Guardian (UK): Campaigner fails to arrest ex-Bush official over 'war crimes'

Campaigner fails to arrest ex-Bush official over 'war crimes'
By Michael White

The environmental campaigner, George Monbiot, last night failed in his attempt to make a citizen's arrest on the senior ex-Bush administration official John Bolton over "war crimes" committed by the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

As Bolton, a former US ambassador to the UN, ended his hour-long discussion at the Hay festival, Monbiot, who had earlier challenged him for alleged breaches of the post-war Nuremburg Principles, moved towards the stage waving a charge sheet.

But security staff, alerted by pre-publicity, intervened and bundled Monbiot out of the tent as 20 supporters chanted "war criminal" and waved placards. The comedian, Marcus Brigstocke, who tried to pursue Bolton as he left the other side of the tent, was also blocked by security staff.

When challenged by Mobiot during the debate to say why - in planning, preparing and waging war against Saddam Hussein - he was no different from "Nazi war criminals" condemned at Nuremburg, Bolton cited Iraqi defiance of the UN resolutions 687 and 678 which underpinned the 1991 Iraq war and ceasefire.