The War Crimes Confession of Condi Rice

[chrisfloyd]

The incomparable Robert Parry puts Condi Rice clearly in the frame for war crimes after her extraordinary confessions during her trip to the UK last week -- confessions that have been entirely ignored by the US press. While there was a brief flurry over her casual remark about "thousands of tactical mistakes" in Iraq, no one but Parry caught her admission -- nay, her boast -- that the Bush Regime's policy in Iraq was an open, deliberate, carefully considered violation of the Nuremberg-based laws against aggressive war: principles articulated most forcefully by America's own representative to that international tribunal, and which were later incorporated into the UN Charter.

As Parry notes, Rice confessed that the Bush Administration launched an unprovoked invasion and occupation of Iraq to effect a unilateral "regime change" for political and ideological purposes -- the same crime for which the Hitler Administration was justly condemned at Nuremberg. This action was and is illegal under the Nuremberg principles, the UN Charter and United States law.

The implications of all this are unavoidable. Americans are now living under a criminal regime, a rogue junta that no longer feels the need to disguise its criminality. Hence Rice's confession; hence Bush's confession about illegal wiretapping of American citizens; hence the Administration's bold protestations in open court that the president cannot be bound by any act of Congress or judicial ruling in carrying out his "inherent" powers as Commander-in-Chief; hence the Supreme Court's craven kowtowing to this presidential dictatorship in its ruling yesterday in the Padilla case, when the Justices simply refused to address the issue of Padilla's years-long "indefinite detention without any formal charges or, for 20 months, any contact with the outside world.

SNIP

http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=582&Itemid=1

[liberal N proud]

1. Well they achieved a different middle east...

“you were not going to have a different Middle East with Saddam Hussein at the center of it.”

Not a good one but different

[Jack Rabbit]

2. Robert Parry (ConsortumNews): Condi, War Crimes & the Press

From ConsortiumNews.com
Dated Monday April 3

Condi, War Crimes & the Press
By Robert Parry

During the three years of carnage in Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has shifted away from her now-discredited warning about a “mushroom cloud” to assert a strategic rationale for the invasion that puts her squarely in violation of the Nuremberg principle against aggressive war.

On March 31 in remarks to a group of British foreign policy experts, Rice justified the U.S.-led invasion by saying that otherwise Iraqi President Saddam Hussein “wasn’t going anywhere” and “you were not going to have a different Middle East with Saddam Hussein at the center of it.” (Washington Post, April 1, 2006)

Rice’s comments in Blackburn, England, followed similar remarks during a March 26 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in which she defended the invasion of Iraq as necessary for the eradication of the “old Middle East” where a supposed culture of hatred indirectly contributed to the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 . . . .

(T)his doctrine – that the Bush administration has the right to invade other nations for reasons as vague as social engineering – represents a repudiation of the Nuremberg Principles and the United Nations Charter’s ban on aggressive war, both formulated largely by American leaders six decades ago.

Read more.

[Canuckistanian]

21. Link doesn't work - Consortium offline

Looks like the whole site is down.

[Pryderi]

26. I wonder why the site is down.

[Canuckistanian]

27. back up now... n/t

[Pryderi]

28. Just must be my well-founded paranoia. :P

[Canuckistanian]

29. mine too.. n/t

[donkeyotay]

3. I guess she forgot

There was a good reason for the hooey about mushroom clouds and connections to 9-11. What a tangled web they weaved.

[donsu]

4. are lawyers preparing a case against her?

nt

[Mandate My Ass]

5. K & R

very well put. Love the blog. :thumbsup:

[Jack Rabbit]

6. Related discussion in Editorials/Other Articles

Norman Solomon (Common Dreams): When War Crimes Are Impossible opened by Jack Rabbit Tuesday at 10:27 am PDT.

[myrna minx]

7. Fantastic.

K&R. My dream is that these war criminals are dragged to the Hague.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

8. Hope we can stop her before War #3

STOP HER AND THE REST BEFORE THEY START WAR #3

[Trevelyan]

31. Laura, excellent political cartoons and comments. I will distribute the

powerful one of the war criminal kindasleezy stepping on the American soldiers she helped to murder.

[AuntiBush]

41. You Took

the words right off my lips. Have the same fear :scared:

[stop the bleeding]

9. See here: 100,000+++ MURDERS not mistakes

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=805202

thread got a little talk, glad that there are still other people that see these things, Chris say hi to Dutch Democrat for me.

;)

[chrisfloyd]

16. Rich (DD) is doing fine

Doing his thing - as usual. He's a character. He's a good friend.

[stop the bleeding]

18. Your site is one of the one's that is ahead of the game

Thanks again for all of the work that you and Rich do.

Peace!!




on edit: I am not sure if you noticed but I have a built in link into my sig line for your site Impeach the Crooks- it has been that way since the Craig Murry torture memos went public

Again you guys rock:headbang:

Keep on fighting the war of disinformation.

