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International War Crimes Tribunal

������������������������ United States War Crimes Against Iraq

���������������������� Initial Complaint

����������������������������� Charging

������������� George Bush, J. Danforth Quayle, James Baker,

������������� Richard Cheney, William Webster, Colin Powell,

��������������� Norman Schwarzkopf and Others to be named

���������������������������������� With

������������ Crimes Against Peace, War Crimes, Crimes Against

���������� Humanity and Other Criminal Acts and High Crimes in

�������������� Violation of the Charter of the United Nations,

���������� International Law, the Constitution of the United States

������������������� and Laws made in Pursuance Thereof.

���� Preliminary Statement

���� These charges have been prepared prior to the first hearing of the Commission of

���� Inquiry by its staff. They are based on direct and circumstantial evidence from public

���� and private documents; official statements and admissions by the persons charged and

���� others; eyewitness accounts; Commission investigations and witness interviews in Iraq,

���� the Middle East and elsewhere during and after the bombing; photographs and video

���� tape; expert analyses; commentary and interviews; media coverage, published reports

���� and accounts gathered between December 1990 and May l991. Commission of

���� Inquiry hearings will be held in key cities where evidence is available supporting,

���� expanding, adding, contradicting, disproving or explaining these, or similar charges

���� against the accused and others of whatever nationality. When evidence sufficient to

���� sustain convictions of the accused or others is obtained and after demanding the

���� production of documents from the U.S. government, and others, and requesting

���� testimony from the accused, offering them a full opportunity to present any defense

���� personally, or by counsel, the evidence will be presented to an International War

���� Crimes Tribunal. The Tribunal will consider the evidence gathered, seek and examine

���� whatever additional evidence it chooses and render its judgment on the charges, the

���� evidence, and the law.

���� Background

���� Since World War I, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States have

���� dominated the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf region and its oil resources. This has been

���� accomplished by military conquest and coercion, economic control and exploitation,

���� and through surrogate governments and their military forces. Thus, from 1953 to 1979

���� in the post World War II era, control over the region was exercised primarily through

���� U.S. influence and control over the Gulf sheikdoms of Saudi Arabia and through the

���� Shah of Iran. From 1953 to 1979 the Shah of Iran acted as a Pentagon/CIA surrogate

���� to police the region. After the fall of the Shah and the seizure of U.S. Embassy

���� hostages in Teheran, the U.S. provided military aid and assistance to Iraq, as did the

���� USSR, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and most of the Emirates, in its war with Iran. U.S.

���� policy during that tragic eight year war, 1980 ‑ 1988, is probably best summed up by

���� the phrase, "we hope they kill each other."

���� Throughout the seventy‑five year period from Britain's invasion of Iraq early in World

���� War I to the destruction of Iraq in 1991 by U.S. air power, the United States and the

���� United Kingdom demonstrated no concern for democratic values, human rights, social

���� justice, or political and cultural integrity in the region, nor for stopping military

���� aggression there. The U.S. supported the Shah of Iran for 25 years, selling him more

���� than $20 billion of advanced military equipment between 1972 and 1978 alone.

���� Throughout this period the Shah and his brutal secret police called SAVAK had one of

� ��� the worst human rights records in the world. Then in the 1980s, the U.S. supported

���� Iraq in its wrongful aggression against Iran, ignoring Iraq's own poor human rights

���� record.[l]

���� When the Iraqi government nationalized the Iraqi Petroleum Company in 1972, the

���� Nixon Administration embarked on a campaign to destabilize the Iraqi government. It

���� was in the 1970s that the U.S. first armed and then abandoned the Kurdish people,

���� costing tens of thousands of Kurdish lives. The U.S. manipulated the Kurds through

���� CIA and other agencies to attack Iraq, intending to harass Iraq while maintaining

���� Iranian supremacy at the cost of Kurdish lives without intending any benefit to the

���� Kurdish people or an autonomous Kurdistan.[2]

���� The U.S. with close oil and other economic ties to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait has fully

���� supported both governments despite the total absence of democratic institutions, their

���� pervasive human rights violations and the infliction of cruel, inhuman and degrading

���� punishments such as stoning to death for adultery and amputation of a hand for

���� property offenses.

