Untitled Document
To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
Contact: Connie Julian, 917-449-9064, Janet Yip 212-941-8086
or commission@nion.us
News Advisory:
From: International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against
Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration
WHEN: January 10, 2006 at 1:30 p.m.
WHERE: The White House, Walk-in Gate, across from Lafayette
Park
WEBSITE: http://www.bushcommission.org
An unprecedented series of indictments alleging war crimes and crimes
against humanity, in five separate areas, on moral, political, and legal grounds,
will be delivered by a citizens' tribunal to President Bush at the front gate
of the White House this Tuesday, January 10th.
Named in the indictments are: President of the United States George W. Bush,
Vice President Richard Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Army
Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, U.S. Army Major General Geoffrey Miller,
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, et al.
The indictments will be delivered to the White House by: Retired CIA analyst
Ray McGovern, authors William Blum and Larry Everest, Code Pink, Mike Hersh
(Progressive Democrats of America/After Downing Street), Kevin Zeese (Director,
Democracy Rising; candidate for U.S. Senate in Maryland), Travis Morales (World
Can't Wait -- Drive Out the Bush Regime) and others TBA.
A press conference will follow delivery of indictments, which will also be
delivered to the Department of Justice.
The indictments result from preparatory work and testimony presented in New
York City in October 2005, before the International Commission of Inquiry on
Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration which featured
former UN envoy to Iraq Denis Halliday, Guantanamo prisoners' lawyer Michael
Ratner, and former State Department officer Ann Wright. The Commission's second
tribunal will be held at Riverside Church and the Columbia University Law School
in New York, January 20- 22. Witnesses will include Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski,
former British ambassador Craig Murray, and former arms inspector Scott Ritter,
among many more. The indictments allege war crimes and crimes against humanity
authorized by the Bush Administration in relation to:
1) Wars of Aggression, particular reference to Iraq and
Afghanistan;
2) Torture and Indefinite Detention;
3) Destruction of the Global Environment, particular reference
to distortion of science and obstruction of international efforts to stem
global warming;
4) Attacks on Global Public Health and Reproductive Rights,
particular reference to the potentially genocidal effects of enforcing abstinence
only, global gag rule, distortion of science, and restriction of generic drugs;
and
5) Failure of Bush administration, despite foreknowledge,
to protect life during and after Hurricane Katrina.
Appended to these indictments will be the demand for investigation of the war
crimes of Tony Blair and George Bush submitted by prominent British citizens
to the UN Secretary General and the UK Attorney General.
The commission was organized by the Not in Our Name Statement of Conscience
and is endorsed by: Center for Constitutional Rights, National Lawyers Guild,
After Downing Street.org and others, including Former Sen. James Abourezk, former
British MP Tony Benn, authors Gore Vidal and Howard Zinn, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
and actor Edward Asner.
Charter, full indictments, standards for judgment, and audio and video coverage
of the first session: http://www.bushcommission.org
http://www.usnewswire.com/