War Crimes
Today is the anniversary of the Nuremberg Trial Executions where ten Nazi political and military leaders, including propagandists and ideologues, were hung. Goering escaped via suicide. Bormann was sentenced to death in absentia.
It’s interesting to consider the charges and findings in light of what’s happening in the world today. The condemned were found guilty of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression; war crimes; and crimes against humanity.
One, Julius Streicher, was executed solely for the expression of ideas.
I believe it’s clear that the United States, as well as some of its allies and corporate contractors, have gone way beyond the expression of ideas. The politico-industrial machine at the controls has certainly committed crimes against peace. It’s initiated and waged wars of aggression with lies. It also seems clear that the highest levels of leadership have created and directed an organized effort to commit war crimes and have “looked away” as crimes against humanity are committed. What else do you call the atrocities at Abu Ghraib? What other term more accurately describes private armies intentionally killing unarmed non-combatants than “war crimes?” Do we simply call it murder?
Seems clear to me that the actions of the United States Government are outlawed by the Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter and treaties against torture and other human rights abuses.
How can we, and the rest of the world, accept the pathetic utterance that the intentional killing of civilians is simply an “unfortunate event” or an “incident?” Or, how about nothing whatsoever? A October 10 article in the New York Times states that “the United States Embassy in Baghdad has said almost nothing about the Nisour Square episode,” where Blackwater thugs murdered at least eight Iraqis were killed, including a woman and an infant.
The New York Times also reports that the guards who committed the most recently documented crime “had been hired to protect financial and policy experts.” In other words, a private army of thugs protecting a hoard of corporate criminals. However, in this case, the firm wasn’t Blackwater, the well-known band of thugs involved in the the Nisour Square murders. This group is managed from Australia and headquartered in the new capital of global non-sustainability, Dubai.
According to the Nuremberg Principles, any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefore and liable to punishment. The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible government official does not relieve him or her from responsibility under international law.
A crime against peace is defined as “planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances.” A war crime is defined as “violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation of slave labor or for any other purpose of the civilian population of or in occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the Seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.” Crimes against humanity are defined as “murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhumane acts done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime.”
It’s worth noting that the “U.S. approved” Iraqi government has said its own investigation concluded that the shootings were an act of “deliberate murder” and called on the Blackwater guards to be prosecuted. An Iraqi traffic policeman positioned near the area where the two women were killed stated that “They are killing the people just like what happened in Nisour Square.” “They are butchering the Iraqis.”
But how clever is it for the U.S. Government to hire private contractors to do its dirty work? Not very, because although you can attempt to pass the blame on the actions of individuals acting without direction or authority, the United States government is ultimately responsible. In business, and this is a business venture, the master contractor, is always ultimately responsible for the actions of its hired contractors. And, of course, it’s not just private contractors doing all the killing and torture. It’s the military, as well.
So, the whole premise that the war was based upon was a lie, and therefore a crime, and the actions carried out by soldiers, contractors and prison guards are war crimes and crimes against humanity. There’s enough there to keep an international group of prosecutors busy for months. Even a rookie public prosecutor could get a conviction.
Paul Craig Roberts, Hoover Institution senior fellow and assistant secretary of the treasury under Ronald Reagan, charged Bush with “lies and an illegal war of aggression, with outing CIA agents, with war crimes against Iraqi civilians, with the horrors of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo torture centers.” Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and former president of the American Society of International Law, declares: “These policies make a mockery of our claim to stand for the rule of law. [Americans] should be marching on Washington to reject inhumane techniques carried out in our name.” (Counterpunch, Dec. 6, 2005)
So, who has balls big enough to stand up against the junta and indict the suspects? Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rove, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz? What about Willian Kristol and Robert Kagan and the PNAC roster?
Could be a big trial.
Well I can guarantee you it won’t be any of the Demo-pussies. American’s dont care about this stuff. I mean it doesn’t even relate to liberty and our role in the world(sarc). 20% of the registered voters turned out for Wilmington’s mayoral and city council elections. If we don’t value our own liberty and freedom enough to vote, why should we care about anyone else’s?