Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's Chief of Staff when he was Secretary of State, told ABC News yesterday that Dick Cheney's aggressive defense of his policies in his book and on his current tour is an effort driven by "fear that somebody will Pinochet him." Augusto Pinochet was the Chilean dictator who was arrested in 1998 in London on a warrant from Spain for multiple crimes committed during his brutal, bloody reign.
"I think he's just trying to, one, assert himself so he's not in some subsequent time period tried for war crimes," Wilkerson said. "He's developed an angst and almost a protective cover, and now he fears being tried as a war criminal so he uses such terminology as 'exploding heads all over Washington' because that's the way someone who's decided he's not going to be prosecuted acts: boldly, let's get out in front of everybody, let's act like we are not concerned and so forth when in fact they are covering up their own fear that somebody will Pinochet him."
Cheney should be worried. Millions of Americans are demanding prosecution and will be staging protests wherever Cheney shows up to sell books. Wilkerson believes that the prosecution of criminal acts by Bush-era officials is justified and important.
Pinochet’s arrest is a chilling precedent for a criminal like Cheney. It is a historical marker for our movement to demand justice and accountability.
Pinochet was arrested years after leaving office because of the determined and dogged effort of Chilean activists—and a network of international activists—who demanded accountability through prosecution. They never gave up, and neither will the IndictBushNow movement that was initiated by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
source: Indict Bush org......mailing
