The Epic Crime That Dares Not Speak Its Name

[G2099]

By John Pilger

10/27/05 "ICH " -- -- A Royal Air Force officer is about to be tried before a military court for refusing to return to Iraq because the war is illegal. Malcolm Kendall-Smith is the first British officer to face criminal charges for challenging the legality of the invasion and occupation. He is not a conscientious objector; he has completed two tours in Iraq. When he came home the last time, he studied the reasons given for attacking Iraq and concluded he was breaking the law. His position is supported by international lawyers all over the world, not least by Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, who said in September last year: "The US-led invasion of Iraq was an illegal act that contravened the UN Charter."

At the Nuremberg trial of the Nazi leadership, counts one and two, "Conspiracy to wage aggressive war and waging aggressive war", refer to "the common plan or conspiracy". These are defined in the indictment as "the planning, preparation, initiation and waging of wars of aggression, which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements and assurances". A wealth of evidence is now available that George Bush, Blair and their advisers did just that. The leaked minutes from the infamous Downing Street meeting in July 2002 alone reveal that Blair and his war cabinet knew that it was illegal. The attack that followed, mounted against a defenceless country offering no threat to the US or Britain, has a precedent in Hitler's invasion of Sudetenland; the lies told to justify both are eerily similar.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10785.htm

[Amonester]

1. Whether they like it or not:

they'll have to face Justice on their crimes one of these days...

I hope they'll be brought to Justice before they'll get to Pinochet's age old, or even later...

Whether they like it or not.

[Gman]

2. 60 years after WWII

They're still hunting old Nazis. One day, Bushco will be brought to justice in front of the world.

[neebob]

3. That's a powerful point about the first two counts.

If I wanted to mess with my wingnutty mother, who was born in 1936 and tells a story about carrying a sign in a parade that said, "Save cans and tie a knot in Hitler's tail," I could really use that.