THE HANDSTAND

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BUSH TO THE HAGUE!

AGAINST BUSH, CHENEY, RUMSFELD, TENET, RICE AND GONZALES; INTERNATIONAL ARREST WARRANTS REQUESTED

BUSH TO THE HAGUE!
The Hague acknowledges Francis Boyle today on his filing against Bush et al for the war-crime "Extraordinary Rendition"

Dear Accountability Advocates and previous impeachment advocates, (all blind-copied above)

I'll be setting up a Facebook group shortly (hopefully today) and Prof. Boyle has just engaged a webmaster who will be setting up a website this weekend. Any other ideas on how to get this moving forward is greatly appreciated.

From: OTP InformationDesk [mailto:OTP.InformationDesk@icc-cpi.int]

Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 4:08 AM

To: Boyle, Francis

Subject: Information Received - Review Letter - OTP-CR-41/10

Madame, Monsieur,

Veuillez trouver en pièce jointe une communication du bureau du procureur de la cour pénale internationale.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Please find attached a communication from the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

Office of the Prosecutor - International Criminal Court Bureau du Procureur - Cour pénale internationale

<<OTP-CR-41_10>>

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This message contains information that may be privileged or confidential and is the property of the International Criminal Court. It is intended only for the person to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you are not authorized by the owner of the information to read, print, retain copy, disseminate, distribute, or use this message or any part hereof. If you receive this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message and all copies hereof.

Below is Prof. Boyle's message and initial filing. He is looking for endorsements.
Please respond if you'd like your group named as endorsing the arrest of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Tenet and Gonzales for the international war-crimes:

The basis would be the Complaint I have filed with the ICC. I want everyone in the world to contact the ICC prosecutor as indicated and demand Bush’s prosecution. Once that is set up we use it to pressure all governments in the world to investigate, extradite and prosecute Bush et al., including our own The principles of international criminal law that they have violated apply everywhere in the world. We need grassroots activists whom I can work with to put this together with experience doing it. We also get as many endorsements from NGOs as we can. I already got my first, as indicated below.

AGAINST BUSH, CHENEY, RUMSFELD, TENET, RICE AND GONZALES; INTERNATIONAL ARREST WARRANTS REQUESTED

__________________________________________________________________________________

Demonstrate Your Support for this Complaint by Contacting the I.C.C. Prosecutor by Letter, Fax, or email as Indicated Below

Champaign, U.S.A./The Hague, Netherlands (19 Jan 2010). -- Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, U.S.A. has filed a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) in The Hague against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales (the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetrated upon about 100 human beings. This term is really their euphemism for the enforced disappearance of persons and their consequent torture. This criminal policy and practice by the Accused constitute Crimes against Humanity in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the I.C.C.

The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute. Nevertheless the Accused have ordered and been responsible for the commission of I.C.C. statutory crimes within the respective territories of many I.C.C. member states, including several in Europe. Consequently, the I.C.C. has jurisdiction to prosecute the Accused for their I.C.C. statutory crimes under Rome Statute article 12(2)(a) that affords the I.C.C. jurisdiction to prosecute for I.C.C. statutory crimes committed in I.C.C. member states.

The Complaint requests (1) that the I.C.C. Prosecutor open an investigation of the Accused on his own accord under Rome Statute article 15(1); and (2) that the I.C.C. Prosecutor also formally “submit to the [I.C.C.] Pre-Trial Chamber a request for authorization of an investigation” of the Accused under Rome Statute article 15(3).

For similar reasons, the Highest Level Officials of the Obama administration risk the filing of a follow-up Complaint with the I.C.C. if they do not immediately terminate the Accused’s criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition,” which the Obama administration has continued to implement.

The Complaint concludes with a request that the I.C.C. Prosecutor obtain International Arrest Warrants for the Accused from the I.C.C. in accordance with Rome Statute articles 58(1)(a), 58(1)(b)(i), 58(1)(b)(ii), and 58(1)(b)(iii).

