Time for Nuremberg II - Wayne Madsen

Time For Neuremberg II The international community must reconvene the Nuremberg Tribunal and try the Bush regime's top officials

By Wayne Madsen

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Having stolen another election, the Bush regime shows no signs of ever giving up political power peacefully. Therefore, the international community, through the International Criminal Court in The Hague, must give serious thought to reconvening the International War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg with a view to capturing and putting on trial those American leaders who have committed war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, and quite possibly helped carry out, with support from domestic neo-Nazi groups and Islamist radicals, the dastardly and treasonous aviation terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, on September 11, 2001. With the American Nazis now planning to wage war against Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and other countries, the stark fact is that the Bush regime represents the greatest threat to world security since the military forces of the Axis Powers rolled across border after border during the 1930s and 40s.
And its not as if the Bush regime war criminals are insensitive to their possible fate. War Minister Donald Rumsfeld almost canceled a trip to a security conference in Munich in February because of a war crimes complaint filed against him in the federal prosecutor's office in Berlin. German authorities, technically, could have arrested Rumsfeld. The arrest of American war criminals should no longer rest on technicalities but should be the stated policies of the world community.

If the international community unites to grab American war criminals, these globe-hopping criminals will eventually land at the wrong airport in the wrong country and could be easily apprehended by international law enforcement teams with the cooperation of the host nation's security forces. In addition, there are a number of American diplomats and intelligence agents who would gladly look the other way as these fascist banes of today's America are whisked away to incarceration and trial in The Hague. The Air Force noncommissioned officers at Andrews Air Force Base who accompany some of America's war criminals on junkets abroad are ideally situated to pass advance travel plans to the International Criminal Court. Authorities in such jurisdictions as Ireland, Iceland, Portugal, Cape Verde, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Panama, Fiji, Brazil, and Barbados are likely aware that Shannon, Keflavik, Lajes Field on Terceira in the Azores, Sal, Kastrup, Schipol, Zaventem, Geneva, Torrijos International, Nandi, Rio de Janeiro International, and Grantley Adams International are favored for logistics stops for U.S. military "VIP flying units" that ferry around some of America's most notorious war criminals.

...cont

The usual Madsen insight.

...Nuremberg Tribunal underway, because by July Bush will be sending in air strikes at Iran's nuclear plant facilities.

Cluster Bombs
Depleted Uranium
Chemical Weapons (Mark 77 Firebombs)
Torture
Slaughter of Civilians
Looting
Rape
Intentional Destruction of Infrastructure

The charges have to be actionable. This list is not:

Cluster Bombs
Depleted Uranium
Chemical Weapons (Mark 77 Firebombs)
Torture
Slaughter of Civilians
Looting
Rape
Intentional Destruction of Infrastructure

Some of these aren't even crimes, unless brought up within a narrow context. Others are definitely crimes, yet fail to mention criminal casuality.

Think like a lawyer. Why hasn't there been even one indictment in an international court? Several things stand in the way of any war crimes trial:

First, most people and organizations have no standing to bring such charges in court. Such is usually reserved for governments. Which government thinks it is in their interest to bring such indictments?

Second, evidence is hard to produce. Opinion pieces and editorials do not constitute evidence. For example, there has been no authoritative court finding that Mark 77s violate any chemical weapons ban. Likewise, clusterbombs and depleted uranium shells are not illegal, strictly speaking. So any war crime complaint considering their use has a two step process to overcome. First, to prove their use is criminal and then to prove it was criminal in a specific instance or instances.

Did he lie? Sure. When? So what? Was he under oath? Did he or someone speaking for him later "correct the record," modify his statements, or give other rationale? Were his lies criminal under a specific statute? Which one?

Third, some crimes have affirmative defenses. Were the presence of WMDs necessary to justify invading Iraq? Did other casus belli already exist that permitted the resumption of hostilities from the First Gulf War?

Finally, what happens if they are found innocent? Which country wants to bell the cat? To paraphrase someone on this subject: "When considering regicide, the most important thing is to kill the king." Failure is not a pleasant option to consider.

Our opinions and wishes notwithstanding, bringing war crimes charges isn't easy or simple.

By the way, under international law, the aircraft of a state, its contents and passengers, are not subject to seizure by another state, no matter what the reason. Seizure of a United States aircraft or its occupants is a legitimate cause for war. Who do we know that might be willing to press to test that precedent?

doesn't he travel with a fucking armada or something these days?

This is one good reason why any war crimes trial should be held under U.S. jurisdiction so that the Court can impose the death penalty on those Bush Administration officials convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, and genocide.

Why let them out of it so easily?
Let them rot in a cell with a randy cell-mate named Tiny.

believe in the death penalty. If we have to execute terrorists, why exempt the biggest terrorist regime since Hitler?

BTW, Congress passed a law barring jurisdiction of the International Crimes Court over American soldiers and government officials. The Bush regime made that bed, now they must lay on it!

is undoubtedly Mao's regime in China. They responsible for more death and suffering than anything other than WWII.

What about the Khymer Rouge, The North Koreans, Idi Amin, The Hutu Power Regime, the Nigerians in Biafra, The Taliban, the Sudanese Islamists, the Dergue in Ethiopia?

I think they're going to hit a much higher number than history will ever record :P

I agree that the US foriegn policy positions are wrong on most accounts, but there won't be a N II. Who's gonna call it? Who's gonna enforce it?

Face it, the US is still the biggest, baddest boy on the block. And, this administration has shown that it is willing to come out swinging.

If change or accountability is going to come, it must at the prompting from us, the US citizenry.