More than enough evidence to send Bush Administration to the Hague

The International Criminal Tribunal for Iraq (ICTI) this week found both Bush and Tony Blair guilty of a series of charges, and found they deserve life sentences for war crimes and genocide in Iraq.

The tribunal found Bush guilty on 13 counts, Blair guilty of eight crimes, Koizumi guilty on four counts and Arroyo guilty of aiding and abetting the other defendants of crimes of aggression and crimes against humanity, Abe said.

Bush is guilty of genocide for the use of "devastating" economic sanctions, as well as war crimes for attacks against civilians and the use of indiscriminate weapons, such as cluster bombs and depleted uranium weapons. The attack on Falluja also makes him guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.

War Crimes: Bush Indicted on 13 Counts

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DU “trashes the body.” When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Fulk was more specific: “I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people.”

In a group of 251 soldiers from a study group in Mississippi who had all had normal babies before the Gulf War, 67 percent of their post-war babies were born with severe birth defects. They were born with missing legs, arms, organs or eyes or had immune system and blood diseases.

Depleted uranium: A death sentence here and abroad

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We buried them, but we could not identify them because they were charred from the napalm bombs used by the Americans. People from Saqlawiya village, near Falluja, told al Jazeera television, based in Qatar, that they helped bury 73 bodies of women and children completely charred, all in the same grave.

Napalm Raid on Falluja

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Dr. ash-Shaykhli was assigned by the ministry to assess the health conditions in Fallujah following the November assault there.

He said that researches, prepared by his medical team, prove that U.S. occupation forces used internationally prohibited substances, including mustard gas, nerve gas, and other burning chemicals in their attacks in the war-torn city.

U.S. Used Mustard gas, Nerve gas, and Burning Chemicals on Iraqis in Fallujah

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"At least two kilometers [1.2 mi.] of soil were removed," he explained. "Exactly as they did at Baghdad Airport after the heavy battles there during the invasion and the Americans used their special weapons."

He explained that in certain areas where the military used "special munitions," 200 square meters [2,150 sq. ft.] of soil was being removed from each blast site.

In addition, many of his friends have told him that the military brought in water-tanker trucks to power blast the streets, although he hadn’t seen this himself.

"They went around to every house and have shot the water tanks," he continued. "As if they are trying to hide the evidence of chemical weapons in the water, but they only did this in some areas, such as Julan and in the souk [market] there as well."

What Is the US Trying to Hide in Fallujah?

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The war crimes the U.S. committed in Fallujah last April pale in comparison to what we did this past November and December. We did what Lt. Dillbeck suggested - we essentially wiped Fallujah off the map. Fallujah was not a small town; its population approximated the combined population of Boulder, Longmont and Ft. Collins. We destroyed the city and created somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 refugees. Many of these people had nowhere to go, no food, water or clothes as they fled the U.S. attack with few possessions. The thousands or tens of thousands of people who remained in Fallujah were victims of a free-fire zone for U.S. troops. These people also had no food, water, electricity, medical help (we first destroyed one of the hospitals and then some clinics and killed a number of doctors) and wouldn’t allow the Red Crescent in to help the starving and wounded. During this brutal attacked, U.S. forces committed war crime after war crime, but the only concern expressed was about a soldier captured on film killing an unarmed Iraqi prisoner. The greater war crimes were ignored.

War Crimes in Fallujah and Iraq and the War on Terrorism

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"It was really distressing picking up dead bodies from destroyed homes, especially children. It is the most depressing situation I have ever been in since the war started," Dr Rafa’ah al-Iyssaue, director of the main hospital in Fallujah city, some 60 km west of Baghdad, told IRIN.

According to al-Iyssaue, the hospital emergency team has recovered more than 700 bodies from rubble where houses and shops once stood, adding that more than 550 were women and children. He said a very small number of men were found in these places and most were elderly.

Doctors at the hospital claim that many bodies had been found in a mutilated condition, some without legs or arms. Two babies were found at their homes, who are believed to have died from malnutrition, according to a specialist at the hospital.

IRAQ: Death in Fallujah rising, doctors say

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Targeting hospitals or ambulances is in direct contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which strictly forbids attacks on emergency vehicles and the impeding of medical operations during war.

"they raided our supply room where our food and supplies are."

"they smashed one of our ambulances,”

“The Americans threatened to do here what they did in Fallujah if I didn’t cooperate with them,”

“They are shooting our ambulances if they try to go to Fallujah.”