In order to demonstrate your support for this Complaint you can contact the I.C.C. Prosecutor by letter, fax, or email as indicated below.

Please accept my personal compliments. I have the honor hereby to file with you and the International Criminal Court this Complaint against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice , and Alberto Gonzales (hereinafter referred to as the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition.” This term is really a euphemism for the enforced disappearances of persons, their torture, severe deprivation of their liberty, their violent sexual abuse, and other inhumane acts perpetrated upon these Victims. The Accused have inflicted this criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” upon about one hundred (100) human beings, almost all of whom are Muslims/Arabs/Asians and People of Color. I doubt very seriously that the Accused would have inflicted these criminal practices upon 100 White Judeo-Christian men.

The Accused’s criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” are both “widespread” and “systematic” within the meaning of Rome Statute article 7(1). Therefore the Accused have committed numerous “Crimes against Humanity” in flagrant and repeated and longstanding violation of Rome Statute articles 5(1)(b), 7(1)(a), 7(1)(e), 7(1)(f), 7(1)(g), 7(1)(h), 7(1)(i), and 7(1)(k). Furthermore, the Accused’s Rome Statute Crimes Against Humanity of enforced disappearances of persons constitutes ongoing criminal activity that continues even as of today.

The United States is not a contracting party to the Rome Statute. Nevertheless, the Accused ordered and were responsible for the commission of these I.C.C. statutory crimes on, in, and over the respective territories of several I.C.C. member states, including many located in Europe. Therefore, the I.C.C. has jurisdiction over the Accused for their I.C.C. statutory crimes in accordance with Rome Statute article 12(2)(a), which provides as follows:

2. In the case of article 13, paragraph (a) or (c), the Court may exercise its jurisdiction if one or more of the following States are Parties to this Statute or have accepted the jurisdiction of the Court in accordance with paragraph 3:

So the fact that United States is not a contracting party to the Rome Statute is no bar to the I.C.C.’s prosecution of the Accused because they have ordered and been responsible for the commission of Rome Statute Crimes against Humanity on, in, and over the respective territories of several I.C.C. member states.

Consequently, I hereby respectfully request that the Court exercise its jurisdiction over the Accused for these Crimes against Humanity in accordance with Rome Statute article 13(c), which provides as follows:

The Court may exercise its jurisdiction with respect to a crime referred to in article 5 in accordance with the provisions of this Statute if:

Pursuant to Rome Statute article 13(c), I hereby respectfully request that you initiate an investigation proprio motu against the Accused in accordance with Rome Statute article 15(1): “The Prosecutor may initiate investigations proprio motu on the basis of information on crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court.” My detailed Complaint against the Accused constitutes the sufficient “information” required by article 15(1).

Furthermore, I respectfully submit that this Complaint by itself constitutes “a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation” under Rome Statute article 15(3). Hence, I also respectfully request that you formally “submit to the Pre-Trial Chamber a request for authorization of an investigation” of the Accused under Rome Statute article 15(3) at this time. Please inform me at your earliest convenience about the status and disposition of my two requests set forth immediately above.

Based upon your extensive human rights work in Argentina, you know full well from direct personal experience the terrors and the horrors of enforced disappearances of persons and their consequent torture. According to reputable news media sources here in the United States, about 100 human beings have been subjected to enforced disappearances and subsequent torture by the Accused. We still have no accounting for these Victims. In other words, many of these Victims of enforced disappearances and torture by the Accused could still be alive today. Their very lives are at stake right now as we communicate. You could very well save some of their lives by publicly stating that you are opening an investigation of my Complaint.

