Full details from the Foreign Policy Journal:

Kuala Lumpur — It’s official; George W Bush is a war criminal.

In what is the first ever conviction of its kind anywhere in the world, the former US President and seven key members of his administration were yesterday (Fri) found guilty of war crimes.

Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their legal advisers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo were tried in absentia in Malaysia.

The trial held in Kuala Lumpur heard harrowing witness accounts from victims of torture who suffered at the hands of US soldiers and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They included testimony from British man Moazzam Begg, an ex-Guantanamo detainee and Iraqi woman Jameelah Abbas Hameedi who was tortured in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

At the end of the week-long hearing, the five-panel tribunal unanimously delivered guilty verdicts against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their key legal advisors who were all convicted as war criminals for torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

Full transcripts of the charges, witness statements and other relevant material will now be sent to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as the United Nations and the Security Council.

The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission is also asking that the names of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Yoo, Bybee, Addington and Haynes be entered and included in the Commission’s Register of War Criminals for public record.

The tribunal is the initiative of Malaysia’s retired Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who staunchly opposed the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

He sat through the entire hearing as it took personal statements and testimonies of three witnesses namely Abbas Abid, Moazzam Begg and Jameelah Hameedi. The tribunal also heard two other Statutory Declarations of Iraqi citizen Ali Shalal and Rahul Ahmed, another British citizen.

After the guilty verdict reached by five senior judges was delivered, Mahathir Mohamad said: “Powerful countries are getting away with murder.”

War crimes expert and lawyer Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law in America, was part of the prosecution team.

After the case he said: “This is the first conviction of these people anywhere in the world.”

While the hearing is regarded by some as being purely symbolic, human rights activist Boyle said he was hopeful that Bush and Co could soon find themselves facing similar trials elsewhere in the world.

“We tried three times to get Bush in Canada but were thwarted by the Canadian Government, then we scared Bush out of going to Switzerland. The Spanish attempt failed because of the government there and the same happened in Germany.”

Boyle then referenced the Nuremberg Charter which was used as the format for the tribunal when asked about the credibility of the initiative in Malaysia. He quoted: “Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit war crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any person in execution of such a plan.”

The US is subject to customary international law and to the Principles of the Nuremberg Charter said Boyle who also believes the week-long trial was “almost certainly” being monitored closely by both Pentagon and White House officials.

Professor Gurdial Singh Nijar, who headed the prosecution said: “The tribunal was very careful to adhere scrupulously to the regulations drawn up by the Nuremberg courts and the International Criminal Courts”.

He added that he was optimistic the tribunal would be followed up elsewhere in the world where “countries have a duty to try war criminals” and he cited the case of the former Chilean dictator Augustine Pinochet who was arrested in Britain to be extradited to Spain on charges of war crimes.

“Pinochet was only eight years out of his presidency when that happened.”

The Pinochet case was the first time that several European judges applied the principle of universal jurisdiction, declaring themselves competent to judge crimes committed by former heads of state, despite local amnesty laws.

Throughout the week the tribunal was packed with legal experts and law students as witnesses gave testimony and then cross examination by the defence led by lawyer Jason Kay Kit Leon.

The court heard how

• Abbas Abid, a 48-year-old engineer from Fallujah in Iraq had his fingernails removed by pliers.
• Ali Shalal was attached with bare electrical wires and electrocuted and hung from a wall.
• Moazzam Begg was beaten, hooded and put in solitary confinement.
• Jameelah was stripped and humiliated, and was used as a human shield whilst being transported by helicopter.

The witnesses also detailed how they have residual injuries till today.

Moazzam Begg, now working as a director for the London-based human rights group Cageprisoners said he was delighted with the verdict, but added: “When people talk about Nuremberg you have to remember those tried were all prosecuted after the war.

“Right now Guantanamo is still open, people are still being held there and are still being tortured there.”

In response to questions about the difference between the Bush and Obama Administrations, he added: “If President Bush was the President of extra-judicial torture then US President Barak Obama is the President of extra judicial killing through drone strikes. Our work has only just begun.”

The prosecution case rested on proving how the decision-makers at the highest level President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld, aided and abetted by the lawyers and the other commanders and CIA officials – all acted in concert. Torture was systematically applied and became an accepted norm.

