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CounterPunch
September 2, 2002
Flashback
US War Crimes During the Gulf War
by Francis Boyle
The following paper was presented to a symposium
held by the Albany Law School. The symposium, held on February 27, 1992,
was titled: International War Crimes: The Search for Justice. This paper
documents the numerous occasions that international laws were broken and
disregarded during the Gulf War.
Introduction
1. For the past year I have been working with the
International Commission of Inquiry into United States war crimes that were
committed during the Persian Gulf War. This Commission has conducted the
largest independent world-wide investigation of war crimes in history. Since
last May [1991], the Commission has held thirty hearings across the United
States and in twenty countries across five continents to expose the war
crimes that the United States government inflicted upon the People and State
of Iraq.
2. On Saturday, February 29, 1992 in New York City,
at the Martin Luther, Jr. Auditorium, the Commission will publicly present
its evidence before an International War Crimes Tribunal consisting of
distinguished jurists and human rights activists drawn from around the
world. In the brief space that has been allotted to me, I would like to
present the basic gist of the charges that will be brought before the
Tribunal against President
George
Bush, Vice President Dan Quayle, Secretary of State Jim Baker, Secretary of
Defense Dick Cheney, National Security Assistant Brent Scowcroft, CIA
Director William Webster, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General
Colin Powell, General Norman Schwarzkopf, and other members of the High
Command of the United States military establishment who launched and waged
this brutal, inhumane, and criminal war. Hereinafter, these individuals will
be collectively referred to as the Defendants.
The Charges
3. The international crimes that have been charged
and will be proven against these Defendants consist principally of the three
Nuremberg Offences: the Nuremberg Crime Against Peace, that is waging an
aggressive war and a war in violation of international treaties and
agreements; Nuremberg Crimes Against Humanity; and Nuremberg War Crimes. In
addition, these Defendants also committed grievous war crimes by wantonly
violating the Hague Regulations on Land Warfare of 1907; the Declaration of
London on Sea Warfare of 1909; the Hague Draft Rules of Aerial Warfare of
1923; the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols
of 1977; and the international crimes of Genocide against the People of Iraq
as defined by the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crimes of Genocide of 1948 as well as by the United States' own
Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987, 18 <U.S.C>. 1901. Finally,
and most heinously of all, these Defendants actually perpetrated a Nuremberg
Crime against their own troops when they forced them to take experimental
biological weapons vaccines without their informed consent in gross
violation of the Nuremberg Code on Medical Experimentation that has been
fully subscribed to by the United States government.
Universal Jurisdiction
4. These international crimes create personal
criminal responsibility on the part of all these Defendants that warrant
their prosecution under basic norms of customary international law,
treaties, and statutes in any state of the world community that obtains
jurisdiction over them for the rest of their lives. We believe that the
International War Crimes Tribunal will produce a Judgment that can be put
into the hands of every government in the world with no injunction that
should any of these Defendants ever appear within their territorial
jurisdiction, they must be apprehended and prosecuted for the commission of
the specified international crimes. Like unto pirates, these Defendants are
hostes humani generis - the enemies of all humankind!
The Historical Origins of
the War
5. I do not have the time in this brief presentation
to analyse the entire history of illegal U.S. military interventionism into
the Middle East - especially the Persian Gulf region - and in particular its
divide-and-conquer (divida et impera) policies. Suffice it to say here that
the "immediate cause" of the United States war to destroy Iraq and take over
the Arab oil fields in the Persian Gulf goes back to the 1973 Arab oil
boycott of Europe. The Arab oil states imposed the boycott in solidarity
with those Arab states that were then attempting to reclaim their Lands that
had been illegally stolen from Them by Israel in 1967. The Arab oil boycott
brought Europe to its knees. Subsequently, Arab oil states were able to
increase the price of oil to a point of economic fairness that would enable
them to provide for the basic human needs of their own Peoples.
6. But the success of the Arab oil boycott led
several prominent U.S. government officials in the Nixon administration, and
especially Henry Kissinger, to publicly threaten that the United States
government would prepare itself to seize the Arab oil fields in order to
prevent something like the boycott from ever happening again. This illegal
governmental threat was stated openly, publicly, and repeatedly during the
course of the Nixon administration, the Ford administration, the Carter
administration, and the Reagan administration. The Bush administration would
finally be the ones to carry this threat out. But only after a decade of
active preparations.
