Bush and Blair can be brought to account, after all

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2006/November/opinion_November67.xml§ion=opinion&col=

SO DONALD Rumsfeld has gone and Washington’s plans for a new American century are in disarray. The reason has been the disaster in Iraq. October was the costliest month for the US since the invasion with at least 90 American soldiers killed. Iraq’s security forces are nowhere near able to control the country.

A massive US push to pacify Baghdad has failed. Insurgents and death squads have the run of the city. Blair and Bush both insist that they will ‘stay the course’ and not withdraw their troops — or even reduce them — until the job is done.

This is fantasy land and the editorials in newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic suggested that the only reason for keeping coalition troops in Iraq is to safeguard Bush and Blair’s legacies — a vain hope since Iraq will be remembered only for blunder, bloodshed and catastrophe. Shouldn’t someone pay for such a bloody and ghastly mistake?

Evan Whitton, an Australian academic, (Australia is a little-known member of the coalition of the willing which attacked Iraq) has written a paper suggesting that someone might well be held accountable. He has been looking at the work of Elizabeth de la Vega, a former US federal prosecutor and a member of the Organized Crime Strike Force. Her view is that section 371 of Title 18 of the US Code prohibits conspiracies to defraud the United States.

She says, "The Supreme Court has defined the phrase "conspiracy to defraud the United States as ‘to interfere with, impede or obstruct a lawful government function by deceit, craft or trickery.’

"Proof that two or more people were conspiring requires a comparison of their public conduct and statements with their conduct and statements behind the scenes. A pattern of double-dealing proves a criminal conspiracy. Fraud is broadly defined to include half-truths, omissions or misrepresentation; in other words, statements that are intentionally misleading, even if literally true."

[Beam Me Up]

1. First to K&R.

[KoKo]

2. Good God! The blood drips from so many hands... Bushies/NeoCons/

Mainstream Media! We need accountability for all this death and destruction. They've created Chaos! They've murdered for Vanity and their delusional ideas.

Impeachment is TOO GOOD for the Bushies...so many more need to be held acountable. Prison is TOO GOOD... I don't know what the true punishment for all this blood and chaos is. I hope they rot in hell but before they get there...they are held ACCOUNTABLE!!!! IN SOME WAY that they CAN'T GET OUT OF with PARDONS!

[buddysmellgood]

3. My 12-year-old could prosecute the administration under that and get the conviction.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

4. If your 12 year old is the prosecutor, at least Bush

would be prosecuted by one of his peers.

[petunia.here]

6. Okay, I have to say the obvious

don't insult the 12 yr old. :P

[Senator]

5. Imagine that ... Terrorizing the American People

with lies of "mushroom clouds ... in 45 minutes" might acutally be against the law.

Then the same could be said for Stealing Presidential Elections if only someone had been lamenting "recount after recount" when they knew full well that none had ever happened...

...hey, wait a minute.

--

[Hubert Flottz]

7. No their crimes are off the table!

It would cause the democrats to lose in 08 for sure, if Bush went to jail for his lying, murdering and stealing...ask any Freeper>