http://truth-out.org/news/item/23354-on-bringing-war-criminals-to-justice
President
George W. Bush, right, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrive for a joint
news conference in the East Room at the White House on Tuesday, June 7, 2005.
(Photo: Doug Mills / The New York Times)
This
is part II of a series on Dahr Jamail's trip to the Iraq Commission conference
in Brussels. Also
see Part I: International Lawyers Seek Justice for Iraqis
Narmeen
Saleh and her husband Shawki were detained by US military forces during a
violent 2004 raid of their home in Baghdad.
Saleh
spent 16 days in prison, where "the interrogations didn't stop for one minute."
She was beaten, electrocuted and threatened with rape if she didn't
"confess."
"They
[US soldiers] tortured and beat me a lot, and when they found out that I was
pregnant they told me they would kill the baby in my womb," she was quoted, as
her testimony was read at the Iraq Commission conference in Brussels recently. "They then
concentrated their beating and electricity on my abdomen area."
Her
daughter, who is now 8 years old, has cerebral palsy, and her husband remains in
custody of the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for the bogus
charge of "illegally entering Iraq."
This
shocking testimony was provided to international lawyers, journalists , and activists
converged at a conference titled, "The Iraq Commission," held in Brussels,
Belgium, April 16 and 17, with the primary aim of bringing to justice government
officials who are guilty of war crimes in Iraq.
The
conference represented the most powerful and most current organized movement in
the world to hold accountable those responsible for the catastrophic invasion
and occupation in Iraq, including UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and former US
President George W. Bush, along with others in their administrations.
War
Crimes in Iraq
Nawal
al-Obaidi, an Iraqi academic and founding trustee of the International Action
for Iraqi Refugees NGO, provided somber testimony about how her brother was
killed by US forces.
Hazim
al-Obaidi left his wife and four children at their home in Mosul to go to work
at his grocery store one morning in January 2005.
That
same evening, his wife became worried when Hazim had not returned home and began
a search.
"The
whole family could not sleep that night, wondering what had happened to Hazim
and why he did not return back home," his sister Nawal told the audience. "As
the curfew was in place, no one could leave the house until the next
morning."
The
next morning, family members searched the morgues of the main hospital, but to
no avail. Two days later, they learned of his burned car.
Eyewitnesses
informed the family of the car being attacked by US forces, who "started
shooting at him and at his car, until the car exploded." What was left of the
severely burned body was removed by family members, then, "to the bewilderment
of his family, US troops stopped them after they had collected the body,
uncovered it and took photos."
"Hazim
was not a "terrorist" or a "Saddamist," al-Obeidi explained. "He was a cheerful
family man who was wounded in the Iran-Iraq war and survived the harshness of
the sanctions years by selling groceries. Who is going to investigate his
killing, compensate his family, and help his children to make sense of their
tragedy? Will it be the Iraqi government, or the US-led occupation? Judging by
the human rights records of both, the answer is that neither of them will
investigate Hazim's killing, or any other. [Hundreds of] thousands of civilians
have been killed for no reason. One of them was my brother."
This
writer, too, provided testimony: I spoke of several war crimes I witnessed
during my reportage from Iraq during the US-led occupation.
In
May 2004, I interviewed a man who had just been released from Abu Ghraib prison.
Like so many I interviewed from various US military detention facilities who'd
been tortured horrifically, he still managed to maintain his sense of humor.
He
began laughing when telling of how US soldiers made him beat other prisoners. He
laughed because he told me he had been beaten himself prior to this and was so
tired that all he could do to beat other detained Iraqis was to lift his arm and
let it drop on the other men.
Later
in the same interview, when telling of another story, he laughed again and said,
"The Americans brought electricity to my ass before they brought it to my
house."
Another
story I reported to the international lawyers was that of 55-year-old Sadiq
Zoman, who was tortured horrifically by US military personnel. I shared
documentation of US military doctors, nurses and medics being complicit with
that torture.
Sadiq
Zoman was detained from his home shortly after the US occupation of Iraq began,
but not charged with any crime. (Photo: Dahr Jamail)
Zoman
was detained from his home in Kirkuk in a raid by US soldiers that produced no
weapons. He was taken to a police office in Kirkuk, the Kirkuk Airport Detention
Center, the Tikrit Airport Detention Center and then the 28th Combat Support
Hospital, where he was treated by Dr. Michael Hodges, a lieutenant colonel.
Hodges'
medical report listed the primary diagnoses of Zoman's condition as hypoxic
brain injury (brain damage caused by lack of oxygen) "with persistent vegetative
state," myocardial infraction (heart attack) and heat stroke.
After
one month in custody, Zoman was dropped off in a coma at the General Hospital in
Tikrit by US soldiers.
