Baby steps

George "I'm a War president" Bush made history yesterday with the following statement:

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility."

-- George W. Bush, September 13, 2005

This may be the only time that he has even hinted at making a mistake. I won't count his attempt to dodge the question during a presidential debate when he answered, "Now, you ask what mistakes -- I made some mistakes in appointing people, but I'm not going to name them." And while he said yesterday, "I take responsibility," look at the words that precede it. First he tries to spread the blame to "all levels of government," and then he qualifies his statement by adding, "to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right."

I wonder what Bush's inquiry into "what went right and what didn't go right", headed by Bush himself, will find. I bet anything that falls into the "what didn't go right" category will be things that the state and local governments did or didn't do. Maybe he will admit that the appointment of Michael Brown to head FEMA was one of those mistakes that he hinted at during the debate.

But I applaud the War President for taking responsibility. In the years to come he will have to take responsibility for many more things. When he and Rummy are sitting before the War Crimes Tribunal they will have to answer charges of genocide that they directed in Fallujah. They bombed the city and cut off power and supplies, the US bombed hospitals and mosques, they allowed women and children to leave the city-- but not men--and then gave orders to shoot and kill men whether they were armed or not. That sounds like genocide to me--even if the United States did it.

Will the War President take responsibility for violating the Article 147 of Geneva Convention(IV)(among others).

Art. 147. Grave breaches to which the preceding Article relates shall be those involving any of the following acts, if committed against persons or property protected by the present Convention: wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power, or wilfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed in the present Convention, taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.

Anyhow, I'm proud of you Georgie. You still have to work on it, but you are are making baby steps.

More torture, more lying

By naming John Negroponte as his nominee for the position Director of National Intelligence, Bush continued his practice of promoting torturers and war criminals. As ambassador to Hondurus (de facto pro-consul) during the Reagan Administration Negroponte, at the very least, knew about the death squads, known as Battalion 3-16, and lied to Congress about it. He also oversaw the construction of the torture facility known as the El Aguacate air base. In 2001 a mass grave containing 185 corpses was unearthed at the air base.


In other torture news...

Iraqi prison death linked to torture

Friday, February 18, 2005
By Seth Hettena, The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO -- An Iraqi whose corpse was photographed with grinning U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib died under CIA interrogation while in a position condemned by human rights groups as torture -- suspended by his wrists, with his hands cuffed behind his back, according to reports reviewed by The Associated Press.
[more]

Keep the war criminal out

Apparently war criminal Bush can not be indicted in Canada because he is still in office. Canada does, however, have an immigration law banning war criminals or suspected war criminals from entering the country.

November 26, 2004 A Memo to Canada's Ministry of Immigration Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada By MICHAEL MANDEL and GAIL DAVIDSON The Honourable Judy Sgro, P.C., M.P. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Ottawa Canada K1A 1L1 Tel: 1 613 954 1064 Fax: 1 613 957 2688 Minister@cic.gc.ca sgro.j@parl.gc.ca Dear Minister Sgro, Re: President George W. Bush proposed November 30th 2004 visit to Canada. We wrote to Prime Minister Martin on November 19 2004 protesting the invitation of President Bush to Canada on the grounds of the President's flagrant commission of the most serious crimes against international law. Our letter is enclosed. As that letter indicates, many of the crimes of which President Bush stands accused are crimes under Canadian law, specifically under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. We are writing to you now to remind you that these crimes render President Bush inadmissible to Canada under our immigration laws. Because responsibility for the operation and enforcement of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act lies with you and your Ministry, we are calling on you to advise the Prime Minister of this fact and to insist that he rescind this invitation out of respect for our laws. As you know, section 35 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, 2001 2001 provides as follows: 35. (1) A permanent resident or a foreign national is inadmissible on grounds of violating human or international rights for (a) committing an act outside Canada that constitutes an offence referred to in sections 4 to 7 of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act; Paragraph 2 of section 35 allows for exceptions to be made for other classes of inadmissible foreign nationals 'who satisf[y] the Minister that their presence in Canada would not be detrimental to the national interest.' However, these exceptions specifically do not apply to those who have committed acts constituting offences referred to in sections 4 to 7 of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. Section 6 of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act incorporates by reference all international crimes against humanity and war crimes, and, explicitly, all crimes enumerated in Articles 7 and 8(2) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Section 7 of the Act places special responsibility on 'military commanders' and other 'superiors' for crimes committed by their subordinates that they knew of, or were criminally negligent in failing to know of, and with respect to which they did not take necessary and reasonable steps to prevent. Section 33 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act specifically provides that 'facts that constitute inadmissibility under sections 34 to 37 include facts arising from omissions and, unless otherwise provided, include facts for which there are reasonable grounds to believe that they have occurred, are occurring or may occur.' The evidence of President Bush's past and ongoing criminality is overwhelming. A recent editorial in the Washington Post commented on some of the now well known facts regarding the chain of memoranda from the President and White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, now Attorney General, that led to the use of torture by the US Armed Forces. These memoranda clearly establish the President's culpability for the torture used on detainees at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons. We also refer you to the many careful reports prepared by respected human rights organizations, journalists and scholars and also to recent decisions by US Courts, some of which are referenced in our letter to the Prime Minister and others we have listed below. These clearly provide far more than 'reasonable grounds to believe' in President Bush's legal and moral responsibility for the gravest crimes under numerous provisions of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. [read more]