[seemslikeadream]

10. Thanks for posting here Chris

How's the CD doing? :hi:



you guys can listen to it here
http://www.chris-floyd.com/components/com_tmplaylist/tmplaylist.html

[specimenfred1984]

11. Great Articles!

Thanks for posting and welcome to DU!

[iamahaingttta]

12. Hang her by her high heels...

... from the Capitol building flagpole!

Hang 'em ALL, I say, or put them in front of a firing squad. Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, and the whole rest of that unsavory crew.
That's the only way we'll get our country back from this scum, the only way the world will EVER have ANY respect for the United States ever again!

Indict for war crimes, convict and execute.
Just like Nuremberg.

There... I've said it!

[A Simple Game]

46. I don't agree with the death penalty, but I do agree that

the punishment must be very open, public, and severe. People must see what happens when you do this to our country.

We "saved the nation" by not punishing Nixon, and the Iran Contra criminals, and what did that get us? Many of the same people are now ruining our country and all it stands for. These people and any future ones need to know that there are consequences for such actions!

[Tsiyu]

13. Unbelievable

Give them enough rope....

[Catamount]

14. Welcome to DU---Great post! n/t

[mike_c]

15. finally, someone gets it....

The invasion and occupation of Iraq is a crime against humanity-- that's not just hyperbole, it's a fact.

[Higans]

50. Iraq war is a crime against humanity: More proof click here:

http://www.bushflash.com/pl_lo.html

[cyanide]

17. SHe should be

A world court case for sure.

[acmavm]

19. GO CHRIS! You tell it. He never minces words when talking

about this bunch of rogue criminals.

[ClintonTyree]

20. And the Corporate Media aids and abets........

the bush criminal juggernaut, not reporting the truth about these swine. The Repigs think the media "only reports the bad news" about Iraq, well they haven't BEGUN to see the bad news about this criminal cabal! It seems like the first few cards from their house, made of same, have begun to fall. Delay, Cunningham, Abramoff, Libby...this is just the beginning of the purge of the Republican climate of corruption. Yet the Corporate Media has turned a deaf ear and blind eye to bloggers who are scooping them on the REAL corruption within the bush White House. They're rendering themselves useless, becoming nothing more than personality driven infotainment.

One of the first things (god, there are so MANY of them) the upcoming Democratic majority should do is break up the Corporate monopoly of the media. Too many Reich-Wing Corporations own too many media outlets, thus controlling what Americans see and hear. The Repigs, like the Nazis were in their time, are very good at controlling the message and how it's delivered. If you control the message and it's delivery, you control the people. This is clearly evidenced by a full 30% of Americans STILL believing that Saddam was behind the attacks of 9/11/01.

A free and unfettered media is essential for a free and unfettered Democracy.

[Trevelyan]

33. letters to the editor -- resources for letter writers, focus alerts

There's actually a fairly useful thing that can be done by readers, simply through letters to the editor.

Not astroturf. That must be emphasized. These must be individually written letters, preferably from citizens within the state.

I work in drug policy reform and there's a site that has done an amazing job in this way: MAPinc.org

They provide resources for letter writers, focus alerts, and articles to which letter writers can respond. They figure that they have, in column inch value, generated over $2 million per year worth of published letters.

Sure, letters to the editor in most newspapers include a whole lot of wackos, but they're still read, and can sometimes be used by politicians' staffs as one tool of measuring local reaction to events.

[bush_is_wacko]

22. Americans really have been dumbed down. I know many of us have been

saying this very same thing for years here but the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of America doesn't realize that bush=hitler.

[patdem]

23. Oh, my. The indubitable, indomitable, infatigable Chris Floyd!

The first time I visited the Moscow Times I did so with tongue in cheek cause I thought??? The Moscow Times? How good a source can that be, then I read your column, and I fell in love.

The last time I fell in love with a 'celebrity' was Elvis Presley in 'Love Me Tender' and I saw that AT the theatre, so you can see I do not fall in love with strangers easily.

Reading your columns is like reading a really good short story by someone like O. Henry, only it is a newspaper column unlike ANY I have read in the US. After that first reading, I have read EVERYTHING that has your name attached to it.

Do not worry, I am not a stalker, just ask Bob Boudelang, my OTHER favorite read! (You can catch him on the front page, only he has not posted since 12/17/05 :cry:)

Oh my, upon spell check I find there is no word infatigable, however I have always used that word and will continue!

[Marnieworld]

24. I'm a bigtime Floyd fan too

It's nice to see you in these forums Mr. Floyd. I read anything by you that I can as well.

