Wanted for Murder: George W. Bush

Submitted by Ed ORourke on June 20, 2008 – 11:44am. — Justice & Peace

Vincent Buglosi’s angry book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, has three themes: 1) laying out the case for a murder indictment, 2) showing Bush’s incompetence in dealing with terrorists and 3) a call for a restored America. Since Bush fabricated a case to go with Iraq, he is guilty of murdering some 4,000 American military people. Iraq was not a threat to the United States or anyone else. Saddam Hussein never had any connection with Al Qaeda. In fact, they hated each other. Saddam had his palaces, wives and luxurious living in secular government. Osama Bin Laden, a fundamentalist aesthetic, considered Hussein as an apostate. There was a 1995 meeting in Sudan with Bin Laden and an Iraqi intelligence officer to look for mutual goals but nothing came of this meeting. On October 15, 2001, Colin Powell stated that Iraq was no threat: “Iraq is Iraq, a wasted society for 10 years.”

Counterterrorism director, Richard Clarke, told the President on September 12, 2001, that the Central Intelligence Agency was already explicit that only Al Qaeda was involved in the attacks. On October 1, 2002, the Central Intelligence Agency issued a National Intelligence Estimate that Iraq was not a threat. On October 7, 2002, Bush in nationally televised speech on Iraq stated that Saddam Hussein was “a great danger to our nation.” In a prime time press conference on March 6, 2003, Bush mentioned September 11 eight times and spoke of Saddam Hussein more often, usually in the same breath. When American troops captured Saddam Hussein, the military took him to an Iraqi court for trial, marking an unequivocal admission that he had nothing to do with 9/11. Because there was no credible evidence, only lies from the Bush administration that would not have survived cross examination, the only verdict would have been not guilty.

The so-called liberal media had an uncritical attitude, not only failing to examine Bush administration statements but were cheerleaders for his actions. Vincent Buglosi refers to the “very weak liberal media and pathetic liberal TV personalities like Charlie Rose, Ted Koppel, and George Stepanopoulos – physiological marvels who are somehow able to sit in front of a camera without a spine, that let Bush get by with murder.”

Vincent Buglosi paints a picture of a president oblivious of the human pain he has caused, “He’s a spoiled, callous brat who became President only because of his father’s name.” He refers to “the draft-dodging, arrogant son of privilege from Crawford.” No matter how many Iraqis or Americans die on any day, “He is always seen with a big smile on his face the same day [of a car bomb incident] or the next, and is in good spirits.” Under the terrible circumstances of the war, a Bush biking friend, Mark McKinnon told a New York Times reporter in March, 2005: “He’s as calm and confident and relaxed and happy as I’ve ever seen him.”

The newspapers carrying Bush’s pictures all through out the Iraq war always show him
smiling broadly. On the other hand, pictures of Roosevelt during World War II, Truman in the Korean War, Johnson and Nixon in the Vietnam War frequently show grim faces.

Although Bush is still in office, he has already spent more time on vacation than any other president in American history. In 2,535 days as president, Bush has spent all or part of 908 days (36% of his time in office) on vacation or at retreat facilities. The incredible time spent away from work shows Bush to be a lazy and irresponsible person. He refuses to read any reports. Cabinet members and others prepare one or two paragraph summaries that he usually does not read. He does not even read newspapers but relies on his gut and communication with God. David Kay, the Central Intelligence Agency’s first chief weapons inspector for the Iraq Survey Group said this about Bush: “I’m not sure I’ve ever spoken to anyone at that level who seemed less inquisitive.”

Although Bush was in favor of the Vietnam War but not in favor of his combat participation, he dodged the draft by joining the Texas National Guard. His father, a congressman at the time, called in favors to make the arrangements. Since he was never a combat soldier, he never experienced war’s terror. This experience gap had its effects in Bush’s decision to invade Iraq. A three-star Marine Corps general, Gregory Newbold that Bush’s decision to invade Iraq “was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions – or bury the results.”