As for those Victims of enforced disappearances by the Accused who have died, your opening an investigation of my Complaint is the only means by which we might be able to obtain some explanation and accounting for their whereabouts and the location of their remains in order to communicate this critical information to their next-of-kin and loved-ones. Based upon your extensive experience combating enforced disappearances of persons and their consequent torture in Argentina, you know full well how important that objective is. The next-of-kin, loved-ones, and friends of “disappeared” human beings can never benefit from psychological “closure” unless and until there is an accounting for the fates, if not the remains, of the Victims. In part that is precisely why the Accused’s enforced disappearances of about 100 human beings constitutes ongoing criminal activity that continues as of today and will continue until the fates of all their Victims have been officially determined by you opening an investigation into my Complaint.

Let us mutually suppose that during the so-called “dirty war” in Argentina the International Criminal Court had been in existence. I submit that as an Argentinean human rights lawyer you would have moved heaven and earth and done everything in your power to get the I.C.C. and its Prosecutor to assume jurisdiction over the Argentine Junta in order to terminate and prosecute their enforced disappearances and torture of your fellow Argentinean citizens. I would have done the same. Unfortunately, the I.C.C. did not exist during those darkest of days for the Argentine Republic when we could have so acted. But today as the I.C.C. Prosecutor, you have both the opportunity and the legal power to do something to rectify this mass and total human rights annihilation, and to resolve and to terminate and to prosecute the “widespread” and “systematic” policy and practice of enforced disappearances and consequent torture of about 100 human beings by the Accused.

Unfortunately, the new Obama administration in the United States has made it perfectly clear by means of public statements by President Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder that they are not going to open any criminal investigation of any of the Accused for these aforementioned Crimes against Humanity. Hence an I.C.C. “case” against the Accused is “admissible” under Rome Statute article 1(complementarity) and article 17. As of right now you and the I.C.C. Judges are the only people in the entire world who can bring some degree of Justice, Closure, and Healing into this dire, tragic, and deplorable situation for the lives and well-being of about one hundred “disappeared” and tortured human beings as well as for their loved-ones and next-of-kin, who are also Victims of the Accused’s Crimes against Humanity. On behalf of them all, as a fellow human rights lawyer I implore you to open an investigation into my Complaint and to issue a public statement to that effect.

Also, most regretfully, the new Obama administration has publicly stated that it will continue the Accused’s policy and practice of "extraordinary rendition," which is really their euphemism for enforced disappearances of human beings and consequent torture by other States. Hence the Highest Level Officials of the Obama administration fully intend to commit their own Crimes against Humanity under the I.C.C. Rome Statute – unless you stop them! Your opening an investigation of my Complaint will undoubtedly deter the Obama administration from engaging in any more “extraordinary renditions” -- enforced disappearances of human beings and having them tortured by other States. Indeed your opening of an investigation into my Complaint might encourage the Obama administration to terminate its criminal “extraordinary rendition” program immediately and thoroughly by means of issuing a public statement to that effect. In other words, your opening an investigation of my Complaint could very well save the lives of a large number of additional human beings who otherwise will be subjected by the Obama administration to the Rome Statute Crimes against Humanity of enforced disappearances of persons and their consequent torture by other States, inter alia.

The lives and well-being of countless human beings are now at risk, hanging in the balance, waiting for you to act promptly, effectively, and immediately to save them from becoming Victims of Rome Statute Crimes against Humanity perpetrated by the Highest Level Officials of the Obama administration as successors-in-law to the Accused by opening an investigation of my Complaint. Otherwise, I shall be forced to file with you and the I.C.C. a follow-up Complaint against the Highest Level Officials of the Obama administration. I certainly hope it will not come to that. Please make it so.

Finally, for reasons more fully explained in the Conclusion to my Complaint, I respectfully request that you obtain I.C.C. arrest warrants for the Accused in accordance with Rome Statute articles 58(1)(a), article 58(1)(b)(i), article 58(1)(b)(ii), and article 58(1)(b)(iii). The sooner, the better for all humankind.

I respectfully request that you schedule a meeting with me at our earliest mutual convenience in order to discuss this Complaint. I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

This transmission letter is an integral part of my Complaint against the Accused and is hereby incorporated by reference into the attached Complaint dated as of today as well.

THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS
OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION (EAFORD)

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Susan C. Paine Serpa
Facilitator, Northeast Indictment Coalition
Coordinator, National Accountability Action Network
617-599-5195
neimpeach@gmail.com

INTERVIEW WITH PROF. FRANCIS BOYLE
Subsequent to issuing a Complaint as recorded above and in a recent issue of The Handstand I received this text of a telephone interview from Professor Boyle and a journalist anonymously described as Smile Politely. Jocelyn Braddell editor

Smile Politely writes: The Highest Level Officials of the Obama administration risk the filing of a follow-up Complaint with the I.C.C. if they do not immediately terminate the Accused's criminal policy and practice of "extraordinary rendition," which the Obama administration has continued to implement.This may seem like a quixotic endeavor, but Boyle has had success with filings in international courts before.

Smile Politely: I'm curious about the timing of this filing. What prompted this to come out now?

Francis Boyle: Well, my own schedule. I was grading exams and everything until Christmas Eve, and then I took some time off, and came back and finished it up in between classes. My classes resumed on Tuesday, and I filed on Tuesday. It had nothing to do with Bush being appointed there in Haiti, although it sort of raises the question, Why did President Obama appoint an international criminal to bring so-called relief to the people of Haiti? Especially after what [Bush] did to the people of New Orleans after Katrina, but this is just based on my own... the schedule, the timing was really based on my own research and teaching schedule.

Smile Politely: Argentina was used as an example in the letter to the court. I'm assuming that's because the prosecutor is Argentinian?

Francis Boyle: That's right, he had extensive experience combating human rights violations in Argentina, and that's why he was picked as ICC prosecutor. But, I wanted to point out to him the similarities between the dirty war of the Argentine junta and the Bush dirty war.

Smile Politely: I can see that connection. You mentioned that the Obama Administration is continuing the policy of extraordinary rendition. I was wondering if you knew of any examples of this policy being acted upon under the new administration, or whether the rhetoric is just the same?

Francis Boyle: They have officially stated that they are continuing the policy; however, so far I do not have any evidence as to precisely what they have done, because it's all surreptitious to begin with. For that reason, I have not included the Obama Administration in my complaint. I'm an attorney, and I have an obligation to investigate the facts and the law before I take legal action against someone, and right now I do not have the legal evidence that that's what Obama is doing, so I had to limit this complaint to what Bush was up to, because that has been very well-documented by the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe, or the so-called Marty Report [found here in pdf form], the official investigation by the Council of Europe, they had access to all the governments, solidly based. I could not really start drafting this complaint, couldn't really contemplate it, until that report came out, and then it became clear that they had violated the ICC statute, and there was enough credible evidence produced by a report, and not just relying on news media sources. So, that came out last year, and it took a while to put that together, a 50-page, single-spaced complaint. And then referenced back to the Marty Report, which is even more substantial. So, my guess is, it's going to take the prosecutor a while to work his way through all these documents.

Smile Politely: Did you write a similar complaint that led to the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic?

Francis Boyle: Yes, I did. On behalf of my clients, the Mothers of Srebrenica, I convinced the International Court of the Former Yugoslavia, Carlo Ponti, to indict Slobodan Milosevic for every crime that he committed in the ICTY [International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia] statute, including genocide and he was on trial for all those crimes when he expired. Unfortunately, he didn't really take very good care of himself, he decided to run his own defense, and it looks like he died of high blood pressure or something, I'm really not sure. It was unfortunate, because we wanted a final judgment, we had survived a motion to dismiss. After the close of the prosecution's case, Milosevic filed a motion to dismiss with the court on the grounds of the insufficiency of the case against him, on all counts including genocide, and the court denied that, and he was about to open his defense. But, he never got that far.

Francis Boyle: Well, they're different. The ICTY is different from the International Criminal Court. The International Criminal Court applies to the whole world, at least those states that are parties (it's about 100 states), and the ICTY only applied to crimes in the former Yugoslavia.