“The Americans shot out the lights in the front of our hospital, they prevented doctors from reaching the emergency unit at the hospital, and we quickly began to run out of supplies and much-needed medication,”

“We were tied up and beaten despite being unarmed and having only our medical instruments,”

New horror stories of war crimes at Iraqi hospitals

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Standing in a field full of unexploded mortar rounds a farmer explained, “We don’t know why they bomb our house and our fields. We have never resisted the Americans. There are foreign fighters who have passed through here, and I think this is who they want. But why are they bombing us?”

Also last winter I also reported on home demolitions in Samarra by the military. The consistent pattern then was that anytime an attack occurred against occupation forces, nearby homes/buildings/fields were then raided or destroyed by the military, along with complimentary electricity cuts for the villages and/or cities.

Collective Punishment: 1st hand accounts of war crimes in Iraq

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Then, as now, for Iraqis, our invasion and occupation was a case of liberation from - from human rights (think: the atrocities committed in Abu Ghraib which are still occurring daily there and elsewhere); liberation from functioning infrastructure (think: the malfunctioning electric system, the many-mile long gas lines, the raw sewage in the streets); liberation from an entire city to live in (think: Fallujah, most of which has by now been flattened by aerial bombardment and other means).

Iraqis were then already bitter, confused, and existing amid a desolation that came from myriads of Bush administration broken promises. Quite literally every liberated Iraqi I’ve gotten to know from my earliest days in the country has either had a family member or a friend killed by U.S. soldiers or from the effects of the war/occupation.

Iraq: The Devastation

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Public buildings, mosques and residences were subjected to assault by air and ground forces. The city now lies in ruins, largely depopulated, but still occupied by U.S. forces. Convoys sent by the Iraqi Red Crescent to aid the remaining population have been turned back. Diseases brought on by bad water are spreading in Fallujah and the surrounding refugee camps.

The means of attack employed against Fallujah are illegal and cannot be justified by any conceivable ends. In particular, the targeting of medical facilities and denial of clean water are serious breaches of the Geneva Conventions. Continuation of these practices will soon confirm what many already suspect: that the United States of America believes it is above the law.

Investigate Alleged Violations of Law in Fallujah Attack

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A part from the invasion, which can not be accepted by any nation, the Iraqis continued to resist the existence of the USA troops due to the various abuses done by some of these troops. Such abuses took various forms, among them are:- the resolution of the Iraqi army, excessive use of power which led to the killings of innocent civilians, humiliation and robberies during the searches for weapons in the houses of Iraqis , torturing and raping of prisoners in Abu-Garaib prison, briberies and squandering of Iraqi money. Many of the frustrated Iraqis had to start fighting back USA troops , and violence escalated up.

war crimes in IRAQ

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The US-run administration in Baghdad failed to keep track of nearly US$9 billion of money it transferred to various Iraqi ministries, according to an official audit released Sunday.

Last June, the British charity Christian Aid said that at least $20 billion in oil revenues and other Iraqi funds intended to rebuild the country had disappeared from banks administered by the CPA.

Other watchdog groups have complained before about the opaque nature of the CPA’s handling of Iraqi money and the lack of transparency of US and Iraqi officials, especially in dealing with reconstruction contracts, some awarded without a public tendering process.

Where The Missing $9 Billion Went

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On February 13, The World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI), an international peoples‚ initiative, declared much of the Western media guilty of deception and incitement to violence in its reporting on Iraq. The tribunal, meeting in Rome, made its pronouncement after taking testimony from independent journalists, media professors, activists, and a member of the European Parliament.

The panel of WTI judges noted that the United States and British governments had deliberately impeded the work of journalists and knowingly spread lies and disinformation. But the panel also accused the Western corporate media of filtering and suppressing the truth. The tribunal described how journalists had violated article six of the Nuremberg Tribunal which states:

"Leaders, organisers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes (crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity) are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such a plan." (’’Media Held Guilty of Deception’’ - Inter Press Service, February 14, 2005)

ALERT: MEDIA COMPLICITY IN WAR CRIMES

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Mr. Jordan, speaking in a panel discussion titled "Will Democracy Survive the Media?" said "he knew of about 12 journalists who had not only been killed by American troops, but had been targeted as a matter of policy," said Rep. Barney Frank, a Democrat of Massachusetts who was on the panel with Mr. Jordan.

CNN executive admits twelve journalists targeted and killed by American troops in Iraq

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It’s a secured road that you can only enter through the Green Zone and is reserved exclusively for ambassadors and top military officials...She says it wasn’t a checkpoint at all. It was simply a tank that was parked on the side of the road that opened fire on them....the shots weren’t coming from the front or even from the side. They were coming from behind, i.e. they were driving away. So, the idea that this was an act of self-defense, I think becomes much more questionable

Giuliana Sgrena was shot in the Green Zone, by a tank as they drove away from it!

