International Commission of Inquiry On Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration

"When the possibility of far-reaching war crimes and crimes against humanity exists, people of conscience have a solemn responsibility to inquire into the nature and scope of these acts and to determine if they do in fact rise to the level of war crimes" from the Charter http://www.bushcommission.org/


From Information Clearing House



http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=94174;show_parent=1

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[ please forward widely ]

The First Session of the 2005 International Commission of Inquiry On Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration held Oct 21-22, Check here soon for on-line video:

http://www.bushcommission.org

In the spirit of Nuremberg, the Bertrand Russell Tribunal, and the World Tribunal on Iraq The Not In Our Name statement of conscience is proud to sponsor this Commission

Keynote addresses: The Moral Challenge and Responsibility of our Time • Howard Zinn, Historian, special videotaped message to the commission • Marcus Raskin, Institute for Policy Studies and The Nation editorial board

• Ann Wright, former foreign service officer who resigned from the State to protest the war on Iraq • Michael Ratner, president, Center for Constitutional Rights

"When we conducted missions, it became clear that there was no regard for the lives of the Iraqis. We conducted our operations in the cities. There are no trench lines in Iraq. The war is being fought in every corner of that country. Not in the deserts, not in the mountains, but next to the schools, the neighborhoods, the mosques... I could stand here for hours, go on and on about everything that I saw that was wrong. But I think that the main thing that creates violence in Iraq is that there is a sense among the Iraqi people that we are there to stay permanently to occupy and oppress them -- occupy and oppress their land -- and they are resisting that occupation. It does not matter if we have good feelings or we are acting out of fear or we are acting out of frustration. The fact is that we have no right to be there and they realize that…" -Camilo E. Mejia, GI resistor and member Iraq Veterans Against the War in testimony to the Commission

Indictments

1. Wars of Aggression
2. Torture and Indefinite Detention
3. Destruction of the Global Environment
4. Attacks on Global Public Health and Reproductive Rights

Jury of conscience: Dennis Brutus, South African exile poet;
Abdeen Jabara, former president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee;
Ajamu Sankofa, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility-NY

Prosecutors and Witnesses: Amy Bartholomew, professor of law, Carleton University; Stephen Bronner, professor of political science, Rutgers University; Larry Everest, author, Oil, Power & Empire: Iraq and the U.S. Global Agenda; Thomas Fasy, MD, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine; Ted Glick, Climate Crisis Coalition; Denis Halliday, ex-UN Assistant Secretary-General, former head of UN Humanitarian Mission In Iraq; Eric Lerner, New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee; Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst; Camilo E. Mejia, member of Iraq Veterans Against the War; Barbara Olshansky, Center for Constitutional Rights and co-ordinator of Guantanamo detainee defense; Sarah Sohn, Immigration Equality

The full prosecution of the indictments will take place in a second session to be held by January, 2006.

For more information and to view on-line video coming soon:
http://www.bushcommission.org


Informant: John Calvert