No more war crimes in our names! Out of Afghanistan and Iraq now!

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War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity

The brutality with which the US government exercised its “war on terror” is condemned both by the court of international public opinion and by the principles of international law governing human rights. Wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan and the torture of detainees are clearly defined as war crimes by the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions, the Convention against Torture and other treaties to which the United States is a signatory.

The Principles of International Law, recognized in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal, provide no defense for war crimes. Similarly, the Convention Against Torture, which defines torture as a war crime, provides that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.

The prohibition on war crimes is absolute, not relative, meaning that there is no justification for war crimes despite the particular circumstances in their respective countries. U.S. Justice Robert Jackson proclaimed at Nuremberg: “No grievances or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy. The same applies to other war crimes as well. The war crimes of one’s opponents are no justification for one’s own.”

War Criminals Watch exists for one and only one reason: to ensure that prosecutions of high officials of the Bush administration who are guilty of "high crimes and misdemeanors" take place now. Key actors in the Bush administration must be held accountable and prosecuted for the crimes they stand accused, in the eyes of world public opinion, of having committed. Editorialists may demand action. Politicians will call for it. But only an energized and politically active public can make those prosecutions happen. They need to be publicly shamed and prevented from occupying powerful or influential positions within our society. As in other cases where authorities have gone beyond US and international law as well as the laws of decency, only a public accounting will restore lawful conduct.


War Criminals Watch calls on people of conscience to publicly scrutinize those whose acts require prosecution. Former officials now have new roles in society: professor, lawyer, corporate manager, etc., etc. Students and professors, especially, have an obligation to act  as many of these accused war criminals head back to the universities  to let them know that there will be no safe haven on campuses. It is our responsibility to call them out and to demand that legal proceedings take place and in a timely fashion.

It was thought by many that President Obama would put a stop to the madness, to the wars, to the Bush administration’s nightmarish approach to national security.  After six months, this is "the change" we have:

• $5 billion have been spent on recruiting efforts to increase US military forces. This is a clear expansion of a military machine involved in two illegitimate occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan (associated with torture and abuse of detainees in Bagram and mass civilian deaths).
• Since Obama became president, US air strikes have killed quickly growing numbers of Afghani and Pakistani civilians, including women and children.
• Prisoners are still enduring prolonged isolation, sleep and sensory deprivation and force-feeding. These techniques cause extreme mental anguish and permanent physical damage and they are not permitted under international law. Make no mistake, the US still engages in torture.
• Prisoners are being rendered not only to "black sites" outside the US but also in the US. For example, Syed Fahad Hashmi is a Muslim American student held in solitary confinement for the past two years in downtown Manhattan.
• Obama has refused to release photos of the brutal torture of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.  This is censoring the US public. It is not the peoples of the Middle East who will become more   informed with these pictures. They are experiencing attacks and abuses from the US on a daily basis. It is primarily  the US population that is being kept in the dark.
• Obama insists on “moving forward” by avoiding the recognition of crimes committed by the government, allowing the worst offenders of the Bush years to avoid prosecution. He appears perfectly willing to move ahead with the excessive secrecy. He has both granted amnesty to the CIA agents involved in torture and offered legal defense if anyone else were to prosecute them.
• Prisoners in secret detention centers or "black sites" around the world are not allowed to gain access to courts, lawyers or even to know the charges or evidence against them.
• Obama has proposed "Preventive Detention": imprisoning people because the government claims they are likely to engage in violent acts in the future.
• Several of those who have been accused of Bush-era war crimes have continued into the Obama administration -- for example, Gates, Petraeus, Rizzo, Fredman and McChrystal.

Is this the change we want to see? Is it really okay if the Bush policies are carried out by Obama?  The Obama administration is, in effect, condoning the Bush war crimes by not prosecuting the Bush officials and by carrying some of them over into the new administration.. This makes the Obama officials complict with the Bush war crimes.

People of conscience must insist on accountability for the actions of U.S.
officials, no matter who is president.  It is our obligation.