A
comatose Zoman was dropped off by US military personnel at the main hospital in
Tikrit. (Photo: Dahr Jamail)
Zoman's
last name was listed as his first name on the report, despite the fact that all
of his identification papers were taken during the raid on his home. Because of
this, it took his family weeks to locate him in the hospital.
The
medical report given by the US military medic did not mention the trauma on the
back of Zoman's head. (Photo: Dahr Jamail)
Hodges'
medical report did not mention the fact that the back of Zoman's head was bashed
in, nor that he had electrical burn marks on the bottoms of his feet and
genitals, or why he had lash marks across his back and chest.
Zoman's
feet had point-burn marks from electrical shocks on the bottoms of his feet and
genitals. (Photo: Dahr Jamail)
Zoman
remains in a coma, and there has been no compensation provided to his
now-impoverished family for what was done to him.
Zoman's
family has yet to receive any compensation for what US forces did to him.
(Photo: Dahr Jamail)
Bringing
Justice
Inder
Comar, who testified at the commission, is the legal director at Comar Law in
San Francisco, California.
"On
March 13, 2013, my client, an Iraqi single mother and refugee now living in
Jordan, filed a class action lawsuit against George W. Bush, Richard Cheney,
Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz in a federal
court in California," Comar has written about his case.
"She
alleges that these six defendants planned and waged the Iraq War in violation of
international law by waging a 'war of aggression,' as defined by the
International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, more than sixty years ago," Comar
added. (The current complaint can be found here).
Comar's
client, Sundus Shaker Saleh, is alleging "crime of aggression" in the San
Francisco Federal Court against the aforementioned. "Crime of aggression"
emanates from the Nuremberg Trials following World War II and is what Comar is
arguing was committed in the Iraq War.
The
lawsuit includes all Iraqis who have suffered harm as a result of the war, and
Comar's firm is representing Saleh pro bono.
"This
could be precedent setting," Comar told the commission. "And this is the first
time a US court is looking at a crime of aggression since Nuremberg, since 1945.
We're very curious to see how this judge will decide this issue."
Inder
Comar is representing an Iraqi woman, who is charging Bush administration
officials with "crime of aggression." (Photo: Dahr Jamail)
US
courts have immunized many of the members of the Bush Administration, but Comar
thinks his case is different and will not be subject to the same kind of
immunity.
"The
crime of aggression is part of international law, so we are arguing with good
precedent that international law is part of federal law," he said.
Comar's
case against Bush is based on the conduct of members of his administration prior
to their coming into office, as well as conduct taking place during and after
the events of September 11, 2001.
Evidence
of premeditation abounds.
Years
before their appointment to the Bush administration, Dick Cheney, Donald
Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz were vocal advocates of a militant neoconservative
ideology that called for the United States to use its armed forces in the Middle
East and elsewhere.
They
openly chronicled their desire for aggressive wars through a nonprofit called
The Project for the New American Century (PNAC). In 1998, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz
personally signed a letter to then-President Clinton urging him to implement a
"strategy for removing Saddam's regime from power," which included a
"willingness to undertake military action as diplomacy is clearly failing."
On
September 11, 2001, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz openly pressed for the United States
to invade Iraq, even though intelligence at the time confirmed that Saddam
Hussein was in no way responsible. Richard Clarke, former national coordinator
for security, infrastructure protection and counterterrorism, famously told
President Bush that attacking Iraq for 9/11 "would be like invading Mexico after
Pearl Harbor."
Comar's
case states: "Defendants planned the war against Iraq as early as 1998;
manipulated the United States' public to support the war by scaring them with
images of 'mushroom clouds' and conflating the Hussein regime with al-Qaeda; and
broke international law by commencing the invasion without proper legal
authorization."
By
comparison, more than 60 years ago, American prosecutors in Nuremberg, Germany,
convicted Nazi leaders of the crimes of conspiring and waging wars of
aggression. They found the Nazis guilty of planning and waging wars that had no
basis in law and which killed millions of innocents.
The
plaintiff in the case, Saleh, is thus seeking justice under the Nuremberg
principles, as well as US law, for damages she and others like her suffered
because of the defendants' premeditated plan to invade Iraq.
Comar
detailed to the commission how the premeditation was obvious, showing slides
from an article titled "Saddam Must Go," penned by Wolfowitz and Zalmay Khalilzad, as
well as others titled, "Overthrow Him," "How to Attack Iraq" and "Bombing Iraq is not enough."
"When
we talk about these war criminals, we need to employ the language of pirates in
order to engage the basis of universal jurisdiction," Comar added. "Because when
pirates go anywhere they have no safe haven from being held accountable for
their actions."
Comar
told Truthout that he decided to take this case because he was inspired by the
Nuremberg judgment.