The Rapid Deployment Force
7. During the course of the Carter administration,
the United States government obtained authorisation from Congress to set up,
arm, equip, and supply the so-called Rapid Deployment Force (RDF), whose
primary mission was to seize and steal the Arab oil-fields of the Persian
Gulf region. So the planning and preparations for the U.S. war against Iraq
go all the way back to the so-called "liberal" Carter administration - at
the very least. The United States Foreign Policy Establishment consists of
liberal imperialists, reactionary imperialists, and middle-of-the-road
imperialists. But they all share in common a firm belief in America's
"Manifest Destiny" to rule the world.
8. For the next decade, the Pentagon obtained a new
generation of high-technology conventional weapons possessing massive
destructive power and lethality; the logistical support network necessary to
convey a force of 500,000 soldiers over to the Persian Gulf region within
six months; and base access rights and facilities for that purpose
throughout Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Working in
conjunction with its de facto allies in the region such as Egypt and Israel,
the Pentagon stockpiled enormous quantities of weapons, equipment, and
supplies in the immediate vicinity of the Persian Gulf as a prelude to
military intervention. Hence, the United States government had been
planning, preparing, and conspiring to seize and steal the Persian Gulf oil
fields for over a decade.
United States War Plans
Against Iraq
9. Sometime after the termination of the Iraq-Iran
War in the Summer of 1988, the Pentagon proceeded to revise its outstanding
war plans for U.S. military intervention into the Persian Gulf region in
order to destroy Iraq. Defendant Schwarzkopf was put in charge of this
revision. For example, in early 1990, Defendant Schwarzkopf informed the
Senate Armed Services Committee of this new military strategy in the Gulf
allegedly designed to protect U.S. access to and control over Gulf oil in
the event of regional conflicts. In October 1990, Defendant Powell referred
to the new military plan developed in 1989. After the war, Defendant
Schwarzkopf referred to eighteen months of planning for the campaign.
10. Sometime in late 1989 or early 1990, the
Pentagon's war plan for destroying Iraq and stealing Persian Gulf oil fields
was put into motion. At that time, Defendant Schwarzkopf was named the
Commander of the so-called U.S. Central Command - which was the renamed
version of the Rapid Deployment Force - for the purpose of carrying out the
war plan that he had personally developed and supervised. During January of
1990, massive quantities of United States weapons, equipment, and supplies
were sent to Saudi Arabia in order to prepare for the war against Iraq.
11. Pursuant to this war plan, Defendant Webster and
the CIA assisted and directed Kuwait in its actions of violating OPEC oil
production agreements to undercut the price of oil for the purpose of
debilitating Iraq's economy; in extracting excessive and illegal amounts of
oil from pools it shared with Iraq; in demanding immediate repayment of
loans Kuwait had made to Iraq during the Iraq-Iran War; and in breaking off
negotiations with Iraq over these disputes. The Defendants intended to
provoke Iraq into aggressive military actions against Kuwait that they knew
could be used to justify U.S. military intervention into the Persian Gulf
for the purpose of destroying Iraq and taking over Arab oil fields.
The U.S. "Green Light" to
Invade Kuwait
12. The Defendants showed absolutely no opposition
to Iraq's increasing threats against Iraq. Indeed, when Saddam Hussein
requested U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie to explain State Department
testimony in Congress about Iraq's threats against Kuwait, she assured him
that the United States considered the dispute to be a regional concern, and
that it would not intervene militarily. In other words, the United States
government gave Saddam Hussein what amounted to a "green light" to invade
Kuwait.
13. This reprehensible behaviour was similar to that
of the Carter administration during September of 1980, when United States
government officials gave Saddam Hussein the "green light" to invade Iran
and thus commence the tragic Iraq-Iran War. A decade later, Saddam Hussein
simply surmised that he had been given yet another "green light" by the
United States government to commit overt aggression against surrounding
states. Only this time, the Defendants knowingly intended to lead Iraq into
a provocation that could be used to justify intervention and warfare by
United States military forces for the real purpose of destroying Iraq as a
military power and seizing Arab oil fields in the Persian Gulf.
Bush Is the Bigger War
Criminal
14. On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded and occupied
Kuwait without significant resistance. The Kuwaiti government itself
estimated that approximately 300 people were killed as a result of Iraq's
invasion of Kuwait, and a few hundred more as a result of the military
occupation. By comparison, Defendant Bush's invasion of Panama in December
of 1989 took between 2,000 and 4,000 Panamanian lives, and the United States
government is still covering up the actual death toll. Defendant Bush killed
more innocent people in Panama than Saddam Hussein did in Kuwait.