According to the prosecution, the testimony of all the witnesses exposed a sustained perpetration of brutal, barbaric, cruel and dehumanising course of conduct against them.

These acts of crimes were applied cumulatively to inflict the worst possible pain and suffering, said lawyers.

The president of the tribunal Tan Sri Dato Lamin bin Haji Mohd Yunus Lamin, found that the prosecution had established beyond a “reasonable doubt that the accused persons, former President George Bush and his co-conspirators engaged in a web of instructions, memos, directives, legal advice and action that established a common plan and purpose, joint enterprise and/or conspiracy to commit the crimes of Torture and War Crimes, including and not limited to a common plan and purpose to commit the following crimes in relation to the “War on Terror” and the wars launched by the U.S. and others in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

President Lamin told a packed courtroom: “As a tribunal of conscience, the Tribunal is fully aware that its verdict is merely declaratory in nature. The tribunal has no power of enforcement, no power to impose any custodial sentence on any one or more of the 8 convicted persons. What we can do, under Article 31 of Chapter VI of Part 2 of the Charter is to recommend to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission to submit this finding of conviction by the Tribunal, together with a record of these proceedings, to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as the United Nations and the Security Council.

“The Tribunal also recommends to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission that the names of all the 8 convicted persons be entered and included in the Commission’s Register of War Criminals and be publicised accordingly.

“The Tribunal recommends to the War Crimes Commission to give the widest international publicity to this conviction and grant of reparations, as these are universal crimes for which there is a responsibility upon nations to institute prosecutions if any of these Accused persons may enter their jurisdictions”.

KUALA LUMPUR, 12 April 2012 The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal will be hearing the second charge of Crime of Torture and War Crimes against former U.S. President George W. Bush and his associates namely Richard Cheney, former U.S. Vice President, Donald Rumsfeld, former Defence Secretary, Alberto Gonzales, then Counsel to President Bush, David Addington, then General Counsel to the Vice-President, William Haynes II, then General Counsel to Secretary of Defense, Jay Bybee, then Assistant Attorney General, and John Choon Yoo, former Deputy Assistant Attorney-General. The charge reads as follows:

The Accused persons had committed the Crime of Torture and War Crimes, in that:

The Accused persons had wilfully participated in the formulation of executive orders and directives to exclude the applicability of all international conventions and laws, namely the Convention against Torture 1984, Geneva Convention III 1949, Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Charter in relation to the war launched by the U.S. and others in Afghanistan (in 2001) and in Iraq (in March 2003); Additionally, and/or on the basis and in furtherance thereof, the Accused persons authorised, or connived in, the commission of acts of torture and cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment against victims in violation of international law, treaties and conventions including the Convention against Torture 1984 and the Geneva Conventions, including Geneva Convention III 1949.

The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC) following the due process of the law is bringing this charge against the accused. In 2009, the Commission, having received complaints from torture victims from Guantanamo and Iraq, proceeded to conduct a painstaking and an in-depth investigation for close to two years. Two charges on war crimes were drawn and filed against the accused persons.

The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal had heard the first charge in November 2011 against the two accused, former U.S. President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Anthony L. Blair who were after a 4-day trial found guilty of Crimes Against Peace. These two former heads of state violated the United Nations Charter and international law when they planned, prepared and invaded the sovereign state Iraq on 19 March 2003 without just cause.

At the first hearing in November 2011, the Tribunal had permitted the prosecution’s application to hear only the first charge. The second charge will now be heard at the second Tribunal hearing from 7 – 12 May 2012.

The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal is constituted of eminent persons with legal qualifications. The judges of the Tribunal, which is headed by retired Malaysian Federal Court judge Tan Sri Dato Lamin bin Haji Mohd Yunus, who also served as an ad litem judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Republic of Yugoslavia, include other notable names such as Mr Alfred Lambremont Webre, a Yale graduate, who authored several books on politics, Tunku Sofiah Jewa, practising lawyer and author of numerous publications on International Law, Prof Salleh Buang, former Federal Counsel in the Attorney-General Chambers and retired Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mohd Sa’ari Yusof.