After a December 12, 2005 speech in Philadelphia someone asked how many died in the war, Bush said, “I would say 30,000 more or less.” Vincent Buglosi observes, “There wasn’t the faintest hint in his voice conveying pity, sorrow, pain, regret, or anything. And the reason is that none of these things were inside of him.” “Bush has taken coldness, vulgarity, crudeness, and self-indulgence by an American president or any high public figure in American history to unimaginable heights.”

Bush does not think that the war should be inconvenience him or his rich friends. Except for the military and their families, he has not asked anyone to do much of anything, no military draft, no increased taxes and no rationing.

The Bush administration has not adequately equipped our troops. Roadside bombs (IEDs, improvise explosive devises) have been responsible for nearly 70 percent of American combat deaths in Iraq. The vulnerable Humvees were not designed to withstand such explosions. Instead of giving contracts to many manufacturers and going on 24 hour factory use, the Bush administration did nothing. A year and a half into the war, the only Humvee armoring company in America had no new Pentagon orders and operated under capacity. Soldiers were writing home to obtain body and armor plating for theirs Humvees. A far better vehicle is the MRAP (mine-resistant, ambush protected). As of the end of 2007, the soldiers in Iraq had received only about 1,500 of the 14,000 requested. Bush could give a $1.3 trillion tax break to America’s super rich over ten years but there is not enough money to provide adequate protection to our troops.

The American public’s reaction to 9/11 in rallying around the Bush administration is a puzzle to Vincent Buglosi. The logical reaction would have to demand Bush and Cheney’s resignations. Instead the Republicans have used a colossal failure as a triumph turning logic on its head. Vice-President Cheney remarked before the 2004 election: “if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we’ll get hit again,” as if the Republicans were not running the government on 9/11. The Vice-President did not mention was that President Bus did not speak to George Tenet, the Central Intelligence Director during August, 2001. When he learned of the famous August 6, 2001 report that the country would be under attack on any day, Bush issued no orders.

Bush resisted any investigation of the 9/11 event and blocked the Congress’s efforts to establish an independent commission to see how and why the tragedy happened and what could be done to keep an attack from happening again. Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman openly accused the Bush administration of sabotaging their efforts to set up the proposed commission.

Bush has never fired or reprimanded anyone as a result of 9/11. The Republicans as a group did not want an investigation that showed Bush to be grossly negligent. The 9/11 families’ lobbying made the difference in Bush reluctantly agreeing to the commission. After the commission’s establishment, Bush and his assistants sabotaged the commission by denying access to critical documents. The White House eventually complied to avoid he embarrassment of a subpoena.

After much badgering, Bush agreed to meet with the commission under stringent conditions: with all ten members at the same time, in private, not under oath, no recording of the session, no transcript made, only for an hour and Cheney at his side. When asked about this on NBC’s Meet The Press, Condoleezza Rice responded: “I hope that the commission would recognize that he’s president, and people would be judicious with his time.” In the same week, he attended a rodeo in Houston and maintained his ten hour daily exercise program.

Individual commission members were aghast at Bush’s ineptness and irresponsibility. The final report stated that the Bush administration showed “failures of imagination, policy, capabilities, and management.”

When US intelligence learned that Bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December, 2001, Bush did not use the US military to capture him but used Afghan warlords and the Pakistani Army who did not have a special grudge against him.

After the initial flourish, Bush has stopped looking for Bin Laden. On July 4, 2006 the New York Times reported that the Central Intelligence Agency shut down the decade-old unit whose mission was to hunt down Osama Bin Laden and his lieutenants. Under present circumstances, Bin Laden will live free until he dies with natural causes. Noted by few individuals, not even Vincent Buglosi, that after the United States started bombing Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban government offered to turn Osama Bin Laden to the United States after examining the evidence against him. Since every sovereign government in the world requires an extradition hearing before turning over citizens or residents, this was a reasonable requirement. This was too much trouble for George Bush who said just turn him over.

Even though the highest ranking military officers wanted to occupy Iraq with 400,000 troops to secure peace that would not allow an insurgency to get off the ground, Bush only sent a reduced number. There were no terrorists operating in Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s regime. Our no-bid do-little contractors, our Army’s torture and Paul Bremer’s dismantling the Iraqi government made sure that Iraq would be a breeding ground for terrorists. Now nearly five million Iraqis have left their homes.

