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The War Crimes Times
WarCrimesTimes.org
“News a Press That’sFree Would Print”Inaugural Edition
Washington, DC:Storms ending,change likely
.
WAR CRIMINALS STILL AT LARGE!
Vol. I No. 1 January, 2009 Free (as the press should be)
Obama Should ProsecuteBush Officials Who DesignedTorture Policy
by Michael Ratner
US Journalists and War-Crime Guilt
by Peter Dyer
One of Barack Obama's firstacts as president should be toinstruct his attorney general toappoint an independent prose-cutor to initiate a criminal in-vestigation of former BushAdministration officials whogave the green light to torture.At Obama's press conferenceon Dec. 1, he spoke of uphold-ing America's highest valuesas he introduced Eric Holder as his choice for attorney gen-eral. Holder insisted there wasno tension between protectingthe people of the United Statesand adhering to our Constitu-tion.A few months ago, Holder was even more explicit. "Our government authorized the useof torture, approved of secretelectronic surveillance againstAmerican citizens, secretlydetained American citizenswithout due process of law,denied the writ of habeas cor- pus to hundreds of accusedenemy combatants and author-ized the use of procedures thatviolate both international lawand the United States Consti-tution," he said. "We owe theAmerican people a reckoning."The day of reckoning is fastupon us.If Obama and Holder want toadhere to our Constitution anduphold our highest values,they must pursue those in theBush Administration who vio-lated that Constitution, brokeour laws, and tarnished our values.Read the words of Lt. Gen.Antonio M. Taguba, who in-vestigated the Abu Ghraibscandal for the Pentagon."There is no longer any doubtas to whether the current ad-ministration has committedwar crimes," he concluded."The only question that re-mains to be answered iswhether those who ordered theuse of torture will be held toaccount."Despite Taguba's words andreams of documentation sup- porting his statement, there has been little discussion aboutholding officials accountablefor their design and implemen-tation of the torture program.We need to make it clear, just as we do in cases with themost minor offenses, that ac-tions have consequences. Tosimply let those officials walk off the stage sends a messageof impunity that will only en-courage future law breaking.The message that we need tosend is that they will be heldaccountable.A popular refrain in Wash-ington these days is that crimi-nal prosecutions would be anunnecessary look backward.Some argue that in order for the new administration tomove forward, presidential pardons should be granted and
(See OBAMA on page 4)
After having served in eightPresidential administrationsduring my 29 years in the USArmy/Army Reserves and 16years as a United States Diplo-mat, I resigned on March 19,2003 in opposition to the deci-sion of the Bush Administra-tion to invade and occupy Iraq.Since 2003, the American publicand Congress have been pre-sented with evidence that Presi-dent George Bush, Vice-PresidentDick Cheney, Secretary of DefenseDonald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense Colin Powell and Na-tional Security Advisor Condo-leezza Rice purposefully andknowingly misled the American people, the United States Congress,the United Nations and the worldwith false intelligence about Iraq’salleged weapons of mass destruc-tion, the original rationale theBush Administration gave for theneed for military actionagainst Saddam Hussein and Iraq.When British deputy chief of legal affairs for the British ForeignService, Elizabeth Wilmshurst,resigned, she specifically put inher March 20, 2003 letter of resignation to British Prime Min-ister Tony Blair, that use of forceagainst Iraq without a United Nations Security Council authori-zation amounts to the “crimeof aggression.” A crime of aggression is a crime againstthe peace, and by internationallaw is a war crime.The “Downing StreetMemos” written by senior 
(See DIPLOMAT on page 10)
On Oct. 16, 1946, JuliusStreicher was hanged.Streicher was executed at Nuremberg and except for him, all who were sentenced todeath were major Germangovernment officials or mili-tary leaders.Julius Streicher was a journalist.Editor of the newspaper Der Stürmer, Streicher was con-victed of "incitement to mur-der and extermination at thetime when Jews in the Eastwere being killed under themost horrible conditionsclearly constitut(ing)...a crimeagainst humanity."British prosecutor M.C. Grif-fith-Jones said: "it may be thatthis defendant is less directlyinvolved in the physical com-mission of the crimes.... Thesubmission of the Prosecutionis that his crime is no less theworse…(he) made thesecrimes possible which couldnever have happened had itnot been for him and for thoselike him. He led the propa-ganda and the education of theGerman people..."The critical role of propa-ganda was also affirmed in thetestimony of the most promi-nent Nazi defendant, HermannGoering: "Modern and totalwar develops...along three lines:the war of weapons...economicwar...and, third, propagandawar, which is also an essential part of this warfare."After Nuremberg, the United Nations passed resolutionsdeclaring: "Freedom of infor-mation requires....the moralobligation to seek thefacts without prejudice and tospread knowledge withoutmalicious intent" and con-
(See JOURNALISTS on page 10)
 