"That
and my client's bravery to want to do this and be committed to her case," he
explained. "In law school, I was fascinated by Nuremberg and the trail of
facts."
Comar
believes strongly in the morality behind the case.
"We
have to use every avenue the law provides us to try to do something, and it's
amazing that it took a single mother refugee from Iraq to press for justice for
a war our leaders continue to want to ignore," he said. "What I'm doing can have
a ripple, it might inspire other lawyers, it might cause people to start asking
questions about the Bush administration."
According
to Comar, his case represents the first time a US judge will hear about a crime
of aggression since 1946, "So this case will be looked at internationally. We
have to set the stage for other countries to start working to conform to
principles of peace."
Comar
added that his case in California serves as a template that could be used in
every other US state.
Planning
for Prosecutions
Sabah
al-Mukhtar, the president of the Arab Lawyers Association, chaired the final
session of the Iraq commission. The session investigated what the next steps
should be toward bringing those responsible for the Iraq invasion and occupation
to justice.
(Right
to Left) Dirk Adriaensens, cofounder of the Iraq Commission and Brussels
Tribunal, Sabah al-Mukhtar, chair of the Iraq Commission, and Michel
Chossudovsky, Canadian economist at University of Ottawa. (Photo: Dahr
Jamail)
"The
delegitimization of major war criminals is complete in terms of the
understanding around the world that these successive wars that have been waged
are in complete opposition to international law," Dr. Niloufer Bhagwat,
professor of comparative constitutional law at the University of Mumbai and vice
president of the Indian Lawyers Association in Mumbai testified.
She
addressed the fact that there have been no reparations, the sanctions crimes
need to be addressed, including the fact that the US government knowingly killed
more than 500,000 Iraqi children via malnourishment and disease, and added, "The
work we've done here has to be carried from country to country so the political
formations adopt our viewpoint, that these wars of aggression can only come to
an end when we have an overturning of the political and economic systems."
Professor
Gurdial Singh Nijar, a senior practicing lawyer and lead prosecutor of the Kuala
Lumpur War Crimes Tribunals on Iraq, believes that the people's tribunals that
have been held on Iraq "are becoming an increasingly important tool for
recapturing the lost space and jurisprudence over war crimes. We've had three
war crimes tribunals and we intend to have more and to introduce this thinking
into law schools like the one in which I teach."
He
believes the next step toward justice is for countries to exercise universal
jurisdiction as a means of charging war criminals.
"Three
quarters of UN states have authorized their courts to exercise universal
jurisdiction over war crimes, so the stage is actually set," he said. "The
challenge then is how to get these countries to institute charges against these
war criminals on the basis of credible trials that have been conducted and ended
up in convictions, either by peoples' tribunals or otherwise. The next step is
to go country to country and begin to file charges in each of these
jurisdictions."
Dr.
Curtis F. J. Doebbler, an international lawyer who practices law before the
International Court of Justice, shared an instance where there has already been
some success.
"We
suggested, for Syria, and I was in the room with the negotiators, that [US
Secretary of State John] Kerry be advised that the use of force could lead to
violations of international law, and there could be war crimes," he said. "So I
think we're making some inroads."
Lindsey
German, the convener of the British antiwar organization Stop the War Coalition,
stated in her concluding remarks that Bush and Blair are "by far the most
responsible persons for the Iraq war."
She
added, "Blair is still the envoy for peace in the Middle East, of all things,
for which they obviously didn't check his CV. We have to stress the connections
between the wars and the political and economic systems under which we live. We
can't have economic justice without bringing justice to the war criminals."
Comar
addressed the "banality of militarism" in the United States, said he hopes that
the work he is doing "is creating a vaccine for that" and stressed the need for
confidence in international law.
"We
in the US can work to take power back from the federal system on a state system
and begin to incorporate international law into our own laws," he said. "Or
maybe we can do this on a city level to criminalize this wrongdoing in a lawful
manner so that we have more control. I look forward to sharing my court
complaint with any other lawyer. We need to work together to help get people
reparations from this war and to prevent the next war."
Dirk
Adriaensens, a long-time Iraq activist and cofounder of the Iraq Commission,
concluded the commission by calling for concrete proposals that will lead to
global court cases regarding Iraq.
"If
Inder Comar says that his court case can be replicated in all other 49 US
states," he said, "then we can replicate this in every country around the
world."
DAHR JAMAIL
Dahr
Jamail, a Truthout staff reporter, is the author of The
Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan,
(Haymarket Books, 2009), and Beyond
the Green Zone: Dispatches From an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq,
(Haymarket Books, 2007). Jamail reported from Iraq for more than a year, as well
as from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Turkey over the last ten years, and has won
the Martha Gellhorn Award for Investigative Journalism, among other
awards.