���� The U.S., sometimes alone among nations, supported Israel when it defied scores of

���� UN resolutions concerning Palestinian rights, when it invaded Lebanon in a war which

���� took tens of thousands of lives, and during its continuing occupation of southern

���� Lebanon, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza.

���� The United States itself engaged in recent aggressions in violation of international law

���� by invading Grenada in 1983, bombing Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya in 1986, financing

���� the contra in Nicaragua, UNITA in southern Africa and supporting military

���� dictatorships in Liberia, Chile, E1 Salvador, Guatemala, the Philippines, and many

���� other places.

���� The U.S. invasion of Panama in December 1989 involved the same and additional

���� violations of international law that apply to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The U.S. invasion

���� took between 1,000 and 4,000 Panamanian lives. The United States government is still

���� covering up the death toll. U.S. aggression caused massive property destruction

���� throughout Panama.[3] According to U.S. and international human rights organization

���� estimates, Kuwait's casualties from Iraq's invasion and the ensuing months of

���� occupation were in the "hundreds" ‑ between 300 and 600.[4] Reports from Kuwait

���� list 628 Palestinians killed by Kuwaiti death squads since the Sabah royal family

���� regained control over Kuwait.

���� The United States changed its military plans for protecting its control over oil and other

���� interests in the Arabian Peninsula in the late 1980s when it became clear that economic

���� problems in the USSR were debilitating its military capacity and Soviet forces

���� withdrew from Afghanistan. Thereafter, direct military domination within the region

���� became the U.S. strategy.

���� With the decline in U.S. oil production through 1989, experts predicted U.S. oil

���� imports from the Gulf would rise from 10% that year to 25% by the year 2000.

���� Japanese and European dependency is much greater.[5]

���� The Charges

��������� 1. The United States engaged in a pattern of conduct beginning in

��������� or before 1989 intended to lead Iraq into provocations justifying

��������� U.S. military action against Iraq and permanent U.S. military

��������� domination of the Gulf.

���� In 1989, General Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General

���� Norman Schwarzkopf, Commander in Chief of the Central Command, completely

���� revised U.S. military operations and plans for the Persian Gulf to prepare to intervene

���� in a regional conflict against Iraq. The CIA assisted and directed Kuwait in its actions.

���� At the time, Kuwait was violating OPEC oil production agreements, extracting

���� excessive amounts of oil from pools shared with Iraq and demanding repayment of

���� loans it made to Iraq during the Iran‑Iraq war. Kuwait broke off negotiations with Iraq

���� over these disputes. The U.S. intended to provoke Iraq into actions against Kuwait

���� that would justify U.S. intervention.

���� In 1989, CIA Director William Webster testified before the Congress about the

���� alarming increase in U.S. importation of Gulf oil, citing U.S. rise in use from 5% in

���� 1973 to 10% in 1989 and predicting 25% of all U.S. oil consumption would come

���� from the region by 2000.[6] In early 1990, General Schwarzkopf informed the Senate

���� Armed Services Committee of the new military strategy in the Gulf designed to protect

���� U.S. access to and control over Gulf oil in the event of regional conflicts.

���� In July 1990, General Schwarzkopf and his staff ran elaborate, computerized war

���� games pitting about 100,000 U.S. troops against Iraqi armored divisions.

���� The U.S. showed no opposition to Iraq's increasing threats against Kuwait. U.S.

