Wanted: a local prosecutor to try President Bush for murder
Seattle residents have teamed up with Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted Charles Manson, in a campaign to find a prosecutor to try President George W. Bush on murder charges for the deaths in Iraq of more than 4,000 U.S. soldiers.
Many of us have fantasies of retribution against President George W. Bush. Seward Park-based Bob Alexander’s fantasy is to try Bush on murder charges for the deaths in Iraq of more than 4,000 U.S. soldiers who perished in a war propelled by lies.
On Saturday, Alexander, a Seattle online coffee seller, his wife Arminda, and maybe 20 like-minded folks will gather at the Alexanders’ home to ship 2,200 copies of Vincent Bugliosi’s 2008 book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder (Vanguard Press), to county prosecutors across the country.
Their goal is to convince at least one brave prosecutor to bring a first-degree murder case against Bush and top figures in his administration, including Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, and Karl Rove. Alexander and Bugliosi want the death penalty for Bush.
Bugliosi, who successfully prosecuted Charles Manson for murder and co-wrote the book Helter Skelter about the Manson case, argues that there are strong grounds because Bush caused the death of American soldiers with malice aforethought, “without any lawful excuse of justification.” Any prosecutor whose county suffered Iraq war fatalities has jurisdiction, he contends.
So Bugliosi and Alexander want every prosecutor in a county that lost a soldier in the war — 2,200, Alexander found — to read the book and consider taking up the case.
“It’s a clear way of trying to get some sort of accountability for some of the worst things that ever happened in this country’s history,” Alexander said.
It’s an ambitious project. Alexander, 57, raised nearly $16,000 to cover the mailing costs — mostly from donations sent by listeners of liberal talk radio host Mike Malloy after Malloy discussed Alexander’s project. Bugliosi’s publisher sold Alexander copies of the book at the $3 cost. He still needs another $1,000 or so.
Alexander spent a week researching the names and residences of soldiers who died in Iraq, and matching them with the country’s district attorneys. “It was grim work, and I was pretty happy when I was done,” Alexander said.
After the books have been mailed, Alexander, who started a website to promote his crusade, will encourage everyone to call their local county prosecutor and ask them what they plan to do.
So far, no prosecutors have risen to Bugliosi’s challenge, which he first announced last year. During the 2008 campaign a candidate for the Vermont Attorney General’s office vowed to appoint Bugliosi as special prosecutor to charge Bush with murder, but she lost the election in November.
A spokesman for King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg’s office said his office would take a look at the Bugliosi book when it arrives, but that he is "hard-pressed" to see how the office would have jurisdiction given that the alleged murders did not take place in King County.
That’s not surprising. Bugliosi’s book doesn’t convince me that a murder prosecution of Bush is legally, let alone politically, viable. Neither does he convince Myles Malman, a former state and federal prosecutor who served on the U.S. attorney team that successfully prosecuted Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega on drug charges in Miami in 1990. “It’s absolutely absurd,” said Malman, a white collar defense attorney in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. who admits he’s no fan of Bush and the Iraq war. “The president has immunity for acts done within the scope of office. He was acting under the War Powers Act, which gives him authority to commit U.S. soldiers overseas to combat actions. And Congress voted to give him authority.”
Bugliosi counters that Malman doesn’t know what he’s talking about, that presidents do not have immunity for criminal actions, and that Bush lied to Congress to win approval for the Iraq war.
A much more convincing argument can be made for prosecuting Bush and his cronies for conspiring to commit torture against detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. Former New York congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman and others have made that case. Such a prosecution could conceivably be carried out in the International Criminal Court, the courts of a European country, or even a U.S. federal court.
But the prospects of a U.S. federal investigation and prosecution are doubtful. President Obama told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos earlier this month that “my general belief is that when it comes to national security, what we have to focus on is getting things right in the future, as opposed looking at what we got wrong in the past.”
Alexander is outraged that Obama would decline to act. “There’s been a lot of talk about healing and moving on, and that’s nonsense,” Alexander said. “You don’t move forward after someone knocks off a liquor store and kills the owner.”
He also notes that this isn’t how Americans responded to German war crimes after World War II, when the U.S. and its allies organized the Nuremberg trials. “This country essentially did the same thing [as Germany],” he said. “We invaded a country under false premises. It’s one of the most horrible things an American can realize. That we are like them.”
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Comments:
Posted Wed, Jan 28, 7:44 a.m. inappropriate
It's silly to try Bush/Cheney/ Rumsfeld for murder of U.S. soldiers. The attack and conquest of Iraq on trumped up charges is quite enough to get you the gallows at Nuremberg, to wit: Hitler's trumped up attack on Poland. For that matter, LBJ's Tomkin Bay... the men who become responsible for the death of millions - Bush/Cheney/ Rumsfeld only! of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are never brought to trial unless the countries they led into war are defeated.