Point to note is that victims of torture will also be called to give evidence before the Tribunal. The cries of these victims have thus far gone unheeded by the international community. The fundamental human right to be heard has been denied to them. These witnesses will testify on the torture they had endured during their incarceration. The accused will have a right to cross-examine them as in any open court hearing.

The Tribunal will adjudicate and evaluate the evidence presented as in any court of law. The judges of the Tribunal must be satisfied that the charges are proven beyond reasonable doubt and deliver a reasoned judgement.

In the event the tribunal convicts any of the accused, the only sanction is that the name of the guilty person will be entered in the Commission’s Register of War Criminals and publicised worldwide. The tribunal is a tribunal of conscience and a peoples’ initiative.

The prosecution for the trial will be lead by Prof Gurdial Singh Nijar, prominent law professor and author of several law publications and Prof Francis Boyle, leading American professor, practitioner and advocate of international law, and assisted by a team of lawyers.

The trial will be a public hearing held in an open court on 7-12 May 2012 at the premises of the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War (KLFCW) at 88, Jalan Perdana, Kuala Lumpur. The hearing is open to members of the public.

From the New Straits Times:

The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal on Saturday will try former United States president George W. Bush and former British prime minister Tony Blair on a charge of committing crimes against peace during the Iraq War.

Bush and seven top US officials who served under him will also face a separate charge of crimes of torture and war crimes at the tribunal.

Read more.

Read more at Mathaba.net.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to Colin Powell during his tenure as secretary of state, tells ABC News that former vice president Dick Cheney “fears being tried as a war criminal.”

The suggestion from Wilkerson coincides with the release of Cheney’s new book, In My Time, which came out on Tuesday.

Wilkerson signaled to Democracy Now! that he believes Bush administration officials should be held accountable when it comes to matters such as the authorization of warrantless wiretapping and the use of harsh interrogation techniques for terror suspects.

“And I’d be willing to testify, and I’d be willing to take any punishment I’m due,” he said. “And I think that explains the aggressiveness, to a large extent, of the Cheney attack and of the words like ‘exploding heads all over Washington.’ This is a book written out of fear, fear that one day someone will ‘Pinochet’ Dick Cheney.’

For more and to see a video of Wilkerson speaking with Democracy Now!, click here.

Antiwar Radio‘s Scott Horton once again interviews Professor Boyle. In this interview, Professor Boyle discusses how in 2004 the FBI and CIA tried to make him an informant to betray his Arab and Muslim legal clients; how his refusal landed him on several terrorism watch lists; the list of five thousand Arabs, Muslims and their sympathizers that the FBI interrogated and attempted to “turn;” the US government’s habit of (and plans regarding) rounding up entire groups of Americans –- Constitution notwithstanding — to send off to prison camps during crises; and why we already live in a police state, which could very well transform into a military dictatorship should there be one more major terrorist attack.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge is allowing an Army veteran who says he was imprisoned unjustly and tortured by the U.S. military in Iraq to sue former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld personally for damages.

The veteran’s identity is withheld in court filings, but he worked for an American contracting company as a translator for the Marines in the volatile Anbar province before being detained for nine months at Camp Cropper, a U.S. military facility near the Baghdad airport dedicated to holding “high-value” detainees.

The government says he was suspected of helping get classified information to the enemy and helping anti-coalition forces enter Iraq. But he was never charged with a crime and says he never broke the law.

Read the full article here.

Click here for the original.

The decision of the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants against Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi, his son Saif al-Islam and the country’s intelligence chief, Abdullah Al Sanussi, raised the spirits of the White House and received immediate support from the U.S. government. Stretching the strong rejection of the public to the damage and costs of a new battlefront, the United States have wagered on international bodies to fight the war that, according to President Barack Obama, does not exist.

The strategy, however, can turn into a bomerangue. The statement is the Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois, Francis Boyle. In January 2010, Boyle filed a request to the ICC investigation against former President George W. Bush, former President Dick Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, former CIA director George Tenet, the former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, charged with defending a policy crimes against humanity. “The strengthening of the authority of the ICC could become a ghost to haunt the White House, as the Obama administration has the same policy of forced disappearance and torture of the Bush administration,” Boyle said in an interview with the Ladies Friends.Dear Friends – How do you evaluate the U.S. position regarding the arrest warrants against the International Criminal Court Moammar Gadhafi, Saif al-Islam and Abdullah Al Sanussi?

