Richard Clarke, the nation’s top counterterrorism official under former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, accused Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney of committing war crimes in their 2003 invasion of Iraq during an interview Tuesday with Democracy Now! that will air next week.
"I think things that they authorized probably fall within the area of war crimes. Whether that would be productive or not, I think, is a discussion we could all have,” said Clarke, who resigned in 2003 after the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq. “But we have established procedures now with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where people who take actions as serving presidents or prime ministers of countries have been indicted and have been tried.”
In the first-ever judgment of its kind, Bush and seven other top members of his administration were convicted in absentia of war crimes in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2012 for the unlawful invasion of Iraq.
“So the precedent is there to do that sort of thing. And I think we need to ask ourselves whether or not it would be useful to do that in the case of members of the Bush administration,” Clarke continued. “It’s clear that things that the Bush administration did -- in my mind, at least, it’s clear that some of the things they did were war crimes."
If I were ever to be asked what great injustice I would want to see rectified it would be that the entire Bush administration be prosecuted for war crimes and imprisoned for life.
Or executed. I am not usually a proponent of the death penalty, but in this case I would make an exception.
How George Bush can walk among the people of this country without every other American attempting to assassinate him for sending thousands of American soldiers to their death for a lie, is something that I just don't understand.
This is a guy I respect, and I don’t give a rat’s ass if he’s gay. I want to see him involved in government much more. President Obama might be a little uncomfortable with him, but I don’t see that in Hillary Clinton.
ReplyDeleteThe whole fetid tangle of 911/Iraq/Afghanistan needs to be sorted out; start pulling a string.
We don't try to kill him because we are better than that. We liberals are thinkers. Yes, I want him tried and held to account, but I don't want to see him assassinated and then become a martyr for the right. Just what we need...a Bush Memorial in DC..and they would do that. Cons still buy his 'kept me safe' crap. Cheney is out there weekly calling Obama 'weak.' And they buy that as well. So the people with the big guns aren't even angry with Bush...Fox and Rush have done a great con job on them, so the guy on the street actually thinks Obama started the wars he's now ending.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it can be surmised that Richard Clarke is voicing the same kind of circuitous hint about George Bush and Dick Cheney that Bill O'Reilly did about Dr. George Tiller -- but you can bet there won't be anything OFFICIAL done about war crimes or these war criminals. No indictments, no grand juries, nothing.
DeleteAs I mentioned below, there might have been a statute of limitations on that, I don't know for sure, but it's something I've seen mentioned (ya never know about stuff you read on the internet).
Wow! Just wow! At this interview and at your commentary on it Gryphen...and I agree with both. Next to seeing Sarah Palin held accountable (no, punished) for her untruths and her constant statements against our President, seeing Bush, Cheney, and Condoleeza Rice punished for what led to 911 and the deaths of our soldiers and others in Iraq would please me so much.
ReplyDeletePeople around the world would be cheering, they have NEVER thought highly of W. They KNEW he was a low I.Q. frat boy. If the gop yties to run Jeb, well, all bets are off as to how this will unfold. He should listen to his Momma, who told him there have been enough Bush's in the WH.
DeleteTotally agree. While I am generally opposed to capital punishment, for me there are exceptions and execution of war criminals is one of them.
ReplyDeleteAll the GOP want to talk about is Benghazi while ignoring the real crime of George W & Cheney.
ReplyDeleteDubya is white. That's the only reason I can think of.
ReplyDeleteTypical weak-on-crime, libtrad twaddle, Gryphen, if that's even your real name, which The Drudge Report declares emphatically it is not.
ReplyDeleteBush, Cheney, Rummy, et al, deserve to be executed AND imprisoned for life.
Back in the real world one must ask, why did it take Clarke >10 years to come to the same inescapable conclusion that most objective observers came to years ago?
ps, Gryphen, seriously, we need to take assassination completely off the table. "Second amendment remedies" are best left to Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan and their ilk. Obama was wrong to shut off any possibility of investigations into Bush regime misconduct when he first took office, but whatever justice is ultimately meted out to those war criminals - if it ever is - has to be through a recognized American and/or international institution.
ReplyDeleteYes, we need to remember that Obama probably had to do that to take (his) assassination completely off the table.
DeleteCynically, I fear nothing will happen to them, just like no gun control bills will ever pass. The wheels of justice don't grind -- if exceedingly slowly -- they have stopped, are rusted and in pieces.