By the way they are all a bunch of war criminals that should be tried at Hague. Impeachment is just a start in a world that makes sense. Unfortunately we don't live in that world right now. With people like you shining the beacon of truth we still have hope. Thanks. :hi:

[patdem]

37. Okay, it is the LAST time I try to be witty..the word is indefatigable

as soon as I went to my game and quit thinking..it hit me like a ton of bricks but too late to edit...oh the shame! ..okay..that's it, more games and less trying to be irrudite..:rofl:

[Trevelyan]

25. Thank you Chris Floyd, your Empire Burlesque site is great.

Thank you for working to stop these war crimes including the unspeakable torture that the BFEE is continuing to use your tax dollars to train their Gestapo including the Blackwater contractors.

CAGE PRISONERS PRESS RELEASE 28/03/2006

New Report: ‘Damning Indictment’ of British involvement in renditions and torture

The Report, Fabricating Terrorism: British Complicity in Renditions and Torture, highlights a litany of cases where British authorities have been expressly involved in the torture and illegal rendition of suspects in the ‘War on Terror’. Such unlawful practices have been strongly condemned by human rights organisations worldwide, and yet Britain remains complicit in them.

Fabricating Terrorism...

Geoffrey Bindman, chair of the British Institute of Human Rights, comments that the document is a, ‘damning indictment’ of British policy. He continues to say that the cases, “…demonstrate an intolerable level of collaboration and collusion between UK and US authorities in the abuses which have taken place at Guantanamo and elsewhere through the ‘outsourcing’ of torture.”

The case studies provided on the ex-Guantánamo detainees provides shocking evidence that British authorities were complicit in their abduction and torture before being sent to Guantánamo and even whilst being detained there.

Binyamin Al Habashi – a British resident kidnapped and rendered to Guantánamo via the torture dungeons of Morocco relates his Moroccan torturers mocking him, “Why do you think the Brits sold you out to us so cheaply? Why do you think they sent you here?...We have been working with the British, and we have photos of people given to us by MI5.”

The Report can be found at www.cageprisoners.com along with other information relating to detentions in the War on Terror.

Cage Prisoners is a human rights organisation that exists solely to raise awareness of the plight of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other detainees held as part of the War on Terror. We aim to give a voice to the voiceless. Contact: Asim Qureshi: 07973264197 or [e-mail]

[confludemocrat]

30. It's a war crime, that the Kerrys, Bidens, Bayhs etc "could do better"

The world knows it, the Bushites know it, the only ones seeming not to know it are this ilk, but of course they know it and are complicitly silent.

[Pryderi]

32. Didn't the UK sign the International Criminal Court treaty? Won't Blair

have charges brought against him for War crimes?

[Trevelyan]

34. Sunday Herald -Blair law that will make it a criminal offence to criticise

PRISON PLANET.com -- Newswire link - Sunday Herald
Blair plans law that will make it a criminal offence to criticise government policy

SWEEPING new emergency legal powers to deal with the aftermath of a large terrorist attack in Britain are being considered by the government.The measures could potentially outlaw participation in a protest march, such as last week's demonstrations during President Bush's state visit, making it, in effect, a criminal offence to criticise government policy.

In an attempt to give the UK government similar powers to those rushed through in the US after the 9/11 attack on New York in 2001, it is understood that a beefed-up version of current civil contingencies law is being considered. It will allow the government to bypass or suspend key parts of the UK's human rights laws without the authority of parliament.

In the US, the Patriot Act has been widely condemned by civil rights groups throughout the US. Many lawyers have blamed the Patriot Act as an excuse for eroding civil rights that dated back to the founding principles of the US constitution. That the UK government is considering seeking similar power in a crisis situation indicates the heightened level of concern following the terrorist bombings in Istanbul...

If "Fortress Britain" were to be achieved, with countrywide security checks, increased police surveillance and widespread detention of any suspect group or individual, the Home Office's annual budget would rocket.

[Pryderi]

45. Do you have a link for that, other than prisonplanet?

[muriel_volestrangler]

52. From the Sunday Herald, but it is over 2 years old

23 November 2003

I don't think anything specific in this area has turned up in the past couple of years, so it was either just a rumour, or something they'd only introduce in the case of the actual state of emergency. There are other threats to democracy, such as the The legislative and regulatory reform bill - "a new government bill they fear will give ministers sweeping powers to amend or even introduce new laws without sufficient scrutiny from MPs".

To answer your question about the ICC, yes, the UK has signed up to it; but it only gets jurisdiction if a country is unable or unwilling to do the prosecution themselves. It's unlikely that any British government in the forseeable future will go as far as a war crimes prosecution, and would probably do something to spoil any attempt to extradite him - find some lesser charge that could be conveniently tied up in legal argument for years. Few countries really want to go through "our elected leader was a war criminal", with the bad reflection on those who (re-)elected him. However, it might stop Tony having quite so many foreign holidays, if he has to keep an eye out for prosecutors who feel like rockign the boat a bit more.

