UN May Prosecute Bush, Regardless of US Action

UN May Prosecute Bush, Regardless of US Action

rawstory.com

The UN's special torture rapporteur called on the US Tuesday to pursue former president George W. Bush and defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld for torture and bad treatment of Guantanamo prisoners.

"Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation" to bring proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak said, in remarks to be broadcast on Germany's ZDF television Tuesday evening.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Awesome. It's true that the US is obligated to prosecute the crimes of the Bush administration, but that doesn't mean we will. I'm glad that someone is trying to. The UN is probably pissed at the Bush gang, they were lied to so many times and blocked from doing so many good things (like a cease fire in Gaza).

But there's a lot more to the article and a video, so click on the link.

rawstory.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

When I start seeing these kind of stories coming from reliable , well known news sources, only then will it catch my attention.

Every time I see some sort of Bush threat, it always is coming from some source that lacks any substantial credit.

reply to post by jdposey


Hmm.. I thought that this was a reliable news source. Any reason you don't? Would you rather I posted something I got off the Fox News website? lol

Originally posted by jdposey
Every time I see some sort of Bush threat, it always is coming from some source that lacks any substantial credit.

That's because the charges themselves lack any substantial credit.

reply to post by Total Reality


There are a lot of non reliable sources for the story...it's been circulating on twitter and digg and it seems most stem from the rawstory article.

Pelosi is contemplating it is the US but as yet, nothing from the UN in regards to trying Bush & Co for war crimes.

here's the Pelosi article from (gag) Fox.

Pelosi open to prosecution of Bush Administration

There is also a video by Keith Olberman playing on MSNBC regarding this!

If US fails to prosecute the UN may take up the lead.

Video here

Nothing from other sources yet but they'll grab it soon.

Originally posted by Total Reality
Awesome. It's true that the US is obligated to prosecute the crimes of the Bush administration, but that doesn't mean we will.

This is really laughable, the President is out of office, there is no precedent for what some are asking and it will never proceed within the US under any legal consequence. UN figureheads can talk all they want, they have no authority to try former Bush administration, much less the former President himself.

American Service-Members' Protection Act, a nice starting point to get back down to reality.

reply to post by deltaboy


OK... First, that has nothing to do with the thread. Second, he hasn't done that yet. I guess you have adopted the Bush doctrine, ha, no offense.

reply to post by Total Reality


Well, yes, if you can tie it directly to FOX that would be GREAT!

Of course, whether it was FOX, MSNBC, CNN or any other of the top news sources, I doubt a link would be found.

I am just glad you didn't link to ONION.

reply to post by WestPoint23


I think they do. Unless Obama pardons him they have all the right in the world to prosecute him. Torture is illegal no matter if you're a former president or not. I don't like this whole feeling that everyone seems to have that all this is in the past and that we should forget about it and move on. These are crimes against humanity. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

reply to post by deltaboy


What are you talking about? He was completely justified with his actions! Dude, do you read the news? LOL

If this is how we are going to start out with Mr. O I'm not feeling so good. Maybe he is sending the message that his focus is now going to be Osama but you just don't attack another nation without provocation. I know we're not always privvy to the reasons (as was the case with many of Bush's actions) but someone better have a decent enough reason for that one.

As for prosecuting Bush. If he is guilty (well, I'll keep my belief out of this), then he should be tried. Him and everyone else in his cabinet that did illegal things. Period. President or not. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW. Most of these people THINK they are above the law but no one should be.

If he was truly guilty of torture or any other crimes then the liberal democratic Congress could have impeached and tried him while he was in office.

They didn't.

They could have been talking about and pressing the issue of charging him long before it got close to election season.

They didn't.

You can't tell me that what Bill Clinton did was worthy of impeachment, but what Bush "supposedly" did wasn't.

If they had a real case, they would have used it.

reply to post by nyk537


Not necessarily. Bush passed many laws while he was in office and there is proof that he tortured prisoners. He admitted it so the whole argument that we don't really know has no credibility. It's true that the congress effed up and are completely incompetent but we really don't know what the extent of their power actually was while under Bush's rule.

The power of Congress is designated by the Constitution, not any laws Bush passed while in office.

They had the power to impeach and prosecute him if they saw fit.

This idea of trying Bush as a criminal is ridiculous.

reply to post by nyk537


Yea but during his administration almost every part of the Constitution was violated so many times. It was pretty much suspended and forgotten about. I'm not surprised in the least that congress didn't do anything. Almost every branch of government is so corrupt right now.

Originally posted by nyk537
This idea of trying Bush as a criminal is ridiculous.

Dude, they simply cannot let the man go. Imagine bringing up criminal charges against Truman after he left office, for dropping the atomic bombs.

reply to post by WestPoint23
I think you might just be wrong about that. Obama seems like a precedent setting sort of guy, and judging by what he has done just within 3 days of taking office, I dont beleive he will hesitate to bring charges against Bush and crew as long as his advisors do all of the right preliminary work to assure that they have a solid case.

reply to post by spookjr


Hes setting a precedent alright, by launching unprovoked attacks on Pakistan. He sure has the guts to go start attacking other countries after just barely in office. Hell, Bush has yet to attack any country after just about 100 hours in office.

All Presidents need to attack at least one country just 100 hours in office.

[edit on 23-1-2009 by deltaboy]

Originally posted by spookjr
Obama seems like a precedent setting sort of guy...

Nice one. Still though, Obama is conscious of the ramifications, in an environment like this focusing on a witch hunt of the Bush administration is almost out the realm of possibility. I firmly believe this issue is a dead one since Bush left office. That does not mean we might not see more information released to paint the former administration in bad light, but no criminal case.