Is George H.W. Bush A War Criminal?

& this is a poorly constructed poll - as expected from you who only wants answers that agree with your position.

What universe is that? The one where mass killings don't put you in the war criminal category? Oh wait.

What's your sudden obsession with HW?

So you've conceded the point then that Bush Sr. is in fact a war criminal with your statement there Hugh which contradicts your statement in post #1. So which is it Hugh?

Got no obsessions at all here just asking a question. Should we honor a war criminal such as GHW Bush? Would you?

I don't understand why you are freaking out that Obama used HW to promote community service - an issue that right-wingers teased him about. HW is a traitor to the right for what he did - can we be better than they are and not lower ourselves to the tea-party level of dialog?

in Chile, in Nicaragua and in El Salvador that he was directly involved in or that he supported, like Pinochet.

Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s death on Dec. 10 means the Bush Family can breathe a little bit easier, knowing that criminal proceedings against Chile’s notorious dictator can no longer implicate his longtime friend and protector, former President George H.W. Bush.

Pinochet's Death Spares Bush Family

By Robert Parry
December 12, 2006

Chilean government assassin had killed a Chilean dissident and an American woman with a car bomb in Washington, D.C., George H.W. Bush's CIA leaked a false report clearing Chile's military dictatorship and pointing the FBI in the wrong direction.

The bogus CIA assessment, spread through Newsweek magazine and other U.S. media outlets, was planted despite CIA's now admitted awareness at the time that Chile was participating in Operation Condor, a cross-border campaign targeting political dissidents, and the CIA's own suspicions that the Chilean junta was behind the terrorist bombing in Washington.

In a 21-page report to Congress on Sept. 18, the CIA officially acknowledged for the first time that the mastermind of the terrorist attack, Chilean intelligence chief Manuel Contreras, was a paid asset of the CIA.

The new report was issued almost 24 years to the day after the murders of former Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and American co-worker Ronni Moffitt, who died on Sept. 21, 1976, when a remote-controlled bomb ripped apart Letelier's car as they drove down Massachusetts Avenue, a stately section of Washington known as Embassy Row.

In the new report, the CIA also acknowledged publicly for the first time that it consulted Contreras in October 1976 about the Letelier assassination. The report added that the CIA was aware of the alleged Chilean government role in the murders and included that suspicion in an internal cable the same month.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Terrorism/GBush_CIA_StateTerror.html

Not many gave a damn about Kuwaiti royalty's claim to oil except Poppy and his cronies until Bush's CIA reported satellite imagery indicated Saddam had massed his army on the border with Saudi Arabia. Problem was, that was a lie.

Remember also that a majority of We the People weren't in favor of invading over Kuwait until Poppy's minions started mentioning Saddam and WMDs.

...and leaving them to die on the floor!" lie...

Barry Zwicker, CBC--YouTube

George H.W. Bush is charged of initiating a war of aggression against Panama in 1989, in breach of international law and the UN Charter, constituting a crime against the peace, and of ordering the kidnapping of Panama’s President Noriega in violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons. George H.W. Bush is furthermore charged for his command responsibility for the multiple war crimes committed by US forces in the Gulf War in 1991, including the policy of deliberately bombing civilian targets and the massacre of soldiers hors combat. His command responsibility for these crimes is equivalent to those of other heads of states who have been charged, indicted and convicted for international crimes, including torture, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. George H.W. Bush is also charged for inducing an uprising of Kurds and Shi’ites in Iraq during the Gulf War and then ordering US forces to withhold aid from those who risked the uprising, thus leaving unarmed uprising masses unprotected against Saddam Hussein’s brutal forces. By such policies, he knowingly facilitated the commission of crimes against humanity by Saddam Hussein. He is finally accused for conspiring in imposing deadly economic sanctions against the people of Iraq, with the intent to harm the well-being, health and lives of the Iraqi civilian population, with foreknowledge of the likely consequences and with the subsequent knowledge of the sanctions’ devastating consequences. Such conduct is considered to be a crime against humanity under international customary law. About one million persons are believed dead as a result of the economic sanctions, thereof half a million children below five years of age.

...

http://www.canofun.com/cof/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=17131&mid=101718

Too bad sane people aren't in charge eh?

George H.W. Bush is charged of initiating a war of aggression against Panama in 1989, in breach of international law and the UN Charter, constituting a crime against the peace, and of ordering the kidnapping of Panama’s President Noriega in violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons.

