War crime

Saleh v. Bush lawsuit

On August 20, 2013, the United States Department of Justice requested that George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz be granted "absolute immunity" in a class action lawsuit brought by Sundus Shaker Saleh, an Iraqi single mother and refugee living in Jordan. Ms. Saleh filed a complaint in March 2013 in San Francisco federal court alleging that the named officials schemed since 1998 to invade Iraq by using 9-11 to mislead and scare the American public into supporting a the war. She argued that the waging of the 2003 Iraq war constituted a "crime of aggression" against Iraq, applying the legal theory that was used by the Nuremberg Tribunal to convict Nazi war criminals after World War II.

The Obama Administration's Department of Justice has sought to protect the defendants twice to date, with a motion to dismiss the Saleh v. Bush charge on August 20, 2013 and another one on November 29, 2013. The DOJ cites the Westfall Act, claiming that the defendants were acting within their scope of employment when planning and waging the Iraq War, and therefore can not be held individually accountable for the harm caused. The Westfall Act rules that harm done within the scope of employment is the responsibility of the employer. In this case the employer is the United States government, which is protected by sovereign immunity, the legal doctrine that a sovereign state can not commit a crime and is immune from prosecution.

The Saleh v. Bush suit holds that because of the evidence of premeditation as early as 1998, before the defendants held their offices, said defendants could not have been acting under the scope of employment, and thus sovereign immunity is not applicable.

 

Examples

Page name	Description
"Bucha massacre"
2003 Iraq War	A war for oil carried out after "Operation Mass Appeal" an MI6-backed propaganda campaign.
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine/War Crimes	A list of War crimes and propaganda in this event.
2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War/Israeli invasion of Gaza	After October 7, Israel invaded Gaza with widespread international support. The IDF went on a widely reported revenge killing spree. Even by Israel's own account, they killed 19,500 Palestinian civilians after half a year of bombing hospitals, schools and civilian towers, utilising numerous condemned tactics.
Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse	Top level sanctioned torture on US prisoners, both to gather information about the effects of torture on victims and perpetrators as well as to intimidate and sew dragon's teeth.
Bentalha massacre	Algerian civil war massacre, where GIA, the group which took responsibility, might have been infiltrated and taken over by the Algerian government.
Defoliant	A defoliant is any herbicidal chemical sprayed or dusted on plants to cause their leaves to fall off
El Mozote Massacre
Hannibal Directive	Secret directive whereby Israeli officers and soldiers are required to do everything in their power to prevent captures, even if this entails the death of the prisoner.
Kramatorsk railway station attack	A missile attack on the railway station of the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, which killed 57
Kunduz hospital airstrike	On 3 October 2015, an United States Air Force AC-130U gunship machine-gunned a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders in the city of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. At least 42 people were killed and over 30 were injured in the hour-long deliberate attack.
Operation Burnham	Revenge massacre by New Zealand occupation forces in Afghanistan.
Srebrenica Massacre
The Massacre at Mazar	2001 massacre when maybe 7,500 Taliban prisoners of war were shot and/or suffocated to death in metal shipping containers. Degree of US participation disputed.
Vietnam War/My Lai Massacre	The systematic, cold-blooded murder, butchery and rape of 504 Vietnamese civilians including 173 children by a company of 115 US army soldiers.
War of aggression
Winston Churchill/Chemical warfare	Winston Churchill was apparently keen to use chemical weapons.

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
"Bucha massacre"	“It begs the question why would the Russian army commit this atrocity on civilians wearing neutral white armbands after delivering large quantities of humanitarian aid?”	George Eliason	5 April 2022
Shinzō Abe	“I think the definition of what constitutes 'aggression' has yet to be established in academia or in the international community. Things that happened between nations will look different depending on which side you view them from.”	Shinzō Abe	26 April 2015
Seymour Hersh	“But one of the things we did, ostensibly to improve the conditions of prisoners, we demanded that the American soldiers operating in Afghanistan could only hold a suspected Taliban for four days, 96 hours. If not... after four days they could not be sure that this person was not a Taliban, he must be freed. Instead of just holding them and making them Taliban, you have to actually do some, some work to make the determination in the field. Tactically, in the field. So what happens of course, is after three or four days, "bang, bang" — I'm just telling you — they turn them over to the Afghans and by the time they take three steps away the shots are fired. And that's going on. It hasn't stopped. It's not just me that's complaining about it. But the stuff that goes on in the field, is still going on in the field — the secret prisons, absolutely, oh you bet they're still running secret prisons. Most of them are in North Africa, the guys running them are mostly out of Djibouto [sic]. We have stuff in Kenya (doesn't mean they're in Kenya, but they're in that area).”	Seymour Hersh	January 2011
Michael Parenti	“The first atrocity, the first war crime committed in any war of aggression by the aggressors is against the truth.”	Michael Parenti
Petro Poroshenko	“we [in Ukraine] will have work they – [in the Donbas] won’t. We will have pensions – they won’t. We will care for our children and pensioners – they won’t. Our children will go to school, to kindergartens – their children will sit in cellars*. They don’t know how to organize or do anything. This, ultimately, is how we will win this war.”	Petro Poroshenko	October 2014
Donald Trump	“The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don't kid yourself. When they say they don't care about their lives, you have to take out their families.”	Donald Trump	2 December 2015
UK/Army	“The British army operated rules of engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan that at times allowed soldiers to shoot unarmed civilians who were suspected of keeping them under surveillance, a Middle East Eye investigation has established. The casualties included a number of children and teenage boys, according to several former soldiers interviewed by MEE. Two former infantrymen allege that they and their fellow soldiers serving in southern Iraq were at one point told that they had permission to shoot anyone seen holding a mobile telephone, carrying a shovel, or acting in any way suspiciously. The rules were relaxed, they say, in part because of concerns that unarmed individuals were acting as spotters for militants, or were involved in planting roadside bombs.<a href="#cite_note-4">[4]</a>”	Ian Cobain	4 February 2019