���� companies sought major contracts in Iraq. The Congress approved agricultural loan

���� subsidies to Iraq of hundreds of millions of dollars to benefit U.S. farmers. However,

���� loans for food deliveries of rice, corn, wheat and other essentials bought almost

���� exclusively from the U.S. were cut off in the spring of 1990 to cause shortages. Arms

���� were sold to Iraq by U.S. manufacturers. When Saddam Hussein requested U.S.

���� Ambassador April Glaspie to explain State Department testimony in Congress about

���� lraq's threats against Kuwait, she assured him the U.S. considered the dispute a

���� regional concern, and it would not intervene. By these acts, the U.S. intended to lead

���� Iraq into a provocation justifying war.

���� On August 2, 1990, Iraq occupied Kuwait without significant resistance.

���� On August 3, 1990, without any evidence of a threat to Saudi Arabia, and King Fahd

���� believed Iraq had no intention of invading his country, President Bush vowed to defend

���� Saudi Arabia. He sent Secretary Cheney, General Powell, and General Schwarzkopf

���� almost immediately to Saudi Arabia where on August 6, General Schwarzkopf told

���� King Fahd the U.S. thought Saddam Hussein could attack Saudi Arabia in as little as

���� 48 hours. The efforts toward an Arab solution of the crisis were destroyed. Iraq never

���� attacked Saudi Arabia and waited over five months while the U.S. slowly built a force

���� of more than 500,000 soldiers and began the systematic destruction by aircraft and

���� missiles of Iraq and its military, both defenseless against U.S. and coalition technology.

���� In October 1990, General Powell referred to the new military plan developed in 1989.

���� After the war, General Schwarzkopf referred to eighteen months of planning for the

���� campaign.

���� The U.S. retains troops in Iraq as of May 1991 and throughout the region and has

���� announced its intention to maintain a permanent military presence.

���� This course of conduct constitutes a crime against peace.

��������� 2. President Bush from August 2, 1990, intended and acted to

��������� prevent any interference with his plan to destroy Iraq economically

��������� and militarily.

���� Without consultation or communication with Congress, President Bush ordered 40,000

���� U.S. military personnel to advance the U.S. buildup in Saudi Arabia in the first week of

���� August 1990. He exacted a request from Saudi Arabia for U.S. military assistance and

���� on August 8, 1990, assured the world his acts were "wholly defensive." He waited until

���� after the November 1990 elections to announce his earlier order sending more than

���� 200,000 additional military personnel, clearly an assault force, again without advising

���� Congress. As late as January 9, 1991, he insisted he had the constitutional authority to

���� attack Iraq without Congressional approval.

���� While concealing his intention, President Bush continued the military build up of U.S.

���� forces unabated from August into January 1991, intending to attack and destroy Iraq.

���� He pressed the military to expedite preparation and to commence the assault before

���� military considerations were optimum. When Air Force Chief of Staff General Michael

���� J. Dugan mentioned plans to destroy the Iraqi civilian economy to the press on

���� September 16, 1990, he was removed from office.[7]

���� President Bush coerced the United Nations Security Council into an unprecedented

���� series of resolutions, finally securing authority for any nation in its absolute discretion by

���� all necessary means to enforce the resolutions. To secure votes the U.S. paid

���� multi‑billion dollar bribes, offered arms for regional wars, threatened and carried out

���� economic retaliation, forgave multi‑billion dollar loans (including a $7 billion loan to

���� Egypt for arms), offered diplomatic relations despite human rights violations and in

���� other ways corruptly exacted votes, creating the appearance of near universal

���� international approval of U.S. policies toward Iraq. A country which opposed the

���� U.S., as Yemen did, lost millions of dollars in aid, as promised, the costliest vote it ever

���� cast.

���� President Bush consistently rejected and ridiculed Iraq's efforts to negotiate a peaceful

���� resolution, beginning with Iraq's August 12, 1990, proposal, largely ignored, and

���� ending with its mid‑February 1991 peace offer which he called a "cruel hoax." For his

���� part, President Bush consistently insisted there would be no negotiation, no

���� compromise, no face saving, no reward for aggression. Simultaneously, he accused

���� Saddam Hussein of rejecting diplomatic solutions.

