WHAT DO WE DO WITH THESE GUYS IN 2009?

THE PURPORTED SUCCESS of the Saddam Hussein trial reminds us of the need
for a similar trial of George Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al upon their
departure from office. It seems to us that going for impeachment is a
waste of valuable House time but that an international war crimes trial
might be worth pursuing. If other countries got involved, at the very
least the perps could be under a sort of house arrest - like Henry
Kissinger - afraid to travel abroad.

The Review would welcome any pro bono comments from lawyers on this
matter with suggestions for procedures etc.

WAR CRIME TRIALS COMMENTS
mailto:news@prorev.com

SOMETHING TO ADD TO THE INDICTMENT

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, 1992 - The Pentagon said that a "gap" in the
laws governing warfare made it legally permissible during the gulf war
for U.S. tanks to bury thousands of Iraqi troops in their trenches and
for U.S. warplanes to bomb the enemy retreating along the so-called
Highway of Death. An elaborate legal justification was contained in an
appendix to the report on the war sent to Congress by Secretary of
Defense Dick Cheney. The section also accused Iraq of "widespread and
premeditated" war crimes and environmental terrorism. But it absolved
U.S. forces on war crime issues raised "by some in the post-conflict
environment."

Newsday disclosed in September that many Iraqi troops were buried alive
when the First Mechanized Infantry Division attacked an 8,000-man
division defending Saddam Hussein's front line. U.S. commanders told
Newsday that thousands had been buried during the two-day assault Feb.
24-25, 1991. During the February 27 Iraqi retreat from Kuwait, tens of
thousands of vehicles were destroyed by U.S. jets. But most estimates
said 1,000 or fewer Iraqis were killed.

According to the new report, the incidents raised questions about the
Geneva Convention's prohibition of "denial of quarter" -- refusing to
accept an enemy's offer to surrender. It said: "There is a gap in the
law of war in defining precisely when surrender takes effect or how it
may be accomplished. An attempt at surrender in the midst of a
hard-fought battle is neither easily communicated nor received. The
issue is one of reasonableness.". . .

"Many Iraqis surrendered during this phase of the attack and were taken
prisoner. The division then assaulted the trenches containing other
Iraqi soldiers. Once astride the trench lines, the division turned the
plow blades of its tanks and combat earth movers along the Iraqi defense
line.

"In the process many more Iraqi soldiers surrendered; others died in the
course of the attack and the destruction or bulldozing of their
defensive positions."

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said the report
ignored the Bush administration's failure to disclose the location of
the burial site. "That is a clear violation of Articles 15 and 16 of the
First Geneva Convention," he said.

Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams has said Cheney's interpretation of the
conventions does not require the United States to provide such details.
Roth said the killing of Iraqi troops fleeing Kuwait was another
violation of the conventions -- specifically the ban on attacking
defenseless soldiers: "Those Iraqis were wholly at the mercy of our
warplanes."

But the Pentagon report argued that the fleeing soldiers could have
reorganized and resumed offensive operations. "The law of war permits
the attack of enemy combatants at any time, whether advancing,
retreating, or standing still," the report said.

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