Desmond Tutu: Bush/Blair Should Face Trial

[tay]

The then-leaders of the U.S. and U.K. fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart. They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand — with the specter of Syria and Iran before us,” said Tutu, who last week withdrew from a conference in South Africa due to Blair’s presence at the event.

While the International Criminal Court can handle cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, it does not currently have the jurisdiction to prosecute crimes of aggression. Any potential prosecution over the Iraq war would likely come under the aggression category.



Desmond Tutu says Bush and Blair should face trial at International Criminal Court over Iraq - The Washington Post

 

[PoliticalNick]

I have been saying this since, well, 2003! Even the invasion of Afghanistan was illegal. There may have been evidence that AQ had some camps there in the regions far from govt control but really the reason for Bush pushing to go in was simply because the Afghan govt wouldn't bow down and lick his boots. Instead they gave him the finger.

 

[Goober]

I have been saying this since, well, 2003! Even the invasion of Afghanistan was illegal. There may have been evidence that AQ had some camps there in the regions far from govt control but really the reason for Bush pushing to go in was simply because the Afghan govt wouldn't bow down and lick his boots. Instead they gave him the finger.

The Taliban knew exactly where OBL was. They had him on a tight leash. Are you aware of why they had him on a leash.

 

[taxslave]

The Taliban knew exactly where OBL was. They had him on a tight leash. Are you aware of why they had him on a leash.

Because he was a loose cannon?

 

[Goober]

Because he was a loose cannon?

And they knew he had something on the go.

 

[PoliticalNick]

The Taliban knew exactly where OBL was. They had him on a tight leash. Are you aware of why they had him on a leash.

Because of a leather fetish?

I know just where the war criminal GW Bush is but I ain't gonna invade Texas and kill millions who have nothing to do with him. I'll leave that to the US, they are quite good at the whole 'collateral damage' thing. They are also excellent at the 'friendly fire' thing too.

 

[gopher]

The Downing Street Memo was all the evidence needed to put both crooks on trial. But Kofi Annan was too gutless to do so. Therefore, let it pass, watch it happen again some day, bring on Armageddon and all will be well ....

 

[Nuggler]

It would be pretty much the ultimate in karma and justice to see Bush and Blair hung in chains, their estates forfeited to "general funds" , and their families impoverished............(collateral damage?)

But, don't hold your hand over your ass, waiting.

 

[EagleSmack]

Still trying to get this dog to hunt?

 

[skookumchuck]

Don't mess with his Tutu.

 

[Nuggler]

Still trying to get this dog to hunt?

Not me. I'm just expressing my druthers............Call Tutu. - or Toto, if you happen to be in Kansas............Both of the dickheads (B&B) caused many of your countrymen to be slaughtered for...............OIL(freedom)OIL - money - greed - etc.. And, of course, the non existant weapons of mass destruction.

We had at the time an intelligent prime minister who told Bush to shove it.

If we had had our present dictator in power there would be flag draped coffins coming home from Iraq as well as Afghanistan...........another useless endeavour...........Of course, we're fighting for FREEDOM there, ain't we.

Bad jokes, Eagle. Both of them bad jokes.

8O

 

[earth_as_one]

An unprovoked war of aggression killing hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children is a war crime. Evidence before and after the invasion prove that all justifications these leaders used to sell this war was fabricated nonsense. Americans and Brits should hold their former leaders accountable for their crimes.

 

[PoliticalNick]

An unprovoked war of aggression killing hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children is a war crime. Evidence before and after the invasion prove that all justifications these leaders used to sell this war was fabricated nonsense. Americans and Brits should hold their former leaders accountable for their crimes.

C'mon, Eagle will tell you all about how the media has blown it all out of proportion and that Bush & Blair were right and both invasions completely justified in the name of national security and protection from terrorism (code for oil and power). He will tell you every dead human in these wars is completely worth it. He will tell you how all the dead Americans are heroes and all the dead civilians were really terrorists.

Funny thing is the US has bankrupted itself and killed 10's of thousands of it's own soldiers in revenge for 3000 deaths. Far more than 3000 are killed by drunk drivers every year. Hardly seems logical but who can fathom the mentality of a war mongering country like the US and it's leadership.

 

[damngrumpy]

This whole thing was such a mess. I can't believe the CIA took the information on
Iraq seriously. The actual memo floated at the time showing Iraq was purchasing
materials needed was under the signature of a man who had not been in that
position for over a decade as I recall. They are either really dumb or they thought
no one would notice.
Desmond Tutu, is engaging in rhetoric he knows it will never happen and whether it
should or not is immaterial. Just the mention of such an action, will bring both sides
out to play, which puts it back into the worlds international discussion forum.
Yes the Iraq war was by international standards illegal, an independent state was
aggressively attacked. Oh they mounted a coalition to make it look legitimate and who
were the players? States in the Middle East that hated Saddam and they wanted a
share of his power base in the region.
The Afghan conflict is a little different. This nation allowed the Taliban to use the
country as a base for terrorism and that left them open to a response. The problem
I have is with the leader or front man they chose to take over the current President
is a flim flam man at best, short of calling him an outright crook. The regime is more
corrupt than the crazies they replaced.
Its funny the German High Command, and the Japanese officials were put on trial
after WWII by an international court at times presided over by American justice officials
yet America refuses to recognize international courts. I think these two should face
some kind of condemnation but it won't happen

 

[earth_as_one]

The decision to wage war against Iraq was made independent of the intel. The Bush administration cherry picked intel to justify their decision.