���� President Bush led a sophisticated campaign to demonize Saddam Hussein, calling him

���� a Hitler, repeatedly citing reports ‑ which he knew were false ‑ of the murder of

���� hundreds of incubator babies, accusing Iraq of using chemical weapons on his own

���� people and on the Iranians knowing U.S intelligence believed the reports untrue.

���� After subverting every effort for peace, President Bush began the destruction of Iraq

���� answering his own question, "Why not wait? . . . The world could wait no longer." The

���� course of conduct constitutes a crime against peace.

��������� 3. President Bush ordered the destruction of facilities essential to

��������� civilian life and economic productivity throughout Iraq.

���� Systematic aerial and missile bombardment of Iraq was ordered to begin at 6:30 p.m.

���� EST January 16, 1991, eighteen and one‑half hours after the deadline set on the

���� insistence of President Bush, in order to be reported on television evening news in the

���� U.S. The bombing continued for forty‑two days. It met no resistance from Iraqi aircraft

���� and no effective anti‑aircraft or anti‑missile ground fire. Iraq was defenseless.

���� The United States reports it flew 110,000 air sorties against Iraq, dropping 88,000

���� tons of bombs, nearly seven times the equivalent of the atomic bomb that destroyed

���� Hiroshima. 93% of the bombs were free falling bombs, most dropped from higher than

���� 30,000 feet. Of the remaining 7% of the bombs with electronically guided systems,

���� more than 25% missed their targets, nearly all caused damage primarily beyond any

���� identifiable target. Most of the targets were civilian facilities.

���� The intention and effort of the bombing of civilian life and facilities was to systematically

���� destroy Iraq's infrastructure leaving it in a preindustrial condition. Iraq's civilian

���� population was dependent on industrial capacities. The U.S. assault left Iraq in a near

���� apocalyptic condition as reported by the first United Nations observers after the

���� war.[8] Among the facilities targeted and destroyed were:

��������� electric power generation, relay and transmission;

��������� water treatment, pumping and distribution systems and reservoirs;

������ ��� telephone and radio exchanges, relay stations, towers and transmission facilities;

��������� food processing, storage and distribution facilities and markets, infant milk

��������� formula and beverage plants, animal vaccination facilities and irrigation sites;

��������� railroad transportation facilities, bus depots, bridges, highway overpasses,

��������� highways, highway repair stations, trains, buses and other public transportation

��������� vehicles, commercial and private vehicles;

��������� oil wells and pumps, pipelines, refineries, oil storage tanks, gasoline filling

��������� stations and fuel delivery tank cars and trucks, and kerosene storage tanks;

��������� sewage treatment and disposal systems;

��������� factories engaged in civilian production, e.g., textile and automobile assembly;

��������� and

��������� historical markers and ancient sites.

���� As a direct, intentional and foreseeable result of this destruction, tens of thousands of

���� people have died from dehydration, dysentery and diseases caused by impure water,

���� inability to obtain effective medical assistance and debilitation from hunger, shock, cold

���� and stress. More will die until potable water, sanitary living conditions, adequate food

���� supplies and other necessities are provided. There is a high risk of epidemics of

���� cholera, typhoid, hepatitis and other diseases as well as starvation and malnutrition

���� through the summer of 1991 and until food supplies are adequate and essential services

���� are restored.

���� Only the United States could have carried out this destruction of Iraq, and the war was

���� conducted almost exclusively by the United States. This conduct violated the UN

���� Charter, the Hague and Geneva Conventions, the Nuremberg Charter, and the laws of

���� armed conflict.

��������� 4. The United States intentionally bombed and destroyed civilian

��������� life, commercial and business districts, schools, hospitals,

��������� mosques, churches, shelters, residential areas, historical sites,

��������� private vehicles and civilian government offices.