Smile Politely: Have you filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court before?

Francis Boyle: No, this is the first one I've done with them. People have asked me to file a complaint before with Bush, but there was no real basis under the jurisdiction as I saw it. But when the Marty Report came out, and I realized the extensive nature of the crimes committed, I felt there was a pretty good case here that could be applied. It's not just enough that particular crimes are committed, they also have to be widespread and systematic, and in this case I already submitted to the prosecutor, they are both.

Francis Boyle: These people are the kingpins, straight on down. It's sort of like Nuremberg. At Nuremberg, we tried the kingpins, these are the kingpins, the ones directly responsible. In the complaint, I also mentioned some other officials, like Professor Yoo, the law professor at Berkeley, and I suspect Moreno-Ocampo will look at Yoo, but he wasn't a kingpin, he was a second-level official.

Smile Politely: The email was mailed from Lawyers Against the War, but then it was signed by you individually...

Francis Boyle: I work with Lawyers Against the War, and they're an outstanding organization. I've given them advice on Omar Cotter's case down there in Guantanamo, which is just a deplorable shame. He is clearly a child soldier under the Child Soldier's Convention, he should be treated as a child soldier and he's not. There's no way he should be facing court-martial here, in this kangaroo court proceeding in Guantanamo, and it's a disgrace that President Obama hasn't pulled the plug on his prosecution, and it's a disgrace that that Prime Minister Harper hasn't intervened to stop it.

Francis Boyle: No, sometimes I work with them and sometimes they support me. I filed this with them for their information, and they circulated it.

Francis Boyle: Yeah, well that outlines the case right there. As I said, the complaint is about 50 pages long; I'm keeping that confidential now until I hear from Moreno-Ocampo about what he's going to do. He has the complaint now, I faxed it through there on Tuesday, sent it FedEx on Wednesday, and also by email, and I have receipts, so they have it. Today's only Friday, so Wednesday I prepared the press release, so we'll see.

Francis Boyle: No, I don't know him personally; I know him by reputation. As a fellow human rights lawyer, I have respect for him, but I don't know him personally, no.

Smile Politely: Do you have any interest in speculating on a timetable that you might receive a response?

Francis Boyle: No, I don't. I have requested a meeting with him. I would hope I'll get that meeting after he's had time to review these documents and make some preliminary inquiries. He's very thorough, professional, meticulous person, so I think this will take some time. But hopefully, he will take my complaint seriously.

Francis Boyle: Well, they have very few cases now. They have I think three out of Africa, one the president of Sudan, and I think that's it. This isn't a case yet, but they do have cases going on.

Smile Politely: That answers most of the questions I had come up with, Professor Boyle. Did you have anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to clear up or expand on?

Francis Boyle: No, but I think all Canadians have to support Omar Cotter and pressure Harper there to intervene to stop this kangaroo court proceeding, this atrocity down in Guantanamo, and have Cotter sent home to Canada and dealt with in accordance with the Child Soldiers' Convention, which calls for his rehabilitation, not his prosecution.

the outrage of US Government Death Lists for USA Citizens

By Professor Francis A. Boyle

February 09, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- This extrajudicial execution of human beings constitutes a grave violation of international human rights law and, under certain circumstances, can also constitute a war crime under the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949. In addition, the extrajudicial execution of U.S. citizens by the United States government also violates the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution mandating that no person "be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

The U.S. Government has now established a "death list" for U.S. citizens abroad akin to those established by Latin American dictatorships during their so-called "dirty wars." The Bush Administration reduced the United States of America to a Banana Republic waging a "dirty war" around the world in gross violation of international law, human rights law, and the laws of war. It is only a matter of time before the United States government will establish a similar "death list" targeting U.S. citizens living here at home. As someone who used to teach Constitutional Law, President Obama knows better.

Professor Francis A. Boyle
University of Illinois College of Law