Francis Boyle – This is a dangerous precedent for the United States. Support the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction, when the counter-terrorism strategy advocated by President Barack Obama is synonymous with crime against humanity, can function as a bomerangue.

Dear Friends – What’s wrong with the counter-terrorism strategy of the current government?

FB – When I signed documents calling for investigation of crimes committed by President George W. Bush, I told the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court that the Obama administration continued the same policy of promoting crimes against humanity. I told him that the current management practice follows the forced disappearance of persons and torture. In addition, there are the air strikes of drones that victimize innocent civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Dear Friends – Why do you not also asked to investigate Barack Obama?

FB – Unfortunately, there is little evidence on these cases so far. As a lawyer, I have an ethical obligation to investigate and collect evidence and facts before filing any legal action against Obama. The document that Mr. Bush had signed about 90 pages of pure evidence. Either way, it is obvious that there are crimes against humanity. For example, David Petraeus (now General of the U.S. Army and future CIA chief) publicly declared to be in favor of torture. This is a job that requires time and also a very difficult task when the American media does not fulfill its role.

Dear Friends – Where did the U.S. media fail?

FB – In general, the American media is very pro-Obama, which makes the leakage of information against the government. This lack of investigative journalism makes it more complicated evidence collection. Still, the Washington Times recently published an editorial highlighting the policy of crimes against humanity adotadapela White House. The text states that the practice of enforced disappearance and torture have also increased during the Obama administration, according to sources consulted by the journal.

Dear Friends – Even if you can gather this material and bring a lawsuit against President Obama, what is the practical effect of this? The United States has not signed the Rome Statute governing the ICC …

FB – This is the point. The United States has not signed the Rome Statute, nor did Libya. But the point is that the United States, the practice of the forced disappearance of people, led many of these victims to be questioned and subjected to torture in countries that are part of the Rome Statute. Many of them are even in Europe. The Rome Statute in its article number 13, paragraphs A and C, makes it clear that the ICC can exercise jurisdiction and investigate cases where crimes against humanity committed by non-signatory nations have happened in the soil of nations that have ratified the Statute.

Dear Friends – You filed the lawsuit against former president George W. Bush in January last year and the same goes in pending analysis. In about six months after the trigger demonstrations in Libya to take the body, the ICC has issued warrants for the arrest of Moammar Gadhafi. I would like you to comment this time difference with the conduct of cases.

FB – When I joined the lawsuit against Bush I told the prosecutor about the importance of a quick scan of the document, once President Obama has the same policy of crimes against humanity, and not a long position of the ICC could save lives and maybe change the mentality of the current administration. But despite the effort, I’m just a lawyer. The arrest warrants against Gadhafi, his son and the Libyan intelligence chief was moved by the Security Council of the United Nations, obviously and understandably, have a much greater political power than me.

Dear Friends – Do you really believe that charges against George W. Bush will be carried forward by the Court?

FB – I have real hopes. However, I do believe that the strengthening of the ICC can come back as a yes bomerangue into the White House. The legal provision is the same and there is no reason why Bush will not be judged by the Court. The progress of the case will show.

The Washington Times editorialized Tuesday: The Obama administration is backing the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. It is a dangerous precedent for the United States to rush to affirm the jurisdiction of this relatively new international body, particularly with a president whose counterterrorism strategy has made his name synonymous with ‘targeted killing.’ On Monday, ICC judges granted warrants for Col. Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam and regime intelligence chief Abdullah Sanussi. …

“In 2010, American law professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, filed a complaint with the ICC prosecutor against Mr. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald H. Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzales for ‘their criminal policy and practice of ‘extraordinary rendition’ perpetrated upon about 100 human beings.’ The dirty little secret is that renditions have continued — and some sources say increased — under the Obama administration. This, combined with the questionable legality of drone strikes under international law, could come back to haunt the White House if the ICC continues to expand its authority.”

[Note: Obama, at his news conference today, made reference to the ICC case and repeated allegations of the Gadhafi regime using rape as a weapon. BBC reports: "Donatella Rovera from Amnesty International, who has spent three months in the country, said the organization did not have evidence of cases of rape so far."]