���� The destruction of civilian facilities left the entire civilian population without heat,

���� cooking fuel, refrigeration, potable water, telephones, power for radio or TV

���� reception, public transportation and fuel for private automobiles. It also limited food

���� supplies, closed schools, created massive unemployment, severely limited economic

���� activity and caused hospitals and medical services to shut down. In addition, residential

���� areas of every major city and most towns and villages were targeted and destroyed.

���� Isolated Bedouin camps were attacked by U.S. aircraft. In addition to deaths and

���� injuries, the aerial assault destroyed 10 ‑ 20,000 homes, apartments and other

���� dwellings. Commercial centers with shops, retail stores, offices, hotels, restaurants and

���� other public accommodations were targeted and thousands were destroyed. Scores of

���� schools, hospitals, mosques and churches were damaged or destroyed. Thousands of

���� civilian vehicles on highways, roads and parked on streets and in garages were targeted

���� and destroyed. These included public buses, private vans and mini‑buses, trucks,

���� tractor trailers, lorries, taxi cabs and private cars. The purpose of this bombing was to

���� terrorize the entire country, kill people, destroy property, prevent movement,

���� demoralize the people and force the overthrow of the government.

���� As a result of the bombing of facilities essential to civilian life, residential and other

���� civilian buildings and areas, at least 125,000 men, women and children were killed. The

���� Red Crescent Society of Jordan estimated 113,000 civilian dead, 60% children, the

���� week before the end of the war.

���� The conduct violated the UN Charter, the Hague and Geneva Conventions, the

���� Nuremberg Charter, and the laws of armed conflict.

��������� 5. The United States intentionally bombed indiscriminately

��������� throughout Iraq.

���� In aerial attacks, including strafing, over cities, towns, the countryside and highways,

���� U.S. aircraft bombed and strafed indiscriminately. In every city and town bombs fell by

���� chance far from any conceivable target, whether a civilian facility, military installation or

���� military target. In the countryside random attacks were made on travelers, villagers,

���� even Bedouins. The purpose of the attacks was to destroy life, property and terrorize

���� the civilian population. On the highways, civilian vehicles including public buses taxicabs

���� and passenger cars were bombed and strafed at random to frighten civilians from flight,

���� from seeking food or medical care, finding relatives or other uses of highways. The

���� effect was summary execution and corporal punishment indiscriminately of men,

���� women and children, young and old, rich and poor, all nationalities including the large

���� immigrant populations even Americans, all ethnic groups, including many Kurds and

���� Assyrians, all religions including Shia and Sunni Moslems, Chaldeans and other

���� Christians, and Jews. U.S. deliberate indifference to civilian and military casualties in

���� Iraq, or their nature, is exemplified by General Colin Powell's response to a press

���� inquiry about the number dead from the air and ground campaigns: "It's really not a

���� number I'm terribly interested in."[9]

���� The conduct violates Protocol I Additional, Article 51.4 to the Geneva Conventions of

���� 1977.

��������� 6. The United States intentionally bombed and destroyed Iraqi

��������� military personnel, used excessive force, killed soldiers seeking to

��������� surrender and in disorganized individual flight, often unarmed and

��������� far from any combat zones and randomly and wantonly killed Iraqi

��������� soldiers and destroyed materiel after the cease fire.

���� In the first hours of the aerial and missile bombardment, the United States destroyed

���� most military communications and began the systematic killing of soldiers who were

�� �� incapable of defense or escape and the destruction of military equipment. Over a

���� period of forty‑two days, U.S bombing killed tens of thousands of defenseless soldiers,

���� cut off most of their food, water and other supplies and left them in desperate and

���� helpless disarray. Without significant risk to its own personnel, the U.S. led in the killing

���� of at least 100,000 Iraqi soldiers at a cost of 148 U.S. combat casualties, according to

���� the U.S. government. When it was determined that the civilian economy and the

���� military were sufficiently destroyed, the U.S. ground forces moved into Kuwait and

���� Iraq attacking disoriented disorganized, fleeing Iraqi forces wherever they could be

���� found, killing thousands more and destroying any equipment found. The slaughter

���� continued after the cease fire. For example, on March 2, 1991, U.S. 24th Division

���� Forces engaged in a four‑hour assault against Iraqis just west of Basra. More than 750

���� vehicles were destroyed, thousands were killed without U.S. casualties. A U.S.

