Yesterday’s
post was on the struggle of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) to bring an
American evangelical minister, Scott Lively, to justice for the crime of going
to Uganda and creating a climate of sufficient hate that a law was very nearly
passed with the death penalty for some types of homosexual behavior. A federal
judge ruled last week that the case could proceed.
And today?
According
to Yes!, an
online magazine, an attorney, D. Inder
Comar, representing a single Iraqi mother has filed a class action suit
against George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, and Paul Wolfowitz; she alleges
that they committed a “crime of aggression” under international law. Why?
Because the war was not in self defense, nor was it approved by the United
Nations.
Sundus Shaker Saleh, the
single mother behind the suit,
was living peacefully in Iraq before the invasion, and the picture she paints,
if not idyllic, is certainly much better than now. People, she said, slept with
their doors unlocked, there were no militias or patrols, the infrastructure was
intact. After the invasion?
Well, we’ve
seen what happened. Saleh no longer felt safe in her home, so she fled to
Jordan. Nor was she alone in leaving the country, according to the United
Nations High Commissioner, two million other people did as well, and 2.7
million people were internally displaced. That’s over 15% of the population,
which was estimated
at 31 million in 2009.
The case is
based on several claims. First, six decades ago, we walked into the Nuremburg Trials and
made some bold assertions; here, from the lawsuit Saleh vs Bush filed in the
district of Northern California, is what was said
at that trial:
16. In his opening statement to the Tribunal, Chief Counsel for
the United States Robert H. Jackson stated “This Tribunal . . . represents the
practical effort of four of the most mighty of nations, with the support of 17
more, to utilize international law to meet the greatest menace of our times –
aggressive war.”
17. Chief Prosecutor Jackson argued, “The Charter of this Tribunal
evidences a faith that the law is not only to govern the conduct of little men,
but that even rulers are, as Lord Chief Justice Coke put it to King James, ‘under
God and the law.’” (Id.) (emphasis added).
18.
Chief Prosecutor Jackson argued, “Any resort to war – to any kind of a war – is
a resort to means that are inherently criminal. War inevitably is a course
of killings, assaults, deprivations of liberty, and destruction of property.”
(Emphasis added).
19.
He continued, “The very minimum legal consequence of the treaties making aggressive wars illegal
is to strip those who incite or wage them of every defense the law ever
gave, and to leave war-makers subject to judgment by the usually accepted
principles of the law of crimes.” (emphasis added).
20.
Chief Prosecutor Jackson recognized that the crime of aggression applied to the
United States. He argued, “We must never forget that the record on which we
judge these defendants today is the record on which history will judge us
tomorrow. To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to our own
lips as well.” (Id.)
In the
suit, Comar also alleged that the planning for the Iraq war was planned by what
would be Bush administration officials as far back as 1998, or five years
before the actual invasion.
Here’s
another copy and paste from the suit:
26. On January 26, 1998, Defendants RUMSFELD and WOLFOWITZ
signed a letter4 to then President William J. Clinton, requesting that the
United States implement a “strategy for removing Saddam’s regime from power,” which included a
“willingness to undertake military action as diplomacy is clearly failing.”
Removing Saddam from power had to “become the aim of American foreign policy.”
(Emphasis added).
27. From 1997 to 2000, PNAC produced several documents advocating
the military overthrow of Saddam Hussein.5
28.
On May 29, 1998, Defendants RUMSFELD and WOLFOWITZ signed a letter to then
Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott in
which they advocated that “U.S. policy should have as its explicit goal
removing Saddam Hussein’s regime from power and establishing a peaceful and
democratic Iraq in its place,” which included the use of “U.S. and allied
military power . . . to help remove Saddam from power.”
So,
the question becomes—can this work? Comar argues yes; my gut tells me no,
despite wishing deeply that it could. And there is some legal ground—the
Westfall Act of 1988—that protects government officials when they are acting
within their “scope of employment.”
That’s
the first argument that Paul
Stephan, a professor at the University of Virginia, brings forth. The
second? The crime didn’t take place on U.S. ground. And lastly, the courts are
reluctant to get into political issues.
Comar
travelled to Jordan, where Saleh had fled with her four children, to meet her;
he is now representing her pro bono. But he needs help to meet expenses, to
apply pressure on the court, and to raise awareness. Here’s
what he writes in the Peope to People blog:
Please join me
to make this trial a reality. You can help by supporting our fundraising
campaign at indiegogo, by spreading
the word about the lawsuits, and by reaching out to me if you want to get
involved.
Look, screw
the legal aspect of all of this. The damage done by George W. Bush and his
government has been incalculable. More, there was no good reason to believe
that there were weapons of mass destruction—Hans Blix, the UN inspector,
had told
both Rice and Tony Blair that in the weeks before. And the Bush administration
deliberately lied to the American people—and the congress—in the weeks before
the invasion.
In the
weeks leading up to the invasion, I kept reading, reading—trying to find
something that I had missed in the debate. The argument for the invasion of
Iraq appeared the crassest, most errant display of greed, stupidity, and
arrogance; surely there must be something I couldn’t see? Could any man be so
depraved? Could any country allow a leader to commit such atrocity? I had
to be wrong.
I was right.
