Talk Nation Radio for June 18, 2008
Francis A. Boyle on the case against Bush and potential war with Iran
Listen to this week’s show here
TRT: 29:27
Produced by Dori Smith at WHUS, a Pacifica Affiliate at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here
OR use these free access sites for listening, broadcasting, podcasting:
Archive.org for various formats and Radio4all.net
George W. Bush could be indicted at the state level for murder with malice aforethought, says internationally recognized legal expert Francis A. Boyle of the School of Law at the University of Illinois. He argues that Bush could be tried for murder because he deceived US soldiers about the reason for sending them to Iraq, where over 4100 US soldiers have died thus far.
Professor Boyle sees a variety of cases that could be brought and he believes it would take just ‘one indictment and the whole house of cards would fall’.
We also discuss the latest foreboding headlines on Iran:
During his visit to Europe President George W. Bush met with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the two leaders outlined plans for sanctions on a leading Iranian bank plus possible limits on Iran’s ability to ship oil. While in Europe President George W. Bush has referred to a desire for diplomacy with Iran while adding all options are still on the table. Bush announced a new plan to prevent Iran from shipping oil and gas. Shortly after that George Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced a plan to sanction Iran’s largest bank. (See also fast tracked bills H. Con Res 362 and S. Res 580
The Washington Post and CNN reported this week that Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan provided a Swiss smuggling ring with blueprints for an advanced warhead. The reports specifically mentioned that Iran, North Korea, and other countries, could have acquired these plans. A.Q. Khan, Abdul Qadeer Khan, was arrested in 2003, and these and similar stories appear to trace back to a computer and other equipment seized then.
The source for this story was former top U.N. arms inspector David Albright. David Albright has been controversial since 2003 when he continued to argue that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction programs long after others gave up that argument. Albright maintained they may have been smaller than the White House alleged. (See new story about Albright in TruthOut.
The Associated Press has now interviewed A.Q. Khan by phone to Islamabad where he is under house arrest. He told A.P. that David Albright’s report is quote: “All concoction” and “a pack of lies”. He argued that Albright is working for the CIA, and claimed the latest reports are part of a campaign to pressure Pakistan.
The U.S. is of course applying pressure in the form of air attacks in Pakistan near the Afghan border. Tensions are rising and Jane Perlez reported in the International Herald Tribune that Pakistani soldiers and others in the country are enraged about the US air strike that killed 11 soldiers from the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force Washington has been spending $400 million to train.
This is part one of a two part special on the case against George W. Bush and the potential for war with Iran.
Analysts we have been in touch with through the past 24 hours agree that while much of the threatening rhetoric from US and Israeli leaders is bluster there is the possibility for an attack which cannot be ruled out.
Relevant Links:
The Nuclear Expert Who Never Was Thursday 26 June 2008, by: Scott Ritter, Truthdig
(Ritter is a former UN Weapons Inspector)
“In August 1992 I began cooperating closely with IAEA’s Action Team, traveling to Vienna, where the IAEA maintained its headquarters. The IAEA had in its possession a huge cache of documents seized from Iraq during a series of inspections in the summer of 1991 and, together with other U.N. inspectors, I was able to gain access to these documents for the purpose of extracting any information which might relate to UNSCOM’s non-nuclear mission. These documents proved to be very valuable in that regard, and a strong working relationship was developed. Over the coming years I frequently traveled to Vienna, where I came to know the members of the IAEA Action Team as friends and dedicated professionals. Whether poring over documents, examining bits and pieces of equipment (the IAEA kept a sample of an Iraqi nuclear centrifuge in its office) or ruminating about the difficult political situation that was Iraq over wine and cheese on a Friday afternoon, I became familiar with the core team of experts who composed the IAEA Action Team.