The Central Intelligence Agency’s 2006 National Intelligence Estimate on September 26, 2006 showed that Bush administration’s actions made America less safe from terrorists.

Dealing with terrorists is a function of law enforcement and intelligence that requires world wide cooperation. The 9/11 event was an opportunity to start a global anti-poverty program that would eradicate most incentives for people to become terrorists. Bush never considered this. On September 20, 2001, Bush spoke to the Congress and the nation and told us that the terrorists struck because “they hate our freedoms, our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.” Captured documents and Osama Bin Laden’s November 24, 2002 statement demonstrated that he went after us because of our foreign policy: 1) support for Israel in suppressing Palestinians, 2) US bases in Saudi Arabia considered to be in Muslims’ sacred places, 3) pressing Muslims to sell petroleum at knock down prices and 4) American sanctions on Iraq that caused the death of 1.5 million children. Instead of examining our policies considering the accusations if for no more reason to reduce terrorist recruitment efforts, the Bush administration simply ignored the opportunity to defuse Al Qaeda’s driving force.

Bush as governor of Texas signed death warrants on 152 of 153 scheduled executions. He even ridiculed a condemned woman who begged him to spare her life. For his actions as governor and president, he deserves no mercy should a court convict him of first degree murder. However, as someone advocating war abolition and the end of the death penalty, I can make no exceptions. I would hope that a governor or the president would commute his death sentence after a reasonable amount time on death row.

Vincent Buglosi observes: “What George Bush and his accomplices did is so monumentally base, so extraordinarily wrong, dishonorable, and criminal, that I’m not gifted enough a writer to describe it. In view of the ghastly, incalculable consequences of their act and the greatness of their sin, it would take a Tolstoy, a Shakespeare, a Hemmingway to give people an illuminating glimpse into the darkness of their souls.”

Vincent Buglosi’s legal theory any state attorney general or any district attorney in any county of any state could bring murder and conspiracy charges against Bush for any of the soldiers of that state or county who lost their lives fighting Bush’s wars.

An international tribunal today could charge senior members of the Bush administration with the same indictments made in 1945 at the Nuremberg Trials, conspiracy to wage aggressive war, waging aggressive war, war crimes and crimes against humanity. In addition to international tribunals, President Bush and many members of his administration can be charged in the courts of many nations that respect and enforce international law. Recall how General Pinochet was charged in Spain for the torture and killing of Spanish citizens in Chile. Because Pinochet was in the United Kingdom at the time of his arrest, the British House of Lords decided that extradition was proper and lawful but that Pinochet was too sick to be competent to stand trial.

Vincent Buglosi’s third theme is restoring America. At press time, the mainstream media has imposed a blackout of his book and Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s 35 impeachment charges. Our media has time to pursue tabloid journalism in the trivial events in celebrities’ lives such as Paris Hilton. The media abetted a seven year $70 million investigation into a real estate (Whitewater) venture that occurred 15 years before Clinton was president. When that investigation came up blank, Kenneth Starr started investigating President Clinton’s consensual sex life. Clinton was impeached for allegedly trying to cover up a consensual sexual affair. However, murdering 4,000 troops is not significant to our media.

The mainstream media seldom mentions that the United States has more people behind bars that anyone else. We have nearly 50 million people without health insurance. The super rich defraud investors out of hundreds of millions without spending a day in jail. The average chief executive officer makes 531 times as much as the workers in his company.

Some of the solution is to cut our defense budget by 50%, abolish poverty in the world, eliminate all nuclear weapons, make our cities beautiful, and establish a minimum wage that would eliminate the need of parents having two jobs. Establish a 100% tax on all income over $10 million per person per year. Make swords into ploughshares, the sooner the better.

Main source:

Vincent Buglosi, The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder, Vanguard Press, 2008, 344 pages.

Ed O’Rourke is an environmental accountant in Houston.

This article was published by the “National Catholic Reporter” on June 20, 2008 http://ncrcafe.org/node/1926