The Bush Crimes Commission, known formally as the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration, is an investigative body. It is not a judicial, government or UN appointed commission, but rather is run by a coalition of human rights and peace activist groups. The formation of the commission was initiated by Not In Our Name as a political instrument examining alleged war crimes and human rights violations perpetrated by the George W. Bush Administration.

Indictments

The Commission purported to deliver indictments to members of the Bush Administration at the White House on January 10, 2006. President Bush and top members of his staff, including US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, were purportedly indicted at the tribunal's first session. The indictments allege war crimes and crimes against humanity authorized by the Bush Administration in relation to:

Wars of aggression, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan

Torture and indefinite detention of prisoners and captives

Destruction of the global environment, distortion of science and obstruction of efforts to stem global warming;

Attacks on global public health and reproductive rights, potentially genocidal effects of enforcing abstinence-only, and global gag rule concerning abortion

Failure to to protect life during and after Hurricane Katrina, despite foreknowledge

Tribunal

Between January 20 and 22, 2006, the Bush Crime Commission held hearings at the Riverside Church and Columbia University Law School in New York, New York. The Bush White House was invited to defend itself at the tribunal. The tribunal was endorsed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild, After Downing Street.org and others. Among the witnesses at the tribunal:

Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, former commander of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq

Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan who exposed the use of information gathered through torture

Scott Ritter, former arms inspector

Ray McGovern, ex-Central Intelligence Agency analyst

Dahr Jamail, a journalist who has reported extensively from Iraq

Michael Ratner, lawyer for Guantanamo Bay prisoners

Jurors heard first-hand allegations of systematic torture in Iraq and Uzbekistan, and Guantanomo Bay, Cuba, where some prisoners are said to have been held for over five years without charges filed and young children are imprisoned. There was testimony regarding unreported rapes and suicides of female soldiers serving in Iraq. Also reported was reckless pollution of the Great Lakes and Arctic regions attributed to the Bush Administration's policies, which were said to favor industry and big business over the interests of citizens.

General Karpinski told of how responsibility for interrogations at Abu Ghraib was taken from her, then given to the CIA and private contractors. She said it was her conclusion that orders for torture originated in the office of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. In interviews afterward, Karpinski said there have been many unreported suicides among soldiers in Iraq, and that the fatality statistics reported by the pentagon do not include suicides, accidents or illness. She said women have been raped in the middle of the night by lurking male soldiers, and that several have died from dehydration after deciding not to drink water after noon, even though temperatures average 120 degrees in Iraq, in order to avoid use the latrines where male soldiers lurk.

Craig Murray, a former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan, testified of his experiences in a country he described as having "possibly the worst government in the world." He said sixty percent of the Uzbek population lives in slavery, and that torture is commonplace there, in a police state where people are literally boiled alive. The the US and UK governments routinely accept intelligence, he said, from Uzbek security forces who torture their prisoners, even to death.

Barbara Olshansky, a lawyer who represents Guantanomo Bay inmates, said nearly half the prisoners have been on a hunger strike for months. She also testified that many have been beaten and are now being force fed through their nostrils while strapped to gurneys. Se also said inmates face great difficulty in being seen by family members, as most of their families reside in the Middle East. Family members, she reports, have been granted at least one consolation, in that they are permitted to plan funerals for inmates.

Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network told of the routine pollution, from runoffs from various industrial sites, of the Great Lakes and of fisheries regularly used by Native Americans. He blamed industry-friendly policies of the Bush administration for endangering the health and lives of indigenous peoples. Other offenses he cited included the well-documented oil spills in arctic regions, destruction of the ozone layer, and contamination of lake waters with aluminum runoff on the operators of a General Motors manufacturing plant.

See also

Downing Street Memo

Executive Order 13233, restricts access to Presidential records

Movement to impeach George W. Bush

External links

BushCommission.org - 'Bush Crimes Commission', International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration (home page)

CommonDreams.org - 'Citizen's Tribunal Indicts Bush Administration for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity; Indictments to be Delivered to White House', Common Dreams (January 9, 2006)

WorldCantWait.net - 'Drive Out the Bush Regime', The World Can't Wait