15. Defendant Bush's invasion of Panama was even
more illegal, reprehensible, and criminal than Saddam Hussein's invasion of
Kuwait. The world must never forget that the first step in the construction
of Bush's "New World Order" was his illegal invasion of Panama and the
murder of thousands of completely innocent Panamanian civilians. America's
self-anointed policeman in the Persian Gulf had the blood of the Panamanian
People on his hands.
Bush's Perversion of the
Constitution
16. Pursuant to the Pentagon's war plan for
destroying Iraq and stealing Persian Gulf oil fields - and without
consultation or communication with Congress - Defendant Bush initially
ordered 40,000 U.S. military personnel into the Persian Gulf region during
the first week of August 1990. He lied to the American People and Congress
when he stated that his acts were purely defensive. Right from the very
outset of this crisis - and even beforehand - Defendant Bush fully intended
to go to war against Iraq and to seize the Arab oil fields in the Persian
Gulf. Defendant Bush deliberately misled, deceived, concealed and made false
representations to the Congress to prevent its free deliberation and
informed exercise of legislative power.
17. Defendant Bush intentionally usurped
Congressional power, ignored its authority, and failed and refused to
consult with the Congress. He individually ordered a naval blockade against
Iraq - itself an act of war - without approval by Congress or the U.N.
Security Council. Defendant Bush waited until after the November 1990
elections to publicly announce his earlier order sending more than 200,000
additional military personnel to the Persian Gulf for offensive purposes
without seeking the approval of Congress. Pursuant to the Pentagon's war
plan, Defendant Bush switched U.S. forces from a defensive position and
capability to an offensive capacity for aggression against Iraq without
consultation with, and contrary to assurances given to, Congress and the
American People.
18. On the very eve of the war, Defendant Bush then
strong-armed legislation through Congress that approved enforcement of U.N.
resolutions vesting absolute discretion in any nation, providing no
guidelines, and requiring no reporting to the United Nations. Defendant Bush
knew full well that he intended to destroy the armed forces and civilian
infrastructure of Iraq. Those acts were undertaken to enable him to commit a
Nuremberg Crime Against Peace and war crimes. This conduct violated the
Constitution and Laws of the United States and especially the War Powers
Clause found in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, the U.S. War
Powers Act of 1973, 87 Stat. 555, and the United Nations Charter, which is
the "Supreme Law of the Land" under Article 6 of the Constitution. For this
reason alone, Defendant Bush and his co-conspirators committed "High Crimes
and Misdemeanors" that warrant their impeachment, conviction, removal from
office, and criminal prosecution.
Bush's Mad Rush to War
19. While concealing his true intentions, Bush
continued the military buildup of U.S. forces from August into January 1991
for the purpose of attacking and destroying Iraq. Bush pressed the military
to expedite preparations and to commence the war against Iraq before
military conditions were optimum for domestic political purposes so that the
war would not interfere with his presidential re-election campaign. Indeed,
the entire timing, conduct and duration of the war were planned so as to
promote Defendant Bush's re-election prospects. But as a direct result of
Defendant Bush's mad rush to war, United States military personnel suffered
needless casualties. Defendant Bush has still lied and covered up to the
American People and Congress the true nature and extent of U.S. casualties
during the Persian Gulf War.
Bush Corrupted the United
Nations
20. Defendant Bush repeatedly coerced the members of
the United Nations Security Council into adopting an unprecedented series of
resolutions that culminated in his securing authority for any nation to use
"all necessary means" to enforce these resolutions. To secure these votes in
the Security Council, Defendant Bush paid multi-billion-dollar bribes;
offered arms for regional wars; threatened and carried out economic
retaliation; illegally forgave multi-billion-dollar loans; offered
diplomatic relations despite human rights violations; and in other ways
corruptly exacted votes. This illegal activity subverted and perverted the
very Purposes and Principles of the United Nations Charter itself found in
articles 1 and 2 thereof.
Bush Circumvented and
Violated Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter
21. In his mad rush to war, Defendant Bush caused
the United Nations to completely bypass Chapter VI of the U.N. Charter that
mandates the specific settlement of international disputes. Defendant Bush
consistently rejected and ridiculed all of Iraq's efforts to negotiate a
peaceful resolution of the dispute. Defendant Bush proudly boasted that
there would be no negotiation, no compromise, no face-saving, etc.