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Assange ruling a dangerous precedent for journalists and British justice	Article	10 December 2021	Jonathan Cook	And yet despite all this, the English High Court ruled on 10 December 2021 that it was satisfied with “assurances” that Assange’s wellbeing would be protected were he extradited to the United States. British judges may be persuaded by those assurances. Many others, including Assange, will not be.
Document:ICC issues warrants of arrest for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant	Statement	21 November 2024	Pre-Trial Chamber I of the ICC	The ICC found reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant each bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts; and for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.
Document:ICC prosecutor says world leaders 'threatened' him over Israel arrest warrants	Article	5 September 2024	News Desk	“Target Israel, and we will target you,” US Senators, led by Tom Cotton, warned in the letter. “Such actions are illegitimate and lack legal basis, and, if carried out, will result in severe sanctions against you and your institution.” Senators Mitch McConnell (minority leader), Rick Scott, Tim Scott, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio also signed the letter.
Document:Kosovo Mafia	article		Matt McAllester Jovo Martinovic
Document:Remembrance Day and the truths that dare not speak their name	blog post	8 November 2018	John Wight	If Remembrance Day imparts a message worthy of our collective intelligence it is that war should be made a crime, with those who instigate it punished as criminals. In the last analysis it does not determine who is right only who is left. We have met the enemy and he is us. End.
Document:US says Israel may have breached international law with American weapons in Gaza	commentary	11 May 2024	Jonathan Cook	"If that sounds like extreme linguistic, legal and moral gymnastics in defence of continuing US complicity in genocide, it's because that is exactly what it is."
Document:War Crimes	Article	9 October 2022	Jacob Dreizin	An article that was written on the occurrence of the disposal of civilians posted in video by Maksim Zhorin.
Document:We are the war criminals now	Article	29 November 2001	Robert Fisk	George W. Bush says that "you are either for us or against us" in the war for civilisation against evil. Well, I'm sure not for bin Laden. But I'm not for Bush. I'm actively against the brutal, cynical, lying "war of civilisation" that he has begun so mendaciously in our name and which has now cost as many lives as the World Trade Center mass murder.
File:Council of Europe Kosovo Report.pdf	report	12 December 2010	The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights
File:NATO-KFOR-Kosovo Organised Crime.ppt	presentation			This appears to be a NATO-KFOR presentation on organised crime in Kosovo. The presentation is marked "SECRET NATO" and "Created by "Cpt. Sikora CZA". There is no indication of date but it's contents place it around 2000-2004 - probably as part of the considerations surrounding the preparations for declaring Kosovo independance from Serbia.
File:NATO-KFOR-Kosovo Organised Crime.zip	image			38 images which appear to be the content of a NATO-KFOR presentation on organised crime in Kosovo. The presentation is marked "SECRET NATO" and "Created by "Cpt. Sikora CZA". There is no indication of date but it's contents place it around 2000-2004 - probably as part of the considerations surrounding the preparations for declaring Kosovo independance from Serbia.
File:SECRET-KFOR Dossier on Xhavit Haliti.pdf	report	10 March 2004		A forensic report of the examination of a house in Burrel, Albania, alleged to have been used for the removal of human organs prior to the killing an burial of victims.
File:UNMIK Forensic Report Organ Trafficking Kosovo.pdf	report	18 June 2004		A forensic report of the examination of a house in Burrel, Albania, alleged to have been used for the removal of human organs prior to the killing an burial of victims.
File:UNMIK Investigation Organ Trafficking Kosovo.pdf	report			Extensive information about human organ trafficking in Kosovo implicating senior members of the Kosovo government. It comprises a memo to the then UN Chief of Investigations from the Head of the UNMIK Mission - the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo - dated 30 October 2003, together with documents dealing with various aspects of the investigations.

 

Convicted of War crime

Person	Born	Died	Nationality	Summary	Description
Friedrich Flick	10 July 1883	20 July 1972	Germany	Businessperson	Friedrich Flick was a German industrialist and convicted Nazi war criminal. After the war, he reconstituted his businesses, becoming the richest person in West Germany, and one of the richest people in the world, at the time of his death in 1972.

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