One of the blackest marks on the record of the Obama administration is the failure to prosecute GW Bush and his Republican minions for crimes against humanity. It is a violation of US law and destroys US credibility internationally on the subject of human rights. But we can still hope that someone in the international community might do for us what we should be doing for ourselves.
US [sic] security chiefs have condemned former President George W Bush’s defence of torture yesterday, and disputed his claim that information obtained by subjecting prisoners to simulated drowning or ‘waterboarding’ had scuttled Al Qaeda plots to blow up Canary Wharf and Heathrow airport.
Negating the claims of Bush, Lord MacDonald, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, said: "These stories about waterboarding thwarting attacks on Canary Wharf and Heathrow – I’ve never seen anything to substantiate these claims. These claims are to be treated with a great deal of scepticism."
The Daily Mail quoted a Downing Street spokesman, as saying, "We stand firmly against torture and the cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment. We don’t condone it or ask others to do it on our behalf."
Meanwhile, lawyers have warned that by having sanctioned the controversial interrogation technique, he could now be arrested for breaking international law if he travels abroad.
"Ignorance of the law is no defence. There are countries where proceedings might be instituted against him," human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson said.
Bush made this comments during an interview while launching his memoir "Decision Points", admitting that he gave the CIA the green light to waterboard Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. He added that a team of U.S. lawyers had said the practice was not illegal.
However, his claims about waterboarding were dismissed by a series of senior officials familiar with counter-terrorism activities at the time, saying that the President was exaggerating.
Kim Howells, who was chairman of the Commons intelligence and security committee, said: "I doubt torture actually produced information which was instrumental in preventing those plots coming to fruition. I’m not convinced of that."… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <One India>
Apparently the notion of arresting Bush abroad is gaining a growing international following, as Keith Olbermann and Law Professor, Jonathan Turley discuss.
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It is shameful that our own government won’t do their duty, but the least we can do is encourage Texas Torquemada, Inquisitor General of the Theocon Taliban, to take an extended book tour abroad.
13 Responses to “Will Bush Be Arrested Abroad?”
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Hell I hope they come and snatch his ass. I think we should send the bastard to England or Spain whatever.
We won’t do anything about him here. In there lies Obama’s weakness that the Republicans picked up on.
Just my humble opinion.;)
Tim, I’m against extraordinary rendition non matter who does it. But I’d extradite him in a hot minute.
He should be arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced, and punished, just like any other war criminal. Cheney, too. Rumsfeld, too. And Yoo, too, as an accessory to the fact.
Jack, I’m glad you did not type the complete list. I’d be reading it for days.
That would be very interesting… Any international stops for Bush in the near future?
None I know of, Kevin, but we can pray.
Who will be arrested first? Dubya (war criminal) or Julian Assange (hero whistle blower). Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks.org, who is being set up for a couple bogus rape charges in Sweden.
One of his accusers has previously written a how-to plan for women who want to get even with men by falsely accusing the men of rape. The other women’s conscious got the better of her and so she withdrew her charge.
Let’s just hope the rest of the world doesn’t pull a Nancy Pelosi and declare that for Bush, Cheney, et al, “arrest is off the table”.
Kevin, while I agree that the charges against Assange are, in all probability, bogus, it is not at all uncommon for actual victims to recant falsely, when a case goes high publicity as this one has. Personally, my only beef with him is that he should have redacted names before the first dump of documents, but he is irrelevant to the issue that Bush and his minions could and should be arrested.
The Obama Administration didn’t prosecute any of Bush’s henchmen because that would poison the atmosphere and cause polarization. It sure is a good thing Obama has been so nicey nicey to the thugs; otherwise, they’d all hate him and they’d be trying to sabotage everything Obama tries to do. And that’s hard to imagine. I’m glad it hasn’t come to anything like that 🙂
BTW, I read somewhere that Kissinger has to be very careful whenever he travels, because more and more countries are prepared to arrest him and have him tried internationally. The same should be true for Bush, Cheney and all the rest of them.
Tom, it’s kind of like refusing to fart in an outhouse for fear of the smell.
That’s true, because his involvement in the Pinochet coup and subsequent war crimes are now well known.
Bush is too lazy and no curiousity to travel outside of the country.
Let’s hope he gets some curiousity and decides to take a vacation in Spain.
Or Italy.