���� commander said, "We really waxed them." It was called a "Turkey Shoot." One

���� Apache helicopter crew member yelled "Say hello to Allah" as he launched a

���� laser‑guided Hellfire missile.[10]

���� The intention was not to remove Iraq's presence from Kuwait. It was to destroy Iraq.

���� In the process there was great destruction of property in Kuwait. The disproportion in

���� death and destruction inflicted on a defenseless enemy exceeded 1,000 to one.

���� General Thomas Kelly commented on February 23, 1991, that by the time the ground

���� war begins "there won't be many of them left." General Norman Schwarzkopf placed

���� Iraqi military casualties at over 100,000. The intention was to destroy all military

���� facilities and equipment wherever located and to so decimate the military age male

���� population that Iraq could not raise a substantial force for half a generation.

���� The conduct violated the Charter of the United Nations, the Hague and Geneva

���� Conventions, the Nuremberg Charter, and the laws of armed conflict.

��������� 7. The United States used prohibited weapons capable of mass

��������� destruction and inflicting indiscriminate death and unnecessary

��������� suffering against both military and civilian targets.

���� Among the known illegal weapons and illegal uses of weapons employed by the United

���� States are the following:

��������� fuel air explosives capable of widespread incineration and death;

��������� napalm;

� �������� cluster and anti‑personnel fragmentation bombs; and

��������� "superbombs," 2.5 ton devices, intended for assassination of government

��������� leaders.

���� Fuel air explosives were used against troops‑in‑place, civilian areas, oil fields and

���� fleeing civilians and soldiers on two stretches of highway between Kuwait and Iraq.

���� Included in fuel air weapons used was the BLU‑82, a 15,000‑pound device capable of

���� incinerating everything within hundreds of yards.

���� One seven mile stretch called the "Highway of Death" was littered with hundreds of

���� vehicles and thousands of dead. All were fleeing to Iraq for their lives. Thousands were

���� civilians of all ages, including Kuwaitis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Jordanians and other

���� nationalities. Another 60‑mile stretch of road to the east was strewn with the remnants

���� of tanks, armored cars, trucks, ambulances and thousands of bodies following an

���� attack on convoys on the night of February 25, 1991. The press reported that no

���� survivors are known or likely. One flatbed truck contained nine bodies, their hair and

���� clothes were burned off, skin incinerated by heat so intense it melted the windshield

���� onto the dashboard.

���� Napalm was used against civilians, military personnel and to start fires. Oil well fires in

���� both Iraq and Kuwait were intentionally started by U.S. aircraft dropping napalm and

���� other heat intensive devices.

���� Cluster and anti‑personnel fragmentation bombs were used in Basra and other cities,

���� and towns, against the convoys described above and against military units. The

���� CBU‑75 carries 1,800 bomblets called Sadeyes. One type of Sadeyes can explode

���� before hitting the ground, on impact, or be timed to explode at different times after

���� impact. Each bomblet contains 600 razor sharp steel fragments lethal up to 40 feet.

���� The 1,800 bomblets from one CBU‑75 can cover an area equal to 157 football fields

���� with deadly shrapnel. "Superbombs" were dropped on hardened shelters, at least two

���� in the last days of the assault, with the intention of assassinating President Saddam

���� Hussein. One was misdirected. It was not the first time the Pentagon targeted a head of

���� state. In April 1986, the U.S. attempted to assassinate Col. Muammar Qaddafi by