22. Defendant Bush's successful attempt to subvert
every effort for negotiating a peaceful resolution of this dispute violated
the solemn obligation mandating the peaceful resolution of international
disputes found in article 2, paragraph 3 of the United Nations Charter; in
article 33, paragraph 1 of the United Nations Charter; and in article 2 of
the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928. Just like the Nazi war criminals before
him, Defendant Bush pursued recourse to war as an instrument of his national
policy and for the solution of international controversies in violation of
article 1 of the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Just as the Nazi war criminals did by
invading Poland in September of 1939, these Defendants perpetrated a
Nuremberg Crime Against Peace in their decision to got to war against Iraq
and to seize and steal the oil resources of the Persian Gulf.
The Conduct of the War
Itself
23. Obviously, in the brief space that has been
allotted to me, there is no way that I could adequately describe all of the
atrocities and war crimes that were committed by these Defendants and their
Agents during the course of their actual conduct of military hostilities
against the People and State of Iraq. These matters have been covered in
great detail during the course of the public investigations and hearings
conducted around the world by the Commission during the past year.
Nonetheless, I will provide you here with a succinct account of the major
categories of war crimes committed by these Defendants during the course of
their criminal war against Iraq.
Bush Ordered the
Destruction of Facilities Essential to Civilian Life and Economic
Productivity Throughout Iraq
24. Systematic aerial and missile bombardment of
Iraq was ordered to begin at 6:30 p.m. <E.S.T>. January 16, 1991, in order
to be reported on prime time TV. The bombing continued for 42 days. It met
no resistance from Iraqi aircraft and no effective anti-aircraft or
anti-missile ground fire. Iraq was basically defenceless.
25. Most of the targets were civilian facilities.
The United States intentionally bombed and destroyed centres for civilian
life, commercial and business districts, schools, hospitals, mosques,
churches, shelters, residential areas, historical sites, private vehicles
and civilian government offices. In aerial attacks, including strafing, over
cities, towns, the countryside and highways, United States aircraft bombed
and strafed indiscriminately. The purpose of these attacks was to destroy
life and property, and generally to terrorise the civilian population of
Iraq. The net effect was the summary execution and corporal punishment
indiscriminately of men, women and children, young and old, rich and poor,
of all nationalities and religions.
26. As a direct result of this bombing campaign
against civilian life, at least 25,000 men, women and children were killed.
The Red Crescent Society of Jordan estimated 113,000 civilian dead, 60% of
them children, the week before the end of the war. According to the
Nuremberg Charter, this "wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages"
is a Nuremberg War Crime.
27. The intention and effort of this bombing
campaign against civilian life and facilities was to systematically destroy
Iraq's infrastructure leaving it in a pre-industrial condition. The U.S.
assault left Iraq in near apocalyptic conditions as reported by the first
United Nations observers after the war. As a direct, intentional and
foreseeable result of this anti-civilian destruction, over one hundred
thousand people have died after the war from dehydration, dysentery,
diseases, and malnutrition caused by impure water, inability to obtain
effective medical assistance and debilitation from hunger, cold, shock and
distress. More will die until potable water, sanitary living conditions,
adequate food supplies and other necessities are provided. Yet Defendant
Bush continues to impose punitive economic sanctions against the People of
Iraq in order to prevent this from happening.
The United States Intentionally Bombed and Destroyed
Defenceless Iraqi Military Personnel; Used Excessive Force; Killed Soldiers
Seeking to Surrender and in Disorganised Individual Flight, Often Unarmed
and Far from Any Combat Zones; Randomly and Wantonly Killed Iraqi Soldiers;
and Destroyed Material After the Cease-Fire
28. In the first hours of the aerial and missile
bombardment, the United States destroyed most military communications and
began the systematic killing of Iraqi soldiers who were incapable of defence
or escape, and the destruction of military equipment. The U.S. bombing
campaign killed tens of thousands of defenceless soldiers, cut off from most
of their food, water and other supplies, and left them in desperate and
helpless disarray. Defendant Schwarzkopf placed Iraqi military casualties at
over 100,000. Large numbers of these soldiers were "out of combat" and
therefore not legitimate targets for military attack.