ReplyDeleteDubya even USED wounded vets for photo ops, riding bikes, running with them. All with a shit-eating grin on his ugly face. All the profits these slimy bastards made should be seized and given to the VA. The W/Cheney administration will forever be a stain (in blood) on the USA. Then, 5 deferrment Dickless Cheney has the nerve to call the President "weak".
ReplyDeleteRendition to a black site for spa treatments with daily stress positioning sleep deprivation and waterboarding would be fitting for darth cheney and his minions.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, ol' Johnny 'Never Met a War that Didn't Give Me Big Ol' Hardon' McCain is pissin' and moanin' up a storm...
ReplyDeleteRepublicans Lose Their Minds Over the Fact That the War in Afghanistan is Ending
...The reaction from three Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee to the President’s announcement that America’s longest war was coming to an end was despicable and revealed that, in their minds, there is never a time to end war. Senators John McCain, Kelly Ayotte, and Lindsey Graham said in a statement that the President’s decision was “irresponsible and a triumph of politics over strategy,” and a “a short-sighted decision that will make it harder to end the war in Afghanistan responsibly.” Stunningly, the three Republican warmongers repeated the same rhetoric George W. Bush used to perpetuate the Iraq and Afghanistan wars saying ending the war “will embolden our enemies and discourage our partners, and fuel the growing perception worldwide that America is unreliable, distracted, and unwilling to lead.”
The Republicans claimed that keeping combat forces in Afghanistan, presumably forever, would “preserve momentum on the battlefield and create conditions for a negotiated end to the conflict,” and that “any decision to end the war should be determined by conditions on the ground. The question is how the war ends.” The senators ended their end-of-war tantrum claiming that “wars do not end just because politicians say so, the president appears to have learned nothing from his disastrous decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq. The war in Iraq has ended in tragedy.”
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/05/29/republicans-lose-minds-fact-war-afghanistan.html
Well, don't expect the Obama administration to ever try to hold those war criminals to account. They're too busy going after whistleblowers. Plus, they don't dare set a precedent.
ReplyDeleteWhistleblowers?
DeleteOh! You mean like Snowden?
And THIS is the poor excuse of a human being that Sarah is stomping for...
ReplyDeleteUCSB Shooting An 'Unfortunate Accident'
Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst (R), a candidate for U.S. Senate, said Thursday that the recent mass shooting near the University of California, Santa Barbara was an "unfortunate accident."
During a televised primary debate, a moderator asked Ernst about the shooting because of an ad she ran that shows her firing in a shooting range and promising to "unload" on Obamacare.
"Mrs. Ernst, a viewer wrote us saying in light of the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the shootings at the Aurora, Colo., theater, and most recently at the UC Santa Barbara campus, 'we have a Joni Ernst in the television ad that is running continuously on all local television stations that contains violent imagery pointing a gun directly at the viewer and vowing to quote ‘shoot them down’ and hateful language directed toward their opponents. Is this really what politics has become in this country?'" the moderator said. "Mrs. Ernst, what do you say to this viewer?"
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/joni-ernst-ucsb-shooting-accident
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/joni-ernst-ucsb-shooting-accident
Exclusive: Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi chapter
ReplyDeleteHillary Clinton offers a detailed account of the deadly attack on the American embassy in Benghazi — and a pointed rebuttal to Republican critics who’ve laced into her over the incident — in a much-anticipated chapter of her forthcoming book, “Hard Choices,” obtained by POLITICO.
“Those who exploit this tragedy over and over as a political tool minimize the sacrifice of those who served our country,” Clinton writes in the gripping chapter, “Benghazi: Under Attack.”
Casting doubt on the motivations of congressional Republicans who have continued to investigate the attacks, including with an upcoming House select committee, Clinton continues: “I will not be a part of a political slugfest on the backs of dead Americans. It’s just plain wrong, and it’s unworthy of our great country. Those who insist on politicizing the tragedy will have to do so without me.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/hillary-clintons-benghazi-chapter-107240.html#ixzz33D0sD100
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/hillary-clintons-benghazi-chapter-107240_Page2.html
Assassination, Gryph?
ReplyDeleteAssassination?!?
Dude, that's over the line.
Yes - Bush and his cronies are war criminals and should be tried as such.
But ...assassination?
You're condoning lynch-mob justice?
Really?
I don't think you thought through your statement, bud.
I think you just had a Sarah Palin moment.
No, I think your criticism is valid.
DeleteI don't typically suggest assassination for ANYBODY. And I am certainly not condoning it here.
However I think that my comments come from place of visceral anger that I retain for the Bush administration, and George Bush and Dick Cheney in particular.
That is my most emotional response,
Feel free to call me out over it, or suggest that I am being irrational. Because you are not wrong.
