Steering
Committee To
Seek
Prosecution
of Bush For
War Crimes
By
Sherwood
Ross
15/10/08
"Yubanet"
-- - Oct.
14, 2008 - Massachusetts
law school
Dean
Lawrence
Velvel will
chair a
Steering
Committee to
pursue the
prosecution
for war
crimes of
President
Bush and
culpable
high-ranking
aides after
they leave
office Jan.
20th.
The Steering
Committee
was
organized
following a
conference
of leading
legal
authorities
and scholars
from the
U.S. and
abroad
convened by
Velvel on
Sept. 13-14
in Andover,
Mass.,
titled "The
Justice
Robert
Jackson
Conference
On Planning
For The
Prosecution
of High
Level
American War
Criminals."
"If Bush,
Vice
President
Dick Cheney,
and others
are not
prosecuted,"
Velvel said,
"the future
could be
threatened
by
additional
examples of
Executive
lawlessness
by leaders
who need
fear no
personal
consequences
for their
actions,
including
more illegal
wars such as
Iraq."
Besides
Velvel,
members of
the Steering
Committee
include:
Ben Davis, a
law
Professor at
the
University
of Toledo
College of
Law, where
he teaches
Public
International
Law and
International
Business
Transactions.
He is the
author of
numerous
articles on
international
and related
domestic
law.
Marjorie
Cohn, a law
Professor at
Thomas
Jefferson
School of
Law in San
Diego,
Calif., and
President of
the National
Lawyers
Guild.
Chris Pyle,
a Professor
at Mount
Holyoke
College,
where he
teaches
Constitutional
law, Civil
Liberties,
Rights of
Privacy,
American
Politics and
American
Political
Thought, and
is the
author of
many books
and
articles.
Elaine
Scarry, the
Walter M.
Cabot
Professor of
Aesthetics
and the
General
Theory of
Value at
Harvard
University,
and winner
of the
Truman
Capote Award
for Literary
Criticism.
Peter Weiss,
vice
president of
the Center
For
Constitutional
Rights, of
New York
City, which
was recently
involved
with war
crimes
complaints
filed in
Germany and
Japan
against
former
Defense
Secretary
Donald
Rumsfeld and
others.
David
Swanson,
author,
activist and
founder of
AfterDowningStreet.org/CensureBush.org
coalition,
of
Charlottesville,
Va.
Kristina
Borjesson,
an
award-winning
print and
broadcast
journalist
for more
than twenty
years and
editor of
two recent
books on the
media.
Colleen
Costello,
Staff
Attorney of
Human
Rights, USA,
of
Washington,
D.C., and
coordinator
of its
efforts
involving
torture by
the American
government.
Valeria
Gheorghiu,
attorney for
Workers'
Rights Law
Center.
Andy
Worthington
of Redress,
a British
historian
and
journalist
and author
of books
dealing with
human rights
violations.
Initial
actions
considered
by the
Steering
Committee,
Velvel said,
are as
follows:
# Seeking
prosecutions
of high
level
officials,
including
George Bush,
for the
crimes they
committed.
# Seeking
disbarment
of lawyers
who were
complicitous
in
facilitating
torture.
# Seeking
termination
from faculty
positions of
high
officials
who were
complicitous
in torture.
# Issuing a
recent
statement
saying any
attempt by
Bush to
pardon
himself and
aides for
war crimes
prior to
leaving
office will
result in
efforts to
obtain
impeachment
even after
they leave
office.
# Convening
a major
conference
on the state
secret and
executive
privilege
doctrines,
which have
been pushed
to record
levels
during the
Bush
administration.
#
Designation
of an
Information
Repository
Coordinator
to gather in
one place
all
available
information
involving
the Bush
Administration's
war crimes.
# Possible
impeachment
of 9th
Circuit
Court of
Appeals
Judge Jay
Bybee for
co-authoring
the infamous
"torture
memo."
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