29. When it was determined that the civilian economy
and the military were sufficiently destroyed, the U.S. ground forces moved
into Kuwait and Iraq attacking disorientated, disorganised, fleeing Iraqi
forces wherever they could be found, killing thousands more and destroying
any equipment found. In one particularly shocking manoeuvre, thousands of
Iraqi soldiers were needlessly and illegally buried alive. This wholesale
slaughter of Iraqi soldiers continued even after and in violation of the
so-called cease-fire.
30. The Defendants' intention was not to remove
Iraq's presence from Kuwait. Rather, their intention was to destroy Iraq.
The disproportion in death and destruction inflicted on a defenceless enemy
exceeded 100 to one. The Defendants conducted this genocidal war against the
Male Population of Iraq for the express purpose of making sure that Iraq
could not raise a substantial military force for at least another
generation.
The United States Used Prohibited Weapons Capable of
Mass Destruction and Inflicting Indiscriminate Death and Unnecessary
Suffering Against Both Military and Civilian Targets
31. Fuel air explosives were used against troops in
place, civilian areas, oil fields and fleeing civilians and soldiers on two
stretches of highway between Kuwait and Iraq. One seven mile stretch called
the "Highway of Death" was littered with hundreds of vehicles and thousands
of dead. All were fleeing to Iraq for their lives. Thousands were civilians
of all ages, including Kuwaitis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Jordanians and other
nationalities.
32. Napalm was used against civilians and military
personnel, as well as to start fires. Oil well fires in both Iraq and Kuwait
were intentionally started by U.S. aircraft dropping napalm and other heat
intensive devices.
33. Cluster bombs and anti-personnel fragmentation
bombs were used in Basra, and other cities and towns, against the civilian
convoys of fleeing vehicles and against military units.
34. "Superbombs" were dropped on hardened shelters
with the intention of assassinating Iraqi President Saddam Hussein - a war
crime in its own right.
The United States
Intentionally Attacked Installations in Iraq Containing Dangerous Substances
and Forces in Violation of Article 56 of Geneva Protocol I of 1977
35. The U.S. intentionally bombed alleged nuclear
sites, chemical plants, dams and other dangerous forces. The U.S. knew such
attacks could cause the release of dangerous forces from such installations
and consequently severe losses among the civilian population. While some
civilians were killed in such attacks, there are no reported cases of
consequent severe losses. Presumably, lethal nuclear materials, and
dangerous chemical and biological warfare substances, were not present at
the sites bombed.
The United States Waged
War on the Environment
36. Before the war started, the Pentagon had
developed computer models that accurately predicted the environmental
catastrophe that would occur should the United States go to war against
Iraq. These Defendants went to war anyway knowing full well what the
consequences of such an environmental disaster would be. Attacks by U.S.
aircraft caused much if not all of the worst oil spills in the Gulf.
Aircraft and helicopters dropped napalm and fuel-air explosives on oil wells
throughout Iraq and many, if not most, of the oil well fires in Iraq and
Kuwait.
Defendant Bush Encouraged and Aided Shiite Muslims
and Kurds to Rebel Against the Government of Iraq Causing Fratricidal
Violence, Emigration, Exposure, Hunger and Sickness and Thousands of Deaths.
After the Rebellion Failed, the U.S. Invaded and Occupied Parts of Iraq
Without Lawful Authority in Order to Increase Division and Hostilities
Within Iraq
37. Without authority from the U.S. Congress or the
United Nations, Defendant Bush encouraged and aided rebellion against Iraq,
failed to protect the warring parties, encouraged mass migration of whole
populations placing them in jeopardy from the elements, hunger and disease.
After much suffering and many deaths, Defendant Bush then without authority
used U.S. military forces to distribute aid at and near the Turkish border,
ignoring the often greater suffering among refugees in Iran. He then
arbitrarily set up bantu-like settlements for Kurds in Iraq and demanded for
Iraq to pay for U.S. costs. When Kurds chose to return to their homes in
Iraq, he moved U.S. troops further into northern Iraq against the will of
the government and without any legal authority to do so. As Defendant Baker
correctly put it when he visited the area, these atrocities constituted a
Nuremberg "crime against humanity."
Defendant Bush
Intentionally Deprived the Iraqi People of Essential Medicines, Potable
Water, Food and Other Necessities
38. A major component of the assault on Iraq was the
systematic deprivation of essential human needs and services, to terrorise
and break the will of the Iraqi People, to destroy their economic
capability, and to reduce their numbers and weaken their health. Towards
those ends, the Defendants:
- imposed and enforced embargoes preventing the
shipment of needed medicines, water purifiers, infant milk formula, food and
other supplies; - froze funds of Iraq and forced other nations to do so,
depriving Iraq of the ability to purchase needed medicines, food and other
supplies; - preventing international organisations, governments and relief
agencies from providing needed supplies and obtaining information concerning
such needs; - failed to assist or meet urgent needs of huge refugee
populations and interfered with efforts of others to do so, etc.
