Here was the last of the great bootstrap lawyers like Clarence Darrow who did not attend law school but picked up their educations working under skilled lawyers and judges and achieved lasting greatness.
When it came time to pick someone to lead the U.S. team in prosecuting Nazi Germany at the Nuremberg Trials the ideal choice was then Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Robert Jackson. Those were the days when we had judges who were capable of independent thought and were not hacks pushed through the Washington process by the Federalist Society.
A basic principle enunciated by Jackson at the historic Nuremberg tribunal was that individuals were responsible for their acts and could not slide by with a variation of the Flip Wilson "The devil made me do it", which the late great comic meant as a joke and not something to be emulated.
There were but two members of the House of Representatives that took the U.S. Constitution seriously about impeaching for crimes and misdemeanors committed against the nation, the patriotic Congressman from Ohio Dennis Kucinich and the equally patriotic Congressman from Florida Robert Wexler.
Let us therefore look elsewhere for justice and beseech the World Court at The Hague to do its duty under international law and as a first consequential step indict the highly culpable, based on the available evidence, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and John Yoo.
The aforementioned represent scurrilous violators of one of the fundamental precepts enunciated at the Nuremberg Trials.
I refer to Principle VI and spell it out herewith in detail:
The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law:
(a) Crimes against peace;
(i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;
(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).
(b) War Crimes:
Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation of slave labor for any other purpose of the civilian population of or in occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the Seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.
(c) Crimes against humanity:
Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhumane acts done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime.
The aforementioned language resulted to a significant degree from assertive leadership by Justice Robert Jackson and his team.
These were individuals who would decry the likes of raping prisoners, kidnapping prisoners and sending them to other nations for hostile interrogation, and indeed for waging war against a sovereign nation that posed no direct threat to its life and liberty.
In the specific case of Iraq, it had been supported by individuals in the same administration that decried the conduct of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who assumed office in a coup with assistance from the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States.
While Bush and Cheney initiated a war of aggression, they also dispersed teams from international corporate giants and New World Order designates Halliburton and Bechtel. These corporations have reaped obscene profits from a war launched in violation of international law.
The profits derived therefrom are consequently illegal under international law and should be disgorged. An international class action should be initiated to disgorge obscene and illegal profits.
These monies, along with punitive damages, should go to the victims of these catastrophic policies that have led to destruction in Iraq in the form of some 1.2 million deaths of citizens according to the respected British journal Lancet and some 2.5 refugees, many of whom are helpless and homeless, crowding the borders of neighboring Middle East nations.
John Yoo is a particular subject of interest for delivering "legal opinions" from the U.S. Justice Department providing the commander in chief with the right to do anything to anyone on the constitutionally unwarranted pretext that since 9/11 the nation has been at war and hence there are no limits on the executive branch; no type of torture designated too heinous to practice.
Meanwhile we live in a political climate where waterboarding and rape are practiced under the guise of "interrogation" and the U.S. Congress has been collectively missing in action in addressing unconstitutional grievances that they are duty bound under oath of office to vigorously prosecute.
In the interest of combating international lawlessness carried out by individuals with dictatorial mentalities, it is time for the World Court to take notice of this steady pattern of lawless disrespect for international law and elementary principles of human decency.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.
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