I bring up this history because during the entire time of my intense, somewhat intimate cooperation with the IAEA Action Team, one name that never entered into the mix was David Albright. Albright is the president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS, an institute which he himself founded), and has for some time now dominated the news as the “go-to” guy for the U.S. mainstream media when they need “expert opinion” on news pertaining to nuclear issues. Most recently, Albright could be seen commenting on a report he authored, released by ISIS on June 16, in which he discusses the alleged existence of a computer owned by Swiss-based businessmen who were involved in the A.Q. Khan nuclear black market ring. According to Albright, this computer contained sensitive design drawings of a small, sophisticated nuclear warhead which, he speculates, could fit on a missile delivery system such as that possessed by Iran.”
H.CON.RES 362 COULD COME UP FOR A VOTE AS EARLY AS NEXT WEEK.
H.CON.RES.362 Title: Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the threat posed to international peace, stability in the Middle East, and the vital national security interests of the United States by Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and regional hegemony, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Ackerman, Gary L. [NY-5] (introduced 5/22/2008) Cosponsors (169) Related Bills: S.RES.580, Latest Major Action: 5/22/2008 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Robert Naiman at Just Foreign Policy is tracking House Concurrent Resolution 362 and indicates that it is indeed on the ‘fast track’ and may even come up as early as next week for a vote. We will post our interview with him of 6-20 early. Naiman points out that Rep. Robert Wexler has also “signed on to a House resolution promoted by AIPAC that appears to endorse a naval blockade of Iran.”
What H C. Res. 362 Discusses: “That the President initiate an international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities by, inter alia, prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran’s nuclear program.”
Must Read!
http://origin.csmonitor.com/2008/0618/p09s01-coop.html
War is not inevitable. Bold, transparent diplomacy can work. By John K. Cooley
from the June 18, 2008 edition, Christian Science Monitor
“By reopening a US diplomatic mission in Tehran, dropping sanctions except those involving military technology, and improving the old offers of Western and Russian IAEA-supervised peaceful nuclear technology, the US could help avert intensified tensions or an actual war.
The wisest path to peace would be to encourage rather than discourage Western investment in Iran’s oil – natural gas and other (nonmilitary) industries – and engage immediately in direct, top-level dialogue with Iran’s leaders. ”
IAEA
18 June 2008 | Communication from Iran. The IAEA circulated a communication from Iran (issued as INFCIRC/729) that forwarded the text of the “Islamic Republic of Iran´s proposed package for constructive negotiation”.
Originally there was concern that Iran would itself block oil shipments Brussels Tribunal, Sarah Meyer, January 24, 2007
The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder by Vincent Bugliosi, May 9, 2008
Timeline, BBC Iran: 1985/6 US holds secret talks with Iran and makes weapons shipments, allegedly in … 2002 29 January
Democracy Now Interview with Vincent Bugliosi, June 13, 2008, Amy Goodman
Officials Fear Bomb Design Went to Others By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD Published: June 16, 2008
Smugglers Had Design for Advanced Warhead By Joby Warrick, Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 15, 2008
See also from 2004 Blueprints link Libya Project to Pakistani Figure
The A.Q. Khan Illicit Nuclear Trade Network and Implications for Nonproliferation Efforts Strategic Insights, Volume V, Issue 6 (July 2006)
Top Israeli official: ‘We will attack’ Iran to halt nuclear program” “Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable,” Shaul Mofaz told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. “If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective.”–”It was the most explicit threat to date from a member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s cabinet. In 1981, Israeli warplanes destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor. ”
Is this policy by George W. Bush, Israel’s Ehud Olmert, the UK’s Gordon Brown, more about oil and $ than security? Plan to freeze assets Bush and Brown’s warning to Iran, June 16, 2008: “Mr Brown said Britain would urge Europe to impose “further sanctions” on Iran and Europe would take action to freeze the overseas assets of the country’s biggest bank and impose new sanctions on oil and gas.”
