[Peace] call to action: Contact the Hague to insist they proceed an investigation of war-crimes committed by the accused (Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Tenet and Gonzales)

Sun Jan 31 21:42:20 CST 2010

Dear Peace,
Action for this week

We need your help with 4 things:
1) Contact the Hague to insist they proceed an investigation of
war-crimes committed by the accused (Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld,
Tenet and Gonzales) in the acts called "Extraordinary Rendition" as
quickly as possible.
The Honorable Luis Moreno-Ocampo
Office of the Prosecutor
International Criminal Court
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM, The Hague
The Netherlands
Fax No.: 31-70-515-8555
Email:  OTP.InformationDesk at icc-cpi.int

2) Contact Eric Holder to tell him the International Community will
prosecute even if he does not.
Eric Holder : 202-353-1555  AskDOJ at usdoj.gov

3) If you would like your group listed as endorsing Prof. Boyle's
filing send a note to (neimpeach at gmail.com) .

4) Spread the word: Send this message to other groups

Below is Prof. Boyle's filing to the International Criminal Court:
January 19, 2010
Dear Sir:

            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:
Article 12
Preconditions to the Exercise of Jurisdiction
…
     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:
(a)   The State on the territory of which the conduct in question occurred  …
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:

Article 13
Exercise of Jurisdiction

     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:
        …
(c)    The Prosecutor has initiated an investigation in respect of
such a crime in accordance with article 15.

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.

Please accept, Sir, the assurance of my highest consideration.

Francis A. Boyle
Professor of International Law

Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (voice)
217-244-1478 (fax)
(personal comments only)

ENDORSEMENTS:
THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF
RACIAL DISCRIMINATION (EAFORD)
5 Route des Morillons, CP 2100.  1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Telephone: (022) 788.62.33 Fax: (022) 788.62.45  e-mail: info at eaford.org
www.eaford.org

-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.