Tuesday, March 13, 2012

War Criminals Bush and Cheney Can No Longer Travel Outside the U.S.

Eric Blair
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/03/war-criminals-bush-and-cheney-c...

Everyone in the world seems to recognize the obvious crimes perpetrated by the Bush/Cheney regime. Their overwhelming negative status in the world has now confined them to personal prisons where they can no longer travel abroad for public events. It appears they're only welcome in heavily-secured private dragon lairs for the rest of their waking years. But even those locations are shrinking for these torturers and mass murderers.

Cheney, scheduled to speak in Toronto with his daughter next month, had to cancel the speaking appearance due to "security concerns stemming from their experiences in Vancouver in September 2011," according to a press release about the event.

The September event referred to in the press release was hardly a public event at all.  It cost $500 a ticket to attend and took place at the Vancouver Club which the Canadian Press called "one of Vancouver's most exclusive clubs." Still, the public caught wind of the event and staged a rambunctious protest calling for Cheney's arrest. The angry crowd caused Cheney to be locked in the club for seven hours longer than he was scheduled.

In February of last year, George W. Bush had to cancel a speaking engagement in Switzerland because human rights groups put pressure on the Swiss government to arrest him over torture allegations if he enters the country.  Even though officials claimed Bush had diplomatic immunity because he was a former head of state, they recognized that torture is a legitimate crime under international law.  Organizers of the event felt the "atmosphere had become too threatening" and the gala went on without Bush.


Since Bush left office he has traveled outside the United States on two occasions with former president Bill Clinton.  The first was a 2010 trip to Haiti after the devastating earthquake where he made a complete fool of himself.  After shaking hands with a desperate survivor he scowled in disgust and wiped his hand on Clinton's shoulder as if it was covered in filth:



The second trip chaperoned by Clinton was to British Columbia, Canada for the Regional Economic Summit this past October where Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called for his arrestciting his involvement in authorizing torture:

There is overwhelming evidence that Bush and other senior administration officials authorized and implemented a regime of torture and ill-treatment of hundreds of detainees in US custody, including at least two Canadian citizens. Under the Convention Against Torture, Canada is obligated to prosecute individuals suspected of committing torture found in its territory if other countries have failed to do so.

That trip was preceded by another event where Bush was to attend a private breakfast at an evangelical university, also in Canada, but was abruptly canceled due to a backlash of student protests.

In November 2011, a symbolic tribunal in Malaysia made up of the country's former premier and a former federal judge among others, found George W. Bush and UK's Tony Blair guilty of war crimes. “The evidence showed that the drums of wars were being beaten long before the invasion. The accused in their own memoirs have admitted their own intention to invade Iraq regardless of international law,” it concluded.

Although the Malaysia tribunal isn't officially binding as an arrest warrant, it shows the sentiment that is building around the world for calling these Western leaders what they are: international "child killers" and "war criminals."

All of these stories seem to indicate that the circles where these murderers are still welcomed are getting smaller and smaller.  Whether they will ever be actually tried for their crimes remains to be seen.  But one thing is for sure, every time they venture out of their undisclosed bunkers, they get shoved right back in by angry mobs of humanitarians seeking justice for their wickedness.

Read other articles by Eric Blair here.