David Albright May 2003 Online Newshour, “Weapons Hunt” in Iraq “I still believe that there were weapons of mass destruction programs there.” –In Iraq.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june03/iran_5-27.html
THREAT FROM TEHRAN? May 27, 2003
DAVID ALBRIGHT: “The main thing we know is that they’re proceeding relatively rapidly with the capability to make a nuclear explosive material called highly enriched uranium. It’s made in uranium enrichment plants and it’s further along than people expected. It could be within a couple years of being within a capability of being able to make enough highly enriched uranium for one or two nuclear weapons a year.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7452853.stm
Linkages? Why is the Bush administration continuing to threaten the use of force against Iran? This piece is about difficulties the US is having with obtaining an agreement to remain in Iraq long term. “Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki has said that talks with the US on a long-term agreement allowing US forces to remain in Iraq have “reached an impasse”.”
Congress may act to effectively legalize an embargo or blockade of Iranian oil and revenues. Related Congressional information on bills here.
“These are recent resolutions of sanctions against Iran. One being a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz for any ships heading to Iran. This is seen internationally as AN ACT of WAR. The statements in the congressional resolution are misleading and untruthful in areas of nuclear capacity.The IAEA and the intelligence reports of 16 of our own agencies are ignored. ”
Congress, legislation to permit a US blockade in Strait of Hormuz? H.CON. RES 362 & S.RES 580
Is a New Congressional Resolution Declaring War with Iran?
by Emily Blout Tuesday, June 17, 2008
“Washington, DC, A House resolution effectively requiring a naval blockade on
Iran seems fast tracked for passage, gaining co-sponsors at a remarkable speed,
but experts say the measures called for in the resolutions amount to an act of
war.
H.CON.RES 362 calls on the president to stop all shipments of refined petroleum
products from reaching Iran. It also “demands” that the President impose
“stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes,
trains and cargo entering or departing Iran.” ”
Attempt to pass bill making it easier for White House to initiate attack on Iran:
H. Con. Res. 362: “Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the threat posed to international peace, stability in the Middle East, and the vital national security interests of the United States by Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and regional hegemony, and for other purposes.”
C.V. Francis A. Boyle
A.B. University of Chicago
A.M., J.D., Ph.D. Harvard University
Constitutional Law of U.S. Foreign Affairs
International Law
International Human Rights Law
Jurisprudence
A scholar in the areas of international law and human rights, Professor Boyle received a J.D. degree magna cum laude and A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in political science from Harvard University. Prior to joining the faculty at the College of Law, he was a teaching fellow at Harvard and an associate at its Center for International Affairs. He also practiced tax and international tax with Bingham, Dana & Gould in Boston.
He has written and lectured extensively in the United States and abroad on the relationship between international law and politics. His eighth book, Destroying World Order, was recently published by Clarity Press. An earlier book, Defending Civil Resistance Under International Law, has been used successfully in numerous foreign policy protest trials. In the September 2000 issue of the prestigious The International History Review, Professor Boyle’s Foundations of World Order: The Legalist Approach to International Relations (1898-1922) was proclaimed as “a major contribution to this reinterrogation of the past†and “required reading for historians, political scientists, international relations specialists, and policy-makers.†That book was translated into Korean and published in Korea in 2003 by Pakyoungsa Press.
As an internationally recognized expert, Professor Boyle serves as counsel for Bosnia and Herzegovina in Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) currently pending before the International Court of Justice. He also represents two associations of citizens within the country and has been instrumental in developing the indictment against Slobodan Milosevic for committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Professor Boyle is Attorney of Record for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, conducting its legal affairs on a worldwide basis. Over his career, he has represented national and international bodies including the Blackfoot Nation (Canada) and the Lakota Nation, as well as numerous individual death penalty and human rights cases. He has advised numerous international bodies in the areas of human rights, war crimes and genocide, nuclear policy, and bio-warfare.
From 1991-92, Professor Boyle served as Legal Advisor to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations. He also has served on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International, as a consultant to the American Friends Services Committee, and on the Advisory Board for the Council for Responsible Genetics. He drafted the U.S. domestic implementing legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention, known as the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, that was approved unanimously by both Houses of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.
Professor Boyle was selected for inclusion in the 2005 Edition of Marquis’ Who’s Who in America.