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[delacosta]

Legal Group Highlights Bush's Alleged War Crimes
By charlie smith

Publish Date: 25-Nov-2004

An international legal group called Lawyers Against the War has asked federal Immigration Minister Judy Sgro to declare U.S. President George Bush an inadmissable person to Canada under federal immigration legislation. Gail Davidson, a Vancouver lawyer and cofounder of LAW, told the Straight that Bush has been accused of war crimes, which is grounds for refusing someone entry into Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. She added that her group is examining the possibility of laying criminal charges privately against Bush while he is in Canada on November 30.

"If the Canadian government invited him here for a state visit, they couldn't then prosecute him because that would be inveigling him here under false pretences," Davidson said.

On November 19, Davidson and Michael Mandel, an Osgoode Hall law professor and member of LAW, wrote to Prime Minister Paul Martin alleging that Bush committed the Nuremberg Tribunal's "supreme international crime" by waging an aggressive war against Iraq in defiance of international law and the United Nations Charter. They accused Bush of "systematic and massive violations of the Geneva Conventions Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War and Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, as well as the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment".

In their letter, Davidson and Mandel cited a recent study in The Lancet, a prestigious medical journal, which estimated that 100,000 Iraqis have died since the U.S.�led invasion began last year. The LAW members claimed that the president's link to war crimes comes not only from his "command responsibility" and willful blindness but also from his direct participation in formulating policies.

"This includes his personal involvement not only in the devising and waging of an aggressive, illegal war, but also of the unlawful refusal to grant prisoner of war status to prisoners of war, contrary to specific provisions of the Geneva Conventions, an act repudiated in the US courts," they wrote.

Davidson explained to the Straight that a U.S. District Court judge has ruled that if there is a dispute over the status of detainees, they must be considered prisoners of war unless a "competent court" decides otherwise. She said that this case concerned the U.S. government's detention of an "enemy combatant" at Guant�namo Bay.

Canada has ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and a "companion" domestic law called the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. In their November 19 letter, Davidson and Mandel warned Martin that by inviting Bush to Canada, the prime minister may be "abetting" the Bush administration's war crimes.

"As such, you and your colleagues could be personally liable to prosecution under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act by virtue of section 21 of the Canadian Criminal Code, for crimes so serious that they are punishable in Canada by up to life imprisonment," the two LAW members wrote.

Davidson later told the Straight that Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, who was appointed by Martin, must provide written consent before anyone can be charged under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.

StopWar.ca has organized protests against Bush's November 30 visit at noon at Canada Place, at 12:30 p.m. at the U.S. consulate at Pender and Thurlow streets, and at 5 p.m. at the Vancouver Art Gallery plaza.

[GeminiTiger]

[ls650]

My prediction: nothing will come of this (unfortunately).

[delacosta]

Yeah I know nothing will come of this. Not with Paul Martin at the helm (cough cough).

Won't anyone in this world do the right thing?

[spidey]

There is no RIGHT or WRONG....there just IS.

S

[English Farce]

"If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged." (Avram Noam Chomsky)

http://chomsky.info/talks/1990----.htm

[mehrlin26]

Nothing will come of this. A few years back, there was some discussion about doing the same to Bush the Elder on account of things done during the Persian Gulf War. As it turns out, nothing came of it. The Canadian Gov't is under too much preasure to mend bridges to let anything so embarassing take place.

[bdawg]

"If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged." (Avram Noam Chomsky)

And so would Noam Chomsky. Despite his notable achievements (no, I'm not being sarcastic...I think he is a very accomplished and respected person) he did actively and PUBLICALLY support the Pol Pot Regime in Cambodia....

[delacosta]

Please bdwg show me where Chomsky has ever publically supported the Ppl Pot regime. And saying that you heard Rush Limbaugh say so doesn't count...


And this just in:

President George Bush Charged in Provincial Court
By charlie smith

Publish Date: 2-Dec-2004

A Vancouver lawyer has filed torture-related criminal charges against U.S. President George W. Bush in Vancouver Provincial Court. Gail Davidson, cochair of an international legal group called Lawyers Against the War, told the Straight that she charged Bush on November 30 with seven counts of counselling, aiding, and abetting the commission of torture in connection with the actions of U.S. armed forces at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and at a U.S. naval base at Guant�namo Bay. If the case goes to trial and Bush is found guilty, he would be liable to imprisonment for up to 14 years.

"I went about it in a very organized and solemn way," Davidson said. "It wasn't every day that someone was going to walk in and try to lay a charge against a visiting president."

A justice of the peace accepted the charges, which means there will be a hearing to decide whether or not Bush will be required to appear. Davidson said that within eight days of her laying the charges, the Attorney General of Canada, Irwin Cotler, must give his consent for the case to continue.

Davidson said she worked closely with Osgoode Hall law professor Michael Mandel, cochair of LAW, in preparing the case against Bush. She added that after the news was reported in the U.S., she received some hostile e-mail, as well as "rude" treatment from some American media outlets.

The same day that Davidson's charges were approved, the New York Times reported that it had obtained a memo from the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross accusing the U.S. military of using tactics "tantamount to torture" on prisoners at Guant�namo Bay. The next morning, mainstream Canadian newspapers such as the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and the two local CanWest-owned dailies did not report that the U.S. president had been charged in Vancouver.

[moonraven]

It's about F-ing time!

[bdawg]

Jesus Christ...why the F@CK does everyone think I'm a right wing facist? Just because I question Noam Chomsky?

Question EVERYBOBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Be skeptical of EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and that means everyone...god dammit people.

I can't stand it when people automatically assume one's political position based on one's posts. Politics is a complex issue, and peoples opinions are complex and vary temporally.

Anyways, I'm sure that's not what you meant, but I feel like I'm being trashed from every angle here and subjected to personal attacks that I don't feel are justified.

Maybe I'm a little on edge.

Here is the article if you are interested. I'm probably wrong, you are probably right. But it doesn't really matter, we're all insignificant, as well as everything we do, and everything that happens on this planet. The universe will continue with or without us. Everything we do is inconsequential.

Honestly, I just realized today how pointless it is to argue politics...how useless it is. It doesn't help anyone. It doesn't do anything good for anything.

http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/chombookrev.htm

[moonraven]

Hmmm. Being torn apart, eh? Appears that you asked for it by your statement that Chomsky would be found guilty under the terms of the Nuremberg Laws. Now butter wouldn't melt in your mouth, apparently. Take your lumps like a man.

[bdawg]

[moonraven]

Naw, Mouse--I never read; only 1 book a day in Spanish, plus several newspapers and magazines, maybe 20 Internet sites--and at 3000 words per minute!

Mouse, boy are you barking up the wrong tree....

[bdawg]