I always had a problem with us charging Noriega of violating US laws in his own damned country! But I'm not sure that qualifies as a "war" crime. Can you name the statute?


George H.W. Bush is furthermore charged for his command responsibility for the multiple war crimes committed by US forces in the Gulf War in 1991, including the policy of deliberately bombing civilian targets and the massacre of soldiers hors combat. His command responsibility for these crimes is equivalent to those of other heads of states who have been charged, indicted and convicted for international crimes, including torture, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

I doubt you'd get a conviction on this.


George H.W. Bush is also charged for inducing an uprising of Kurds and Shi’ites in Iraq during the Gulf War and then ordering US forces to withhold aid from those who risked the uprising, thus leaving unarmed uprising masses unprotected against Saddam Hussein’s brutal forces. By such policies, he knowingly facilitated the commission of crimes against humanity by Saddam Hussein.

Morally reprehensible? Yes. A war crime because of how Saddam responded? Only if that was his intent which it almost certainly wasn't. You might as well accuse him for a poorly worded communique that Saddam thought gave Iraq carte blanche to conquer Kuwait.


He is finally accused for conspiring in imposing deadly economic sanctions against the people of Iraq, with the intent to harm the well-being, health and lives of the Iraqi civilian population, with foreknowledge of the likely consequences and with the subsequent knowledge of the sanctions’ devastating consequences. Such conduct is considered to be a crime against humanity under international customary law. About one million persons are believed dead as a result of the economic sanctions, thereof half a million children below five years of age.

Given that this was done via the UN, you just indicted every leader of every country on the planet. Good luck with that!


Again, maybe you could refer us to the actual statute violated by these actions. Because this seems an awful lot like, "I think it is wrong, so it therefore must be illegal".

“The Panama Deception”: The Untold Story of the December 1989 U.S. Invasion of Panama

Today, on Democracy Now! we air the academy award-winning documentary: “The Panama Deception.”

On December 19, 1989, U.S. troops invaded Panama with the stated purpose of ousting the man the media loved to hate, General Manuel Noriega.

Noriega was once a close ally to Washington and was once on the CIA payroll. After 1986, Noriega’s relationship with Washington took a turn for the worse. The Irancontra scandal forced three of his closest U.S. ties to leave the government. U.S. foreign policy quickly shifted against and Noriega went from friend to foe.

During the attack, the U.S. unleashed a force of 24,000 troops equipped with highly sophisticated weaponry and aircraft against a country with an army smaller than the New York City Police Department.

But the mainstream media failed to uncover the hidden reasons for this internationally condemned attack.

http://www.democracynow.org/2003/6/13/the_panama_deception_the_untold_story

convened by former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark:



Full report: http://deoxy.org/wc/wc-index.htm

George H.W. "Poppy" Bush's Iran-Contra Role


Submitted by The Dubya Report on Fri, 11/30/2001 - 23:00
in

* Bush Family

Background

The Iran-Contra affair is the name given to an elaborate scheme operating during the Reagan Administration through which military aid was given to a Nicaraguan political faction, despite a legislative prohibition against military aid "for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Nicaragua" during that time period. An independent counsel investigation focused on potential criminal activity ranging from violations of that statute, known as the Boland Amendment, to conspiracy to violate tax laws.

Early in 1984, national security adviser Robert McFarlane, with the support of CIA Director William Casey, proposed encouraging other countries to contribute to the "Contras" as the Nicaraguan group was known, and Lt. Col. Oliver North, then a member of the National Security Council (NSC) staff, was directed to establish a covert bank account to facilitate this. Later that year, when the idea of third-party contributions was discussed with President Reagan, Vice-President Bush, and Secretary of State Shultz, among others, Shultz warned that approaching a third country could be viewed as an "impeachable offense". McFarlane did not divulge the existence of the covert bank account, or that Saudi Arabia was already contributing at that time.

Late in 1984 Congress passed tougher restrictions on contra aid, explicitly stating that no government agency could pledge or spend funds that would support paramilitary operations in Nicaragua. The administration's response to this was simply to shift the source of funds from the CIA to the NSC. Oliver North enlisted the help of retired U.S. Air Force Major General Secord, who became an arms broker for the contras.