Inside:
War Crimes Documented CommentariesCartoons And More...
 AMERICA DEMANDS JUSTICE:INDICT BUSH, CHENEY & CO.
Former Officer andDiplomat Asks NewLeader to RestoreRule of Law
By Ann Wright, Retired US ArmyReserve Colonel & former US diplomat
 
BANNER SAYS IT ALLMEDIA COMPLICIT
 Vets Demonstrate at Archives
 
A group of veterans callingfor the arrest of George W.Bush and Richard Cheney aswar criminals occupied theledge over the visitors’ en-trance to the National Ar-chives in Washington, DC onSeptember 23. SpokesmanTarak Kauff told reporters,
(See VETERANS on page 7)
 
 
War Crimes Times ● WarCrimesTimes.org
NEWS & VIEWS
 
January 2009 2
War Crimes Documented
Illegal Invasion
⇒
By invading Iraq, Bush committed the crimeof aggression—“The use of force” in a man-ner “inconsistent with the Charter of theUnited Nations.” The United States has con-demned such aggression in the past. In 1956when Great Britain, France, and Israel in-vaded Egypt, And in 1978 when Vietnam at-tempted to overthrow the brutal Khmer Rougein Cambodia, the U.S. insisted that the UNCharter must be upheld.
Torture and Murder of Detainees
⇒
President Bush issued an order on February 7,2002, that set forth policies that led to willfulkilling, torture, inhuman treatment, and greatsuffering or serious injury to body or health of  prisoners in U.S. custody in Afghanistan, Iraq,and Guantanamo Bay.
⇒
Two Afghan prisoners who died in Americancustody in Afghanistan in December 2002were chained to the ceiling, kicked and beaten by American soldiers in sustained assaultsthat caused their deaths, according to Armycriminal investigative reports.
⇒
At least 26 prisoners have died in Americancustody in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 inwhat Army and Navy investigators have con-cluded or suspect were acts of criminal homi-cide, according to military officials
Civilians Targeted
⇒
In January 2005, American Friends ServiceCommittee reported that in Fallujah, 40% of the buildings were completely destroyed, 20%had major damage, and 40% had significantdamage. That is 100% of the buildings in thatcity.
⇒
Abu Hammad said he saw people attempt toswim across the Euphrates to escape the siege.“The Americans shot them with rifles fromthe shore,” he said. “Even if some of themwere holding a white flag or white clothesover their heads to show they are not fighters,they were all shot....The Americans made an-nouncements for people to come to onemosque if they wanted to leave Fallujah, andeven the people who went there carryingwhite flags were killed.”—Dahr Jamail of Inter Press Service reporting on Fallujah,11/26/04.
U.S. Constitution.
“This Constitu-tion...and all Treaties made, or whichshall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supremeLaw of the Land.
War Crimes Act of 1996.
Defines awar crime as: “…a grave breach in anyof the international conventions signedat Geneva 12 August 1949, or any pro-tocol to such convention to which theUnited States is a party…,” punishable by being “...fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results tothe victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.”
U.N. Gen. Assembly Res. 3314.
Defines the crime of aggression as “...the use of armed force by a Stateagainst the sovereignty, territorial in-tegrity or political independence of another State…or in any other manner inconsistent with the Charter of theUnited Nations…”
Nuremberg Tribunal CharterPrinciple VI
: “The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law:
→Crimes against peace:
Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of awar of aggression or a war in violationof international treaties.
→War crimes :
…murder, ill-treatment…of civilian population of or in occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war…plunder of public or private property, wantondestruction of cities, towns, or vil-lages…
→Crimes against humanity:
Murder,extermination…and other inhumanacts done against any civilian popula-tion…when such acts are done…inexecution of or in connection with anycrime against peace or any war crime.”
The Geneva Conventions:
 Protocol  I, Article 75:
“…persons who are inthe power of a Party to the conflict…shall be treated humanely in all cir-cumstances…The following acts areand shall remain prohibited…▪ violence to the life, health, or  physical or mental well-being of per-sons…▪ outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degradingtreatment...
 Protocol I, Art. 51:
“The civilian population…shall not be the object of attack.
Broken laws A few specifics:Broken countryBroken people
Note:
The Veterans for Peace website is the source of information onthis page. This is a short list of laws violated by the Bush Administrationand a very short list of specific violations. For a more information seeveteransforpeace.org/Case_for_impeachment.vp.html andsquadron13.com/Impeachment/default.htm.
In 2001 when we invaded Afghanistan,my son, James, had been a Marine for over a year. A child of the 60’s, I had been against his enlistment, but I wasassured that we had entered the “NewMillennium”—when peace, prosperity,and cooler heads would prevail. Never again would we see a Viet Nam; that was behind America.On September 11th, the moment thatfirst plane hit the Twin Towers, I knewwe would be at war. James had phonedme at three that morning from Australia.In good spirits, he was heading to EastTimor for humanitarian missions. But Iknew his unit would be called for what-ever the Commander-in-Chief deemedappropriate and, instinctively, I didn’ttrust President Bush.And so it began. The first Marine Ex- peditionary Unit went into Afghanistan;they pushed on to Kandahar, searchingfor the alleged perpetrator of the 9/11attacks. James would call me whenever he could, recounting details of his mis-sions in the caves looking for “badguys.” I hoped that the searches wouldresult in capture of the “bad guys” and put an end to the aggression. As monthswent by, he became increasingly frus-trated, as did I. Those 3:00 A.M. phonecalls were horrific, and the evening newswas worse.
(See FAMILIES on page 4)
Bush's War Policy: A Crime Against Families
by Elaine Brower
 
