POTUS GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES?

A BRIEF TIMELINE OF EVENTS SURROUNDING THE IRAQ WAR, THE NIE ASSESSMENT, THE OUTING OF VALERIE WILSON, AND THE EVIDENT WAR CRIMES OF G.W. BUSH

February 13, 2002. All credit for this and the following item goes to Larry Johnson. "During his CIA morning brief, Vice President Cheney asks the CIA to find out the truth about an item in the Defense Intelligence Agency's National Military Joint Intelligence Center Executive Highlight (Vo. 028-02) that analyzed a recent CIA intelligence report and concluded that, 'Iraq is probably searching abroad for natural uranium to assist in its nuclear weapons program'. No judgment was offered about the credibility of the reporting. (Senate Intelligence Committee Report [SICR], page 38)."

First part of March, 2002. Again, Larry Johnson, "Vice President Cheney asks his CIA briefer for an update on the Niger issue. Around this time, Ambassador Wilson returns from Niger and is debriefed by two CIA officers from the Directorate of Operations. The officers draft an intelligence report based on Wilson's findings. On 8 March 2002, this intelligence report is disseminated. The CIA rated the report as 'good', because the information responded to at least some of the outstanding questions in the intelligence community (SICR, pp. 43-46). The Senate Intelligence Committee goes to great length to try to impugn Ambassador Wilson, but these facts are clear: Joe Wilson, along with U.S. Ambassador to Niger Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick's and four-star Marine Corps general, Carleton Fulford, each separately reported that there was no substance to the intelligence report claiming Iraq was trying to buy uranium yellowcake. Even the Senate Intelligence Committee reluctantly reaches the same conclusion [emphasis added]."

IN OTHER WORDS, POTUS, VPOTUS, AND COMPANY UNQUESTIONABLY HAD TO KNOW THAT THEIR ARGUMENT FOR "PREEMPTIVE WAR" IN IRAQ WAS A CROCK OF LIES AND MISREPRESENTATIONS.

May 6, 2002. POTUS withdraws from the treaty to create an International Criminal Court. Senior diplomat Pierre-Richard Prosper states "It frees us [the USA] from some of the obligations that are incurred by signature. When you sign you have an obligation not to take actions that would defeat the object or purpose of the treaty," he said. "What we've learnt from the war on terror is that rather than creating an international mechanism to deal with these issues it is better to organise an international mandate that authorises states to use their unilateral tools to tackle the problems we have."

ALARMS SHOULD BE GOING OFF IN YOUR HEAD RIGHT NOW. POTUS (OR HIS HANDLERS) KNEW THAT IF THEIR PREVARICATIONS WERE EVER DISCOVERED, THEY WOULD BE CONSIDERED WAR CRIMINALS!

Read Larry Johnson for the timetable between May 2002 and January 2003, during which all of the machinations aimed at discrediting Ambassador J. Wilson occurred, involving I. (just call me "Scooter") Libby, R. (just call me "Deadeye") Cheney, and G. W. (just call me "Dubya") Bush.

WE NOW KNOW THAT THEY HAD NO BASIS ON WHICH TO ARGUE THAT THE INTELLIGENCE THEY PROMOTED IN THE RUN-UP TO THE WAR IN IRAQ WAS THE BEST THEY COULD HAVE HAD. INDEED, THEY ACTIVELY SOUGHT AND USED ONLY THOSE ITEMS THAT SUPPORTED THEIR CASE FOR WAR, EVEN IF THERE WAS NOTHING CLOSE TO A CONSENSUS ON ANY ITEM IN THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY.

January 28, 2003. POTUS utters the famous sixteen words, "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

January 31, 2003: According to the NY Times there exists a British government memo indicating that POTUS had made up his mind to invade Iraq, a decision he has vehemently denied ever since.

April 10, 2006: The shoe finally drops. Bush admits he declassified an NIE to 'get the truth out' regarding Niger, Wilson, and his SOTUS. Laughable. If true, why all the cloak and dagger? Why did they need the Office of Special Plans that repackaged raw (and often erroneous) intelligence to support the White House Iraq Group , whose job it was to market the Iraq adventure to the American people? Taken together, the Wilson push-back, the leaked NIE (and others now revealed), the Herculean effort to produce enough fear to confuse and constrain legislators to approve of the use of force once all diplomacy had been exhausted, and so many others, a picture emerges of a pack of lies used to promote a strategic policy long held by Bush and his cronies that the US should extend its hegemony to the Middle East, and in particular, Iraq . It's hard to imagine a stronger case for calling the Iraq attack and occupation anything but unprovoked aggression. And that is a crime against humanity. All we have to do now is have someone with a little clout sew all of the little details together, and send it off to the Hague, and the President of the United States of America will be indicted for war crimes. Oh, and all of this before Iran gets nuked. Wish the world and all its inhabitants luck.