Posted Wed, Jan 28, 9:44 a.m. inappropriate
No good can possibly come from proceeding with these charges. The time has come to move on and look to the future. The far left needs to find a new hobby and work for a better America.
Posted Wed, Jan 28, 1:04 p.m. inappropriate
"Fantasies of redtribution against Bush" ought to read fantasy is the lifeblood of the left who live in a fantasy world and want the rest of us to follow them.
How about recognizing the murder of over 50 million (and counting) of the only truly innocent, the unborn? Why shouldn't the abortionist's and mother's be tried for the murder of these human beings who are not terrorists and not our enemies.
Those on the left whose hatred for Bush permeates their entire lives ought to take a look in the mirror and realize their hatred and anger is life-threatening and they ought to follow the advice of their new savior, Obama, and get over the past.
Posted Wed, Jan 28, 1:15 p.m. inappropriate
This crusade is about as relevant as a Christmas tree in February. Bush is gone. Get a life.
Posted Wed, Jan 28, 1:51 p.m. inappropriate
Don't forget to go after Tony Blair, because he lied too. While we're at it, lets go after the Russian Intelligence service. And don't forget to include French and German leasdership for the telling same "lies". It is truly amazing the FAR left continues to hang on to lying about the lies. If Bugliosi insists on finding someone to prosecute Bush, shouldn't he also find someone to do the same to bring Clinton up on prejury charges? How about tarnishing Kennedy's legacy for Vietnam? According to the flower children of the '60s, we were there illegally also. Wasn't he was the one who sent the first troops over there?
Comparing the US to Nazi Germany is an absolute slap in the face of every American who has ever lived. Nazi Germany was hell-bent on European domination, not freedom. Even the most far left person has to admit Iraqi have more freedom in 2009 than they did in 2003. And don't bother with the "blood for oil" argument. That doesn't hold water when you consider no US company has received any contract to extract Iraqi oil.
In talking to others who are Bush-haters, I really think they should try to channel their energy into something more constructive. There are so many other worthwhile projects that could use their attention.
As that famous philosopher, John Rambo, once said "Let it go, let it go".
Posted Wed, Jan 28, 4:22 p.m. inappropriate
Whether the war was just or not is not really the question. Our leaders must be able to make these decisions without fear of recriminations when future generations don't agree with them.
What would be the end result of a successful conviction, beyond whatever sentence could be levied against President Bush? The real effect would be to make all of our present and future leaders less prone to take us into armed conflict. Perhaps that consequence is intended; to do away with war all together. But even though most of us agree that there is such a thing as just cause for using military force to resolve conflict.
None of us are capable of the kind of foresight this article suggests Bush should have had. We make the best decisions we can with the facts we have. World leaders have choices to make with much larger consequences attached than do you or I. We expect them to use sound judgment, protect our interests and believe in what they are doing, but we cannot really expect them to be above error, even when that error costs lives.
Winston Churchill, before he led the British nation through the dangers of World War II, was in charge of the British Armed Forces during World War I and the beginning of the Second World War. Thousands died in the campaigns he devised. If the British had lost World War II, or if public opinion soured when faced with growing casulaties in the Pacific Theater, would it have been conceivable to have Churchill brought up on charges for murder?
This is lunacy. Sheer lunacy.
Posted Wed, Jan 28, 5:17 p.m. inappropriate
GAD......
I shake my head continually over the "torture" thing, or the "lies" myth.
I was sitting on a plane summer of 2003 with a law professor from UW, and I was taken completely aback by this person's view that George W. Bush was the embodiment of everything vile. The individual went so far as to say they expect that the Administration would have planted WMD'S in Iraq to make their "case" for going into Iraq. I looked this person right in the eye and asked, "Just what do you want me to say to that?"; its easy to see how conspiracy theories abound.
It is the height of lunatic arrogance (or is it more infantile..?) to continue along this deranged track.
Posted Thu, Jan 29, 8:29 p.m. inappropriate
What they SHOULD do is try Barack Hussein Obama for murder, now that he's going to use our tax dollars to kill baby boys & girls in the womb overseas.
Posted Thu, Jan 29, 8:42 p.m. inappropriate
The world is a cruel place, Misty. People seem to forget that nowadays. There are a lot of instances in which the virtuous must give way to the least worst. Abortion is a terrible thing, but we in the US have the luxury of declaring our virtues and terribles from within a comfortable, enlightened society. Many in this world don't have that luxury.
Posted Sun, Feb 1, 8:45 p.m. inappropriate
once again, only in seattle do you find such idiots !