WCT 
 
is partially funded by
Veterans for Peace(veteransforpeace.org),
which is not responsi- ble for opinions expressed within.
VFP hasresolved to see that Bush and Cheney are prose-cuted for war crimes no matter how long it takes.There is no statute of limitations on war crimes.
The War Crimes Times
is published by Veterans for Peace Chapter 099(Asheville, NC).Contact:editor@WarCrimesTime.org
 Send donations to VFP(memo: Vets DirectAction) c/o BaltimoreVeterans For Peace,325 E. 25th Street,Baltimore, MD 21218.
 
 
War Crimes Times ● WarCrimesTimes.org
NEWS & VIEWS
 
January 2009 3
If not now, when? War crimes charges should be brought against, among others,former Defense SecretaryDonald Rumsfeld; William J.Haynes, Rumsfeld's legalcounsel; Alberto Gonzales,former White House Counseland Attorney General; andDavid Addington, Vice Presi-dent Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.This is not justwishful liberalthinking. It is thecase made by a bipartisan report by the SenateArmed ServicesCommittee. Thereport shows howthese men's ac-tions "led directly"to the lawless be-havior that perme-ated Afghanistan,Guantanamo Bay,Abu Ghraib, and the entirearchipelago of American-controlled secret prisonsthroughout the world.Most Americans never be-lieved the lie that the photo-graphs from Abu Ghraib justcaptured a few low-level sol-diers gone wild. Rather, theSenate report concludes thatthe Rumsfeld cabal methodi-cally introduced coercive in-terrogation techniques basedon illegal tortures devised byChinese agents during the Ko-rean War. Rumsfeld, Haynes,Gonzales, and Addington is-sued legally indefensible andmorally bankrupt opinions to justify their actions and proac-tively immunize themselvesfrom accountability.A presidential order startedthe ball rolling by stating thatthe Geneva Conventions didnot apply to prisoners of the"war on terror." That led to theinfamous redefinition of tor-ture by the Justice Departmentas acts equivalent in intensityto "organ failure, impairmentof bodily function, or evendeath." Rumsfeld's authoriza-tion of "aggressive" interroga-tion methods followed shortlythereafter. Every branch of themilitary objectedstrenuously.Although Presi-dent-elect Obamawants to "look for-ward," it would beirresponsible for our country and anew administrationto ignore what hashappened, and maystill be happeningin secret CIA pris-ons. One of Barack Obama's first actsas president should be to instruct his designatedAttorney General, Eric Holder,to appoint an independent prosecutor to initiate a crimi-nal investigation of war crimesallegations against former Bush Administration officialswho approved torture and, if they are found to have merit,to prosecute the perpetrators.
 Jesselyn Radack is a former U.S. Department of Justiceethics adviser who lost her jobafter objecting to the govern-ment's treatment of JohnWalker Lindh. She graduated 
magna cum laude
 Brown Uni-versity and received her J.D. from Yale Law School.
An old curmudgeon of acriminal law professor taughtthe 101 class when I attendedlaw school. He taught from a prosecutor’s standpoint andoften repeated himself, focus-ing so much on the essentialtheories of crime and punish-ment that most studentsthought his lectures beneaththeir intellectual dignity.But a couple of things theold guy effectively ham-mered into my head seem to be what’s now blocking theseeking of any measure of accountability of membersof the Bush Administration.
Lesson 1: Guilty Intent
About the different kindsof 
mens rea
(guilty mind),no one needed much explana-tion to understand “deliberate, premeditated, cold blooded”first degree intent becausethat’s the stuff of the movies.“Second degree” type guilt— that of unplanned crimes in theheat of passion—was also easyto understand. It was the thirdtype of criminal intent— “recklessness”—which the law professor spent most of histime on. He used his favorite“Russian Roulette” hypotheti-cal to distinguish it from firstand second degree intent, aswell as from mere negligence(for which no guilty intent andtherefore no criminal culpabil-ity usually exists).We must overcome a misun-derstanding of criminal intentto build a case against mem- bers of the Bush Administra-tion. We’ve been led to be-lieve that their motives weregood and they intended noharm. They only authorizedtorture techniques, for in-stance, to find hypotheticallyticking time bombs or preventthe next terrorist attack. This iswhat Rush Limbaugh andother right-wing radio ranterskeep repeating. But the biparti-san Senate Armed ServicesCommittee “torture report”suggests that not all the“Deciders” were so well-intentioned. It’s been revealedthat they disregarded legal and practical advice about effec-tive interrogation techniques
