliminary verdicts of the commission being announced at the National Press Club in Washington DC in early-February, Ray McGovern exclaimed: “This is what our German forbearers in the 1930s did NOT do. They sat around, blamed their rulers, said ‘maybe everything’s going to be alright.’… That is something we cannot do. Because I don’t want my grandchildren asking me years from now, ‘why didn’t you do something to stop all this?’”
At the January hearings
DRAMATIC VIDEO was shown of war crimes. The US turned the city of Fallujah into a “free fire zone” where anything that moved was a targeted.. . . and we heard the evidence of torture.
You think Rumsfeld should resign? We think he should be prosecuted!
Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, former commander of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq testifies on how the abuse of prisoners in US custody originated at the highest levels (audio) (text). Panel of Jurists: Adjoa Aiyetoro, Dennis Brutus, Ajamu Sankofa, Ann Wright, and Abdeen Jabara
Wars of Aggression
Text of Indictments
http://www.bushcommission.org/?q=node/22
The Commission will inquire into the following charges:
Count 1: The Bush administration authorized a war of aggression against Iraq.
Count 2: The Bush administrations authorized conduct of the war that involved the commission of “war crimes.”
Count 3: The Bush administration authorized the occupation of Iraq involving, and continuing to involve, the commission of “war crimes”, “crimes against humanity” and other illegal acts.
Torture and Indefinite Detention
The Commission will inquire into the following charges:
Torture:
Count 1: The Bush administration authorized the use of torture and abuse in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and domestic constitutional and statutory law.
Rendition:
Count 2: The Bush administration authorized the transfer (“rendition”) of persons held in U.S. custody to foreign countries where torture is known to be practiced.
Illegal Detention:
Count 3: The Bush administration authorized the indefinite detention of persons seized in foreign combat zones and in other countries far from any combat zone and denied them the protections of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war and the protections of the U.S. Constitution.
Count 4: The Bush administration authorized the round-up and detention in the United States of tens of thousands of immigrants on pretextual grounds and held them without charge or trial in violation of international human rights law and domestic constitutional and civil rights law.
Count 5: The Bush administration used military forces to seize and detain indefinitely without charges U.S. citizens, denying them the right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts.
Murder:
Count 6: The Bush administration committed murder by authorizing the CIA to kill those that the president designates, either US citizens or non-citizens, anywhere in the world.
Destruction of the Global Environment
The Commission will inquire into the following charges:
Count 1: Denial and Distortion of Scientific Consensus and Findings–
The Bush administration has consistently denied the scientific consensus around global warming and its causes. Administration officials have misrepresented, distorted, and suppressed scientific information on the subject, especially as it would impact public opinion.
Count 2: Obstructionism on International Efforts–
The Bush administration has refused to take any measures to curb the emissions of greenhouse gases, guided by narrow corporate interests. It has withdrawn from any international efforts that would impose binding restrictions, however minimal. It has done this with full knowledge of the catastrophic effects of global warming and the disproportionate U.S. share of world greenhouse gas emissions, the leading cause of global warming.
Attacks on Global Public Health
The Commission will inquire into the following charges:
Count 1: Imposition of Abstinence-Only HIV Prevention Programs–
The Bush administration is using its political influence, aid, and funding in the sphere of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment to advance policies and programs that worsen the AIDS pandemic. Guided by a Christian fundamentalist ideological agenda, the administration is promoting and forcing deadly abstinence-only HIV prevention and sex education programs instead of proven comprehensive programs that comprise consistent and correct use of condoms.
Count 2: Imposition of “Gag-Rule”–
The Bush administration has re-instated the “gag-rule” policy which restricts foreign organizations that receive US funds from using their own, non-U.S., funds to provide legal abortion services or even provide accurate medical counseling or referrals regarding abortion. This policy has led to the closing of reproductive health clinics dependent on international funding in very poor parts of the world. In many areas, these clinics have also been the only source of HIV/AIDS prevention and care programs, including the supply of much-needed and life-saving condoms.
Count 3: Distortion of Science–
The Bush administration and its political operatives have distorted sound science and attempted to suppress medical research studies in HIV prevention when it conflicts with the ideology of the Christian Right.
Count 4: Restriction of Generics–
The Bush administration has used its political and economic power to coerce other countries into agreements that severely restrict the manufacture and supply of generic drugs, the only affordable option for most HIV positive people in the Third World.
Hurricane Katrina
Count 1: Knowing failure of the Bush administration to adequately maintain and upgrade the levees directly contributed to the foreseeable loss of life and suffering of many people when Hurricane Katrina struck.
Count 2: Despite foreknowledge of Hurricane Katrina striking land as a greater than category 3 storm and the devastation that this would cause, the Bush administration failed to implement an emergency evacuation plan for people who were in the path of the storm and unable to evacuate the area on their own.
Count 3: The Bush administration neither launched an immediate rescue operation nor provided the emergency shelter, food and water needed to save peoples’ lives and prevent needless suffering.
Count 4: Federal authorities blocked the provision of emergency services, including rescue and provision of food and water on the part other levels of government and private sources despite the obvious need for this kind of relief.
Count 5: Federal authorities enforced repressive conditions and eventually carried out an evacuation that separated families, including separating small children from their parents, and left many people not knowing where their loved ones were located and even if they had survived the storms.
Stop Bush, His Criminal Gang and Israel Crimes Against Humanity
Creating A Sustainable Future (CASF) has prepared a petition addressed to the United Nations General Assembly demanding that the UN immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI).
The Petition demands that The United Nations General Assembly immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as a ‘subsidiary organ’ under U.N. Charter Article 22 to prosecute the Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, Defense Minister Peretz, Chief of Staff Halutz and Israel’s other top generals and war criminals for their infliction of international war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine.
Petition is posted at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/un040806/petition.html
INTERNATIONAL CONSPIRACY TO CONDUCT ILLEGAL WAR
Conspired with other governments to conduct the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, among which the Downing Street Memo Is the most famous. Charge could be amended to PRE-MEDITATED MURDER OF THOUSANDS or Iraqis, and American troops.
http://www.bushcommission.org/?q=node/26
PRELIMINARY FINDINGS ON INDICTMENTS ISSUED BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY ON CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY COMMITTED BY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
“When the possibility of far-reaching war crimes and
crimes against humanity exists, people of conscience have
a solemn responsibility to inquire into the nature and scope
of these acts and to determine if they do in fact rise to the
level of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
— Charter of the International Commission of Inquiry
Submitted by the Panel of Judges:
Adjoa A. Aiyetoro
Dennis Brutus
Abdeen Jabara
Ajamu Sankofa
Ann Wright
International Commission Of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration of the United States.
305 West Broadway, #199, New York, NY 10013
