Critics are threatening to detain ex U.S. president George W. Bush when he visits Geneva on February 12 for a United Israel Appeal dinner. The Swiss branch of human rights group We Are Change says: “He should be arrested like Roman Polanski.” Their threat comes after law professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court in The Hague against Bush and his cohorts Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzales over their “extraordinary rendition” policy.
Read the full article in the Daily Mail.
The First and Second World Wars currently hover like the Sword of Damocles over the heads of all humanity.
By Professor Francis Boyle
During the 1950s I grew up in a family who rooted for the success of African Americans in their just struggle for civil rights and full legal equality. Then in 1962 it was the terror of my own personal imminent nuclear annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis that first sparked my interest in studying international relations and U.S. foreign policy as a young boy of 12: “I can do a better job than this!”
With the escalation of the Vietnam War in 1964 and the military draft staring me right in the face, I undertook a detailed examination of it. Eventually I concluded that unlike World War II when my Father had fought and defeated the Japanese Imperial Army as a young Marine in the Pacific, this new war was illegal, immoral, unethical, and the United States was bound to lose it. America was just picking up where France had left off at Dien Bien Phu. So I resolved to do what little I could to oppose the Vietnam War.
In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson gratuitously invaded the Dominican Republic, which prompted me to commence a detailed examination of U.S. military interventions into Latin America from the Spanish-American War of 1898 up to President Franklin Roosevelt’s so-called “good neighbor” policy. At the end of this study, I concluded that the Vietnam War was not episodic, but rather systemic: Aggression, warfare, bloodshed, and violence were just the way the United States Power Elite had historically conducted their business around the world. Hence, as I saw it as a young man of 17, there would be more Vietnams in the future and perhaps someday I could do something about it as well as about promoting civil rights for African Americans. These twins concerns of my youth would gradually ripen into a career devoted to international law and human rights.
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Talk Nation Radio interviews Francis A. Boyle
Dori Smith of Talk Nation Radio interviews Professor Boyle for their ongoing special series focusing on accountability for the U.S. and Israel.
Veteran’s Voice interviews Francis A. Boyle
Veteran’s Voice hosts Marvin Simmons, Bill Bires and John Timothy of Northwest Vets for Peace interview Professor Boyle.
Antiwar Radio interviews Francis A. Boyle
Antiwar Radio‘s Scott Horton interviews Professor Boyle regarding his legal complaint demanding prosecution of Bush administration officials for crimes against humanity, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) jurisdiction over crimes committed by the US in ICC-member countries, the “Marty” report that catalogs the US practice of extraordinary rendition and how a less-desirable international prosecution is the result of the Obama administration’s failure to uphold the rule of law.
Francis A. Boyle
Professor of International Law
Law Building
504 East Pennsylvania Avenue
Champaign, Illinois 61820
Phone: 217-333-7954
Fax: 217-244-1478
The Honorable Luis Moreno-Ocampo
Office of the Prosecutor
International Criminal Court
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM, The Hague
The Netherlands
Fax No.: 31-70-515-8555
Email: OTP.InformationDesk@icc-cpi.int
January 19, 2010
Dear Sir:
Please accept my personal compliments. I have the honor hereby to file with you and the International Criminal Court this Complaint against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice , and Alberto Gonzales (hereinafter referred to as the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition.” This term is really a euphemism for the enforced disappearances of persons, their torture, severe deprivation of their liberty, their violent sexual abuse, and other inhumane acts perpetrated upon these Victims. The Accused have inflicted this criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” upon about one hundred (100) human beings, almost all of whom are Muslims/Arabs/Asians and People of Color. I doubt very seriously that the Accused would have inflicted these criminal practices upon 100 White Judeo-Christian men.
MECKLOSKY: You’re listening WUSB here at Stony Brook, and I have Francis A. Boyle, Professor of Law. I just had Vincent Bugliosi on talking about his book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. He’s a significant prosecutor. I think he got the case against Manson. What’s your sense of the legality and presenting the case against the President for murder.
Boyle: Right Mort. I’d been working on this myself for the last several weeks with people in Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Illinois. Then Vince Bugliosi’s book came out. He had heard of me and gave me a call. We had a long talk about it last week and agreed to join forces and work together. I think there is a compelling case for indicting President Bush for murdering U.S. troops in Iraq. Right now the official figure — if you believe it — is 4,089 dead U.S. soldiers, marines, sailors.
I used to teach Criminal Law here; in fact I was originally hired to teach Criminal Law. Murder is defined by common law as the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Generally speaking you will find a definition along those lines in almost every state of the Union because they are all based on the common law definition.
Now let’s parse that definition: “Unlawful.” In this case the war against Iraq was a war of aggression by President Bush in violation of the United Nations Charter. In fact he had twice tried to get authorization by the United Nations Security Council to launch that war and failed. So currently we have the “unlawful” part being fulfilled.
“Killing”: Under the law it does not require that you actually pull the trigger on someone. For example, you could push someone in front of an L-train and that would be enough. In this case Bush ordered these now almost 4100 dead U.S. soldiers into a meat grinder in Iraq where they were killed and it was very clear there were going to be casualties when he gave these orders.
So unlawful killing of a “human being”: These 4100 dead soldiers are our mothers, our fathers, our brothers, our sisters, and our sons, and our daughters.
They have been murdered by Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, and the rest of them with “malice aforethought.” Malice, malicious. I think we all know what that means. Mainly that Bush lied about Iraq from the get-go. That became very clear certainly starting in the Summer of 2002 now as verified by Scott McClellan in the publicity related to his new book. Here you have the White House Spokesperson verifying a very detailed propaganda campaign put into effect in the Summer of 2002 to try to sell a war of aggression against Iraq.
Finally the last element: “aforethought.” Namely, that they thought about it beforehand before they did this. It is very clear the war against Iraq had been planned right after they entered the White House, and even before.
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