I will, however, leave the comments as they stand simply to illustrate how frustrating it is to me that these people have not been punished for their crimes.
There are many of us in this country and world that have the same 'visceral anger' as you, Gryphen.
DeleteMy feelings are directed toward: Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, C. Rice, Sarah Palin and John McCain!
"...whether that would be productive or not"...
ReplyDeleteThat, right there. Justice is pushed aside because of political / economic / whatever expediencies. IMHO it doesn't matter what kind of damage actually arresting and bringing to trial an ex- Pres and Vice -Pres - because in the long run it would re-establish this Country's moral and ethical standing that it so blithely threw away since the Vietnam war and the shenanigans of Nixon and Reagan.
I dream of a day when justice will be served to these jackals. It has been a long time coming. Every time I see the Dark Lord Cheney spouting his treasonous evil, I envision a time where he would be waterboarded to death while all the Iraq widows are surrounding him calling out the names of their deceased. It is not a pretty thought, but I am not ashamed of it. Bush, I would like to see stoned to death by shoes. I am not usually for capital punishment but in these two cases, there can not be any other way. They, and they alone with their cronies have unleashed great terrors and have gotten away with it. The anger I feel for them has never diminished,just sad as hell that they still walk free.
ReplyDeleteSo, war crimes, OK, sounds good. But they were preceded by domestic crimes. The Bush-Cheney team probably had to steal the 2000 election because 911 was already planned. How would they carry out THAT crime if Gore was at the helm?
ReplyDeleteExcellent point. Agree completely that it was pre-planned, and carried out by black ops forces from various nations. And Iraq and endless "war on terror" was the result.
DeleteListen to my old song demo, War Crimes W a parody of Roy Orbison's "Crying.
ReplyDeletehttp://209.237.163.44/music/warcrimesw.mp3
I think it describes the situation perfectly!
I remember reading somewhere, about a year ago, that there was a 5 year window for prosecuting anyone in the Bush administration for war crimes, from the minute President Obama was sworn in as President 5 years going forward.
ReplyDeleteThat five year window closed last January 20, 2014. Is this true? If it is, notice how Richard Clarke waited until several months after that date to level his accusations.
Not a single soul in a responsible government position or with a resume of past government service has said a word about war crimes -- just a helluva lot of ordinary people, bloggers, and the like.
Nothing is going to come of this.
My first would be Wall St/Bankers for the melt-down.
ReplyDeleteMy second would be Bush/Cheney.
I think the U.S. meltdown has impacted more people across the entire world and resulted in deaths that didn't need to happen. People are still dying because of it; no money for medications or healthcare, lost jobs, lost homes, working until they die because they can't retire, etc.
But I must say I really want Bush to go visit some foreign country and be arrested, tried and convicted, I don't think Cheney or Rove would be stupid enough to leave the country, but Bush would. He's always considered himself to be above everyone else and untouchable. Let him get the rudest reality check imaginable. Bet he's smirk during the entire trial.
How about we all pitch in a few bucks and get them all first class tickets to an art sale and book readings from the authors themselves. The people of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia really value education/entertainment and people who have lieberries, battleships and oil tankers named after them. I hear the weather is FABULOUS this time of year.
ReplyDeleteAll kidding aside, I respect Richard Clarke and I'm glad he came out with what everyone already knew to be the truth. Iraq was a war of revenge because that man (Saddam Hussein) had it in for Shrub's daddy. Where was that yellow cake? Those two mobile bomb making labs? I don't fault the people of Iraq because their leader was a loony tune, but how many other countries have leaders who are loony tunes? How many innocent Iraq men, women, and children died?
I understand your anger because I feel the same anger to the core of my being. I'm usually not pro death penalty and I don't believe in a hell, but there are people who push the limits and test my convictions, and Bush, Cheyney, Rumsfeld and Connie Rice happen to be four of them.
I think the asshole Dick Cheney is the main culprit in the lies that got us into war! I want to barf every time I see Cheney on TV! He is nasty inside and out and has a horribly evil smile! Too bad American taxpayers paid for his various heart surgeries...he should have been left to die!!
ReplyDeleteI think they (Bush, Cheney,Rumsfelt and C. Rice) should be put on trial in the U.S. and put to death. They killed American men and women for absolutely no fucking reason except their love of war!
McCain is in that same category. Perhaps if Bush, Cheney Rumsfeld and C. Rice were executed, McCain wouldn't be so eager to push America into another senseless war!
Thank God we have President Obama and VP Biden leading our country - they know the art of negotiations!!!! Not war and killing people!