By 1985 the press had caught wind of North's efforts to assist the contras, and Congress began to inquire. McFarlane and North determined that they would not provide Congress with certain "problem documents" -- primarily memoranda by North that documented his providing tactical assistance and funds to the contras. Instead McFarlane lied about North's activities in a series of letters to Congress.

http://www.thedubyareport.com/node/271

Zapata Corporation (NYSE: ZAP) is a holding company based in Rochester, New York and originating from an oil company started by a group including the former United States president George H. W. Bush. Various writers have alleged links between the company and the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

(It's a long entry spanning about 40 years.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapata_%28company%29#Connections_with_the_CIA

http://members.tripod.com/~american_almanac/tobacco.htm

...

In 1953, Bush decided to link up with Midland oilmen the Leidtke brothers, the sons of a Tulsa judge who became a top lawyer for the Mellons' Gulf Oil. They formed a new company, Zapata Petroleum, financed through Uncle Herbert; Herbert kept a chunk of the company for himself, and sold some to James Gammell, who got a seat on the board. Basically, Herbert Walker raised $500,000, and the Leidtkes' Tulsa crowd raised a like amount. In 1954, the company formed Zapata Offshore, a for-hire drilling subsidiary. Officially, the offshore company was formed to take advantage of the new leases being offered in the Gulf of Mexico, but there were other reasons as well. Zapata's first rig, the Scorpion, was leased by Gulf Oil in 1958 (three years before the Bay of Pigs fiasco) and started drilling just 54 miles north of Isabela, Cuba, a perfect base for covert intelligence operations against Castro.

k&r

being thrown out of incubators and left on the cold floor to die. A whopper of a lie told by the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador posing as an anonymous (fearful for her life) relief worker. Of course daddy bush repeated the phony story, much like chimpy's mushroom cloud baloney during the run up to his war, in order to manipulate a public that wasn't too keen on a another war.


"Take the Kuwaiti babies story. Its origins go back to the first world war when British propaganda accused the Germans of tossing Belgian babies into the air and catching them on their bayonets. Dusted off and updated for the Gulf war, this version had Iraqi soldiers bursting into a modern Kuwaiti hospital, finding the premature babies ward and then tossing the babies out of incubators so that the incubators could be sent back to Iraq.

The story, improbable from the start, was first reported by the Daily Telegraph in London on September 5 1990. But the story lacked the human element; it was an unverified report, there were no pictures for television and no interviews with mothers grieving over dead babies.

The Human Rights Caucus of the US Congress was meeting in October and Hill & Knowlton arranged for a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl to tell the babies' story before the congressmen. She did it brilliantly, choking with tears at the right moment, her voice breaking as she struggled to continue. The congressional committee knew her only as "Nayirah" and the television segment of her testimony showed anger and resolution on the faces of the congressmen listening to her. President Bush referred to the story six times in the next five weeks as an example of the evil of Saddam's regime.

In the Senate debate whether to approve military action to force Saddam out of Kuwait, seven senators specifically mentioned the incubator babies atrocity and the final margin in favour of war was just five votes. John R Macarthur's study of propaganda in the war says that the babies atrocity was a definitive moment in the campaign to prepare the American public for the need to go to war.

It was not until nearly two years later that the truth emerged."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4270014,00.html


It works every time because people like obama, in the name of bipartisanship and reaching across the aisle, legitimize those who lie to us into wars that kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.

calling Jim Henson "Kermit The Frog's sidekick"

lol

.

Your poll is designed to be skewed in favor toward "no".

and blamed on "Leftists" by GHWB (CIA chief at the time). Letelier was a "Leftist" himself. GHWB covering up for Pinochet.

That's a flat-out accessory to war crime.

of non-sequitir is that?

Does the Pope shit in the woods?

Same answer! Duh!!!

gr.

I think all along, GWB wanted to 'get' Saddam, and settle scores. I think people with links to defense contractors exploited 9/11 as a means of 1) pursuing financial self-interest (i.e., war); by 2) finding a certain way for GWB to 'get' Saddam for once and for all.

One Saddam was captured, you could sort of tell GWB was done, he put himself on autopilot. IMHO.

This was a thread about the father.

:D

GHWB a war criminal? I don't think I would agree with that, either - I actually knew Iraqi expatriates, pre-Iraq War II, who possessed lingering anger that he had pulled out before troops got to Baghdad, and also anger about the Kurd's and what happened to them. So I'm even less sure that I could agree with that one.

But I understand why others say yes.

especially when they know that 'Democrats' are just another front for the corporate party.

~ Chomsky