As a direct result of these cruel and inhuman acts,
thousands of people died, many more suffered illnesses and permanent injury.
For these actions, the Defendants are guilty of Nuremberg Crimes Against
Humanity and the Crime of Genocide as recognised by international law and
U.S. domestic law.
Defendant Bush, Having
Destroyed Iraq's Economic Base, Demands Reparations Which Will Permanently
Impoverish Iraq and Threaten Its People with Famine and Epidemic
39. Defendant Bush seeks to force Iraq to pay for
damages to Kuwait largely caused by the U.S. and even to pay U.S. costs for
its violation of Iraqi sovereignty in occupying northern Iraq to further
manipulate the Kurdish population there. Such reparations are neo-colonial
means of expropriating Iraq's oil, natural resources, and human labour.
Meanwhile, the United States government dominates and controls the
respective governments and oil resources of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain,
Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
40. The United States government has successfully
carried out its long-standing threat and war plan to seize and steal the oil
resources of the Persian Gulf for its own benefit. The United States now
directly controls the natural energy resources that fuel the economies of
Europe and Japan. Acting with their de facto allies in Israel and Great
Britain, the Defendants are today consolidating their control over the
entire Middle East in a blatant bid to establish worldwide hegemony.
Bush's "New World Order"
41. Today, the government in the United States of
America constitutes an international criminal conspiracy under the Nuremberg
Charter, Judgment and Principles, that is legally identical to the Nazi
government in World War II Germany. The Defendants' wanton extermination of
approximately 250,000 People in Iraq provides definite proof of the validity
of this Nuremberg Proposition for the entire world to see. Indeed, Defendant
Bush's so-called New World Order sounds and looks strikingly similar to the
New Order proclaimed by Adolph Hitler over fifty years ago. You do not build
a real New World Order with stealth bombers, Abrams tanks, and tomahawk
cruise missiles. For their own good and the good of all humanity, the
American People must condemn and repudiate Defendant Bush and his grotesque
vision of a New World Order that is constructed upon warfare, bloodshed,
violence and criminality.
Impeachment
42. All of these aforementioned international crimes
constitute "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" as defined by the Article 2,
Section 4 of the United States Constitution and therefore warrant the
impeachment, conviction, and removal from office of Defendants Bush, Quayle,
Baker, Cheney, Powell, and Scowcroft. In regard to this matter, Congressman
Henry Gonzalez of Texas has already introduced an Impeachment Resolution
into the House of Representatives, that is numbered House Resolution 86,
calling for the impeachment and removal from office of these Defendants
because they have committed these international crimes and also because they
have subverted and perverted constitutional government in America "to the
manifest injury of the people of the United States."
A Special Prosecutor
43. These Defendants must be impeached by the House,
tried and convicted by the Senate, and removed from office. Thereafter, we
believe that the Commission of Inquiry and the International War Crimes
Tribunal will have produced sufficient evidence to trigger the application
of the Ethics in Government Act, 28 <U.S.C>. 591 et seq., that would lead to
the appointment of an Independent Counsel (i.e., Special Prosecutor) to
investigate and prosecute these high-ranking officials for the wholesale
violation of federal criminal laws in their decision to launch and wage this
criminal war against the People and State of Iraq. We fully intend to see
Bush, Baker, Cheney, Quayle, Scowcroft, Webster, Powell, Schwarzkopf and the
rest of the U.S. High Command sitting in jail for the rest of their natural
lives.
44. Make no mistake about it: The very nature,
future and existence of the American Republic depends upon the success of
these endeavours. Today, the battle begins for the hearts and minds of the
American People between the Warmongers and the Peacemakers. We ask all of
you to join us in this legal campaign and moral crusade to restore to the
United States of America a democratic government with a commitment to the
Rule of Law and the Constitution both at home and abroad.
Francis A. Boyle,
Professor of Law, University of Illinois, is author of
Foundations of World Order, Duke University Press, and
The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence, Clarity Press. He can be
reached at: FBOYLE@LAW.UIUC.EDU
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