Ex-CIA Official Faults Use of Data on Iraq

Paul R. Pillar, , who was the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, says warnings on Iraq were ignored. (By Dennis Cook -- Associated Press)

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 10, 2006[/I]

...The former CIA official who coordinated U.S. intelligence on the Middle East until last year has accused the Bush administration of "cherry-picking" intelligence on Iraq to justify a decision it had already reached to go to war, and of ignoring warnings that the country could easily fall into violence and chaos after an invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein...
...prewar intelligence asserted Hussein's "weapons capacities," but he said the "broad view" within the United States and overseas "was that Saddam was being kept 'in his box' " by U.N. sanctions, and that the best way to deal with him was through "an aggressive inspections program to supplement sanctions already in place."
"If the entire body of official intelligence analysis on Iraq had a policy implication," Pillar wrote, "it was to avoid war -- or, if war was going to be launched, to prepare for a messy aftermath."
Ex-CIA Official Faults Use of Data on Iraq


A Spy Speaks Out
February 11, 2009

When no weapons of mass destruction surfaced in Iraq, President Bush insisted that all those WMD claims before the war were the result of faulty intelligence. But a former top CIA official, Tyler Drumheller — a 26-year veteran of the agency — has decided to do something CIA officials at his level almost never do: Speak out.

He tells correspondent Ed Bradley the real failure was not in the intelligence community but in the White House. He says he saw how the Bush administration, time and again, welcomed intelligence that fit the president's determination to go to war and turned a blind eye to intelligence that did not.

"It just sticks in my craw every time I hear them say it's an intelligence failure. It's an intelligence failure. This was a policy failure," Drumheller tells Bradley.

Drumheller was the CIA's top man in Europe, the head of covert operations there, until he retired a year ago. He says he saw firsthand how the White House promoted intelligence it liked and ignored intelligence it didn't:

"The idea of going after Iraq was U.S. policy. It was going to happen one way or the other," says Drumheller.

Drumheller says he doesn't think it mattered very much to the administration what the intelligence community had to say. "I think it mattered it if verified. This basic belief that had taken hold in the U.S. government that now is the time, we had the means, all we needed was the will," he says.
A Spy Speaks Out - CBS News

 

[Walter]

It's wonderful that you American haters are able to say all of this because you wouldn't be able to in the countries that you love so much.

 

[Goober]

It's wonderful that you American haters are able to say all of this because you wouldn't be able to in the countries that you love so much.

The reasons for the Iraq War were crap- The whole world knows it. Do you?

And yes EAO and others look for any reason to hate the US.

 

[PoliticalNick]

It's wonderful that you American haters are able to say all of this because you wouldn't be able to in the countries that you love so much.

I love my home, Canada and of course my country of birth England and I can say what I want in both.

Thanks for the red Wally, I always take those from you as a sign I'm on the right track. 2 billion :sign10: in every ejaculation and you were the fastest swimmer? :roll:

 

[Goober]

I love my home, Canada and of course my country of birth England and I can say what I want in both.

Thanks for the red Wally, I always take those from you as a sign I'm on the right track. 2 billion :sign10: in every ejaculation and you were the fastest swimmer? :roll:

When all that info was coming out prior to the Iraq war- what was your position.

Also throw in Afghanistan as well.

 

[PoliticalNick]

When all that info was coming out prior to the Iraq war- what was your position.

Also throw in Afghanistan as well.

First let me be clear I had my suspicions of that administration from the inauguration. Bush-multiple oil industry endeavors (most failed), Cheney- Senior exec @ Haliburton, Rice - CFO @ Shell etc, etc. Most of the staff was from the oil biz so I was not surprised when their foreign policy was thinly veiled around securing oil supply and profits

I was against going into Afghanistan. I thought that 9/11 might be a catalyst, a wake-up call of sorts that US foreign policy in the region was flawed and not working but the MSM instead sold it as an 'unprovoked' attack and made it inflamatory to rile the population into supporting an illegal invasion of a foreign sovereign nation.I also knew at the time the Taliban was opposed to the pipeline through Afghanistan from the Caspian/Black sea oil fields. Removing them and replacing them with a puppet would allow the pipeline to go through and increase US oil supplies.

I doubted the info on Iraq at the time as inspectors were saying Saddam had nothing. They were on the ground in Iraq but there opinion was not considered in favor of a few blurry satellite photos. I had by that time realized Bush was a war monger and needed little excuse to go in. Iraq was far too oil-rich to be left alone. One dead give-away of the truth was that every contract for rebuilding the oil fields and ensuring flow to the US was given to Haliburton, Shell or another company with close ties to the white house.

I had a feeling when Bush stole the presidency that there was a plan to enlarge US control over the ME region and secure the oil supply for themselves. Add in that the US intelligence warned Bush in August/01 of an attack on buildings with civilian aircraft and that warning was ignored.