Posted April 7, 2014
by Jerry Alatalo
“The history of the race, and each individual’s experience, are thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.”
– Samuel Clemens (“Mark Twain”) (1835-1910)
Vincent Bugliosi began writing “The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder” in 2007. Without reading that book, but relying on a moderate number of radio and television interviews of Mr. Bugliosi, one comes to an extraordinary place. The reason one arrives at an extraordinary place is that Mr. Bugliosi has such a strong case for his belief that George W. Bush needs to get prosecuted for murder for his actions surrounding the Iraq War.
Looking at what he presents from the perspective of one without legal training, it seems certain and obvious that, if any prosecutor from either a large city or small rural area were to take his suggestion to initiate Bush’s prosecution, the jury would find Bush guilty of mass murder in what people call an “open-and-shut”, “slam-dunk” case. Now, this is what is so hard to grapple with. Bugliosi published the book back in 2008, six years ago, and a former president of the United States who is clearly a war criminal stills walks the streets of America a free man.
It is important to make sure there is no misunderstanding about the reasons this issue has been revisited. For this American, when it comes to premeditated murder of innocent human beings, the murderer’s political persuasion has nothing to do with it. If Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Pope Francis, Bernie Sanders, or Elizabeth Warren had taken the actions that Bush did, this piece would be the same but for the name of the criminals. The essential message is that high crimes – the ultimate crimes possible on this Earth – were carried out and the criminals remain unpunished.
Shortly before October 7, 2002, when George W. Bush would tell millions of Americans that Saddam Hussein was an “imminent threat”, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sent the Bush administration its classified 2002 National Intelligence Estimate. On page 8 of that classified report, the CIA wrote that Iraq and Saddam Hussein were “not a threat to the United States”. Either George W. Bush was aware of that report’s wording or he wasn’t. Condoleeza Rice stated that she had read the classified report twice from cover to cover. Either Ms. Rice intentionally kept the “no threat” part from the awareness of Bush or she shared it with him. The first possibility, that she didn’t share this with her boss – the president of the United States – is nowhere near being credible, so both Bush and Rice knew. Bush then told millions of Americans that Hussein was an “imminent threat”. The declassified CIA report – the “White Paper” presented to members of Congress – did not contain the part of the report that asserted “no threat”.
On January 31, 2003, less than two months before Bush ordered the invasion and bombing of Iraq, he met with Britain’s Tony Blair and others at the White House. In that meeting both Bush and Blair expressed their doubts about whether any “weapons of mass destruction” would ever be found in Iraq. Bush talked about three possible ways to provoke an attack on Iraq. One was to paint a U2 aircraft in the colors of the United Nations, fly it over Iraq airspace, and, if Saddam Hussein attacked the aircraft, hold Hussein accountable for violation of United Nations resolutions – justifying a war.
Despite intense warnings from the intelligence community about the credibility of Niger information, George W. Bush told millions of Americans that Iraq had sought materials from Niger to produce nuclear weapons. His assertion was based on a faked document that was signed by a Niger official who wasn’t even in the Niger government at the time. An intelligence expert from any nation would have discovered the information was faked after fifteen minutes.
George W. Bush was seen on video at a “black tie” event cracking jokes about not being able to find any weapons of mass destruction in the Oval Office. A gag video was produced where Bush was seen looking under his desk and saying “no weapons of mass destruction here”, and into a closet spoofing “no weapons of mass destruction there”. The audience of tuxedoed men and gowned/jewelry-laden women – who Bush told was his “base” – got a good laugh from the comedy from Bush, this occurring while the war in Iraq was ongoing.
The Bush administration has never been held accountable for directly lying to the family of football icon Pat Tillman and the American people, after telling a false narrative that Tillman was killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan. At first, the Tillman family was told their son died as a warrior protecting his fellow soldiers, taking on the enemy in an exhibition of the highest valor and honor. The truth was Pat Tillman was the victim of “friendly fire” or fratricide, but the Bush administration used lies to turn the tragedy into a positive for their war campaign, which had suffered embarrassments bringing many Americans to question the war’s continuance. Later, Bush would appear on a football stadium in Arizona’s big-screen tribute to the late Pat Tillman, in a despicable display of vote-baiting before the 2004 presidential election. Pat Tillman’s mother told radio audiences that she was very upset her family wasn’t made aware of Bush’s plan to appear in the tribute.
The invisibility of any legal initiative to hold Iraq War criminals accountable deeply injures the perceptions of men and women who hold on to hope that the ideals of justice, rule-of-law, and equal treatment for both poor and wealthy, weak and powerful, still guide the American legal system. That deep injury has many and profound implications for not only Americans but all people in nations that deal with the United States. The major aspect of those implications is that they are negative, and have to do with morality, ethics, and trust. People around the world, as justice continues to escape the reality that occurred, will understandably feel that Americans are lawless and not able to become trusted.
The failure of the U.S. legal system to do the right thing about this major, major crime against humanity can only be seen as a lack of honor. Can America’s honor and reputation be restored? Yes. The one and only way to restore America’s honor and reputation – besides being the moral and ethical action – is simply doing the right thing. As Mr. Bugliosi suggests in the video, real prosecution of real criminals would serve as a real deterrent to any powerful or wealthy persons in the future who would think of committing similar heinous acts.
There is absolutely no difference between what George W. Bush and members of his administration criminally carried out in Iraq and what a single individual carries out when he walks over to his neighbor’s home, murders every person in that home, then steals the property in that home. The only difference is that George W. Bush and his fellow criminals carried out murder and theft on the most massive scale possible in this world.
Vincent Bugliosi presented the irrefutable and undeniable truth to the world when he wrote “The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder”. Now, what actions will commence that rise to that inescapable exposure of wrongdoing? That evidence as apparent as any evidence can possibly be? As plain as the nose on one’s face – there for all to see and fully understand?
What are the chances that one or more prosecutors in America will come to sense the enormity of what Mr. Bugliosi has claimed, and the moral and ethical necessity to choose the righteous course of action? Can there be any doubt whatsoever that Mr. Vincent Bugliosi has issued the greatest, most profound challenge to the American legal system that citizens in the United States have ever seen?
No human being is above the law.
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(Thank you to ProsecutionOfGWB at YouTube)
THE ONENESS of HUMANITY 