CASE IS SOLID: War CrimesMust Be Tried
By Jesselyn Radack 
and about the dangerous con-sequences for our troops of violating the Geneva Conven-tions.A full investigation wouldreveal their true motivations,whether “premeditated in thefirst degree,” post 9-11 “heatof passion” induced, third de-gree recklessness or a bit of allthree. As my old professor loved to point out, a personcan’t just pick up a gun that heknows has a bullet in the cyl-inder, spin the cylinder, then pull the trigger and say when itgoes off, “It wasn’t my fault because I was hoping for theempty chambers.”With his recent ABC inter-view, Vice President Dick Cheney put the smoking gunon the table. His unapologeticadmission that he, along withother top administration offi-cials, personally approved theCIA's waterboarding of pris-oners means only one thing:he’s relying on people to trusthis “good” intent and/or Bushto pardon him.
Lesson 2: Purposes of Criminal Justice and PenalSystems
An incomplete appreciationof ALL of the valid purposesserved by the criminal justiceand penal systems is, I believe,the second major obstacle to possible prosecution of mem- bers of the Bush Administra-tion. The public has a hardtime getting past the “eye for an eye” vengeance that fromearliest times sparked the de-velopment of both systems.Pundits tell people to just getover their bitter vengeful spir-its, move on, and simply closethe book on this painful chap-ter of American history.It’s not, however, that easyto turn the page and end theerror. Putting all vengeanceaside—because criminal jus-tice experts agree that venge-ance is not a worthy purpose— there remain three other mainvalid goals: prevention, reha- bilitation, and deterrence.With a new administrationtaking power, restraining BushAdministration officials per-sonally from committingany further crimes(prevention) and encourag-ing their personal rehabili-tation are not so applicable.What IS indisputably atissue, however, even withthe change of administra-tions, is the need to stopany unlawful conduct (likewaterboarding) that maystill be happening in secretCIA prisons not covered bythe military’s current ban.Deterrence is the final andmost important of the criminal justice/penal goals under thesecircumstances. Since the em- phasis is on establishing thefacts (investigation) and not punishment, deterrence could be accomplished with an inde- pendent panel like the 9/11Commission or Church Com-mittee. For, as the New York Times recently editorialized,“Unless the nation and itsleaders know precisely whatwent wrong in the last sevenyears, it will be impossible tofix it and make sure those ter-rible mistakes are not re- peated.”Empanelling such a commis-sion on the complete range of abuses and illegalities would be a good start. Ferreting outthe truth about torture andother war crimes would be best accomplished by non- biased, experienced criminal prosecutors like Patrick Fitz-gerald, Vincent Bugliosi, and,yes, hardened old law profes-sors, who understand the wor-thy goals behind our justicesystem.
Coleen Rowley received her  J.D. from the University of Iowain 1980 and became a Special  Agent with the FBI. She wasnamed one of the
Time Maga-zine
 Persons of the Year for exposing FBI mishandling of intelligence prior to the Septem-ber 11, 2001 attacks.
LESSONS IN LAW: Criminal Justice 101 andthe Bush Administration War Criminals
By Coleen Rowley
Graphic by Will Covert 
It would beirresponsiblefor our coun-try and a newadministra-tion to ignorewhat hashappened.We must overcome amisunderstanding of criminal intent. We’ve been led to believe BushAdministration’smotives were good.
There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.
 —Howard Zinn
Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent.
 —Isaac Asimov
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