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Each passing day brings new evidence that the mistreatment of Muslim prisoners - far from being an isolated incident at Abu Ghraib - was widespread in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba...It resulted from decisions made by the Bush administration to bend, ignore or cast rules aside. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for instance, publicly questioned the relevance of the Geneva conventions, hid detainees from the International Committee of the Red Cross and put into play illegal interrogation methods...

Rumsfeld’s interrogation policies contributed to torture and abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the investigators lacked the mandate - or the independence - to draw the obvious conclusions regarding the political or legal responsibility of Rumsfeld or others who approved illegal tactics such as Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. soldier in Iraq.

Justice for Abu Ghraib? U.S. on Trial

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“Since Abu Ghraib, we have vigorously campaigned for an independent commission to investigate U.S. policies that have led to torture and cruel treatment of detainees. These calls have gone unanswered by the administration and Congress, and today many of the illegal polices remain in place,” said Michael Posner, Executive Director of Human Rights First. “We believed the United States could correct its policy without resort to the courts. In bringing this action today, we reluctantly conclude that we were wrong.”

The men represented in the lawsuit were incarcerated in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, where they were subjected to torture and other cruel and degrading treatment, including severe and repeated beatings, cutting with knives, sexual humiliation and assault, mock executions, death threats, and restraint in contorted and excruciating positions. None of the men were ever charged with a crime. All have been released."

ACLU and Human Rights First Sue Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Over U.S. Torture Policies

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The message, signed by some 5,200 Iraqi detainees, also revealed new abuses by US occupation forces against the Iraqi detainees in the US-administrated camp.

“The Americans are breaking the detainees’ legs, crushing their toes and putting them in cold places. They also force them to practice sex and urinate over their heads,” Al-Kubaisi said, citing the message.

Iraqi Prisoners claim US soldiers still committing abuse at Camp Bucca

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“The Iraqi Interim Government is not keeping its promises to honor and respect basic human rights. Sadly, the Iraqi people continue to suffer from a government that acts with impunity in its treatment of detainees.”

Methods of torture cited by detainees include routine beatings to the body using cables, hosepipes and other implements. Detainees report kicking, slapping and punching; prolonged suspension from the wrists with the hands tied behind the back; electric shocks to sensitive parts of the body, including the earlobes and genitals; and being kept blindfolded and/or handcuffed continuously for several days. In several cases, the detainees suffered what may be permanent physical disability."

Torture Continues at Hands of New Iraqi Government

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CCR filed new documents on January 31, 2005, with the German Federal Prosecutor looking into war crimes charges against high-ranking U.S. officials including Donald Rumsfeld: one includes new evidence that the Fay investigation into Abu Ghraib protected Administration officials - it is a comprehensive and shocking opinion by Scott Horton, an expert on international law and the Chair of the International Law Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

The second is a letter that details how Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee confirms his role as complicit in the torture and abuse of detainees in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq.

Gonzales Added to War Crimes Suit: Testimony Confirms Role in Torture

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The international dispatches about the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq - replete with graphic details about overcrowded hospitals, U.S. cluster bomb shrapnel buried in the flesh of children, babies deformed by U.S. depleted uranium, farms and markets destroyed by U.S. bombs - do not make pleasant reading. And they only confirm what most leaders outside the U.S. foresaw long ago: the uncontrollable effects, the inflammatory brutality of preemptive war. Unleash the dogs of war, and no master can call them back. The mounting evidence from Iraq also establishes what many Americans may not want to face: that the highest leaders of the land are violating almost every international agreement relating to the rules of war. Unless we address the war crimes of the Bush administration-and the prima facie evidence is overwhelming-we betray our conscience, our country, and our own faith in democracy.

Never to Forget- The War Crimes of George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld

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“Alberto Gonzales, as one of the architects of the Bush administration’s torture policy, can’t very well prosecute those who broke the law against torture,” Roth said. “An independent prosecutor is needed.”

Roth said that a special prosecutor would investigate violations of two U.S. laws - the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1994 which criminalizes torture committed anyplace in the world by U.S. forces, and the War Crimes Act of 1996, which criminalizes any serious violation of the Geneva conventions.

“That’s why the Bush administration kept saying that the Geneva conventions did not apply to the Afghan conflict,” Roth said. “They were under the misguided impression that by saying that they could avoid criminal prosecution in the United States.”

Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales should be prosecuted for war crimes