[VirtualChicano]

35. chris-floyd.com

Nice website!

very clean code!

[Up2Late]

36. Add to this the recent revelation of the "signing statements" were...

...Bush signs these new bills that restrict his power, but then later, the WH issues these BS signing statements that say "the President" doesn't have to obey the law he just signed.:mad:

[AuntiBush]

40. Really...

[bleever]

38. Welcome to DU, chrisfloyd.

Very glad to have you posting directly here!

:thumbsup:

[happydreams]

39. Parry was the first to report the Iran-Contra scandal.

He is a tireless muckraker. Here is to you Robert Parry. :toast:

[Disturbed]

42. Ms Rice is confident that the Bush Regime is...

"Above the Law and Unaccountable."

“You can’t allow somebody to commit the crime before you detain them, because if they commit the crime, thousands of innocent people die,” Condoleezza Rice



1. The basis for war.

There are generally three possible bases for the use of force:

(a) self-defence (which may include collective self-defence);

(b) exceptionally, to avert overwhelming humanitarian catastrophe; and

(c) authorisation by the Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.

[Higans]

51. In other words, put every one in prison before they commit a crime.

Institutionalize every one. it's the only way to be safe.

I'm so sick of this. Are we there yet?

[jfkraus]

43. They should all go to jail.

Pre-emptive war is wrong and cowardly. Those who lied to get us into an unjust pre-emtive war in Iraq belong in prison. They are all traitors.

Rice admitted on the record that they planned all along to re-engineer the Middle East by getting rid of Saddam Hussein. They LIED about WMDs to put fear into the American public and build support for their illegal agenda-- becasue they knew the American people would not stand for it otherwise. Now they have backed off every original reason for going to war in Iraq and they are saying getting rid of Hussein to bring about a "new" Middle East (Social Engineering) is now justification enough. Unfortunately, this flies in the face of everything Nuremburg stands for. They should be removed from office and tried as war criminals.

[cartach]

44. War Crimes - Condi Rice

So what's next? As usual,probably nothing.The reason it has been ignored by the press is that it is'nt "newsworthy".Complacent media,complacent public.Does anyone know of a period in the history of any country when so many outright immoral and criminal acts have been committed by the governing administration? I do - Nazi Germany,prior to and during WW2.And if people here don't do a hell of a lot more than being content with just sitting back and venting their frustration and outrage on the internet, we'll end up the same way.We're well on the way already and waiting for elections is just amother complacent act.

[Demosthenes_K]

47. War Crimes... how does someone get charged?

Just briefly, my understanding of the procedure for someone to be charged with "War Crimes", or more specifically "Crimes against Humanity" is that, firstly, the person(s) being charged can not be an incumbent political figure. And secondly, the person(s) must be referred by a State, not an individual or group. So, there you have it, you must wait until after 2008 and they (including Kindasleezy) must be referred by a state, perhaps Iran could be persuaded to do so... :)

...Added after a brief cigarette break...

The United States is NOT a signatory to the International Court of Justice and will not recognize it's jurisdiction. And... most tellingly, it has pressured many nations to NOT refer US citizens to the court.

Interestingly, the pressure primarily has the form of reducing or ceasing foreign aid to the country, and as many are aware, the majority of US foreign aid is in the form of military hardware. Amnesty International found, a couple of years ago, that the level of US foreign aid to any given country correlates very well with human rights atrocities. No surprises there I guess?

[seabeyond]

48. thousands of mistakes, hard work, fool me once

cheneys fuck you and shooting man in face

yep,..... they give us plenty of material

[norml]

49. I found the Parry article on opednews.com, and posted it yesterday in GD.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=835174&mesg_id=835174


April 3, 2006

Condi, War Crimes & the Press
by Robert Parry


http://www.opednews.com

During the three years of carnage in Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has shifted away from her now-discredited warning about a “mushroom cloud” to assert a strategic rationale for the invasion that puts her squarely in violation of the Nuremberg principle against aggressive war.

On March 31 in remarks to a group of British foreign policy experts, Rice justified the U.S.-led invasion by saying that otherwise Iraqi President Saddam Hussein “wasn’t going anywhere” and “you were not going to have a different Middle East with Saddam Hussein at the center of it.”

Rice’s comments in Blackburn, England, followed
similar remarks during a March 26 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in which she defended the invasion of Iraq as necessary forthe eradication of the “old Middle East” where a supposed culture of hatred indirectly contributed to the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“If you really believe that the only thing that happened on 9/11 was people flew airplanes into buildings, I think you have a very narrow view of what we faced on 9/11,” Rice said. “We faced the outcome of an ideology of hatred throughout the Middle East that had to be dealt with. Saddam Hussein was a part of that old Middle East. The new Iraq will be a part of the new Middle East, and we will all be safer.”


snip


http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_robert_p_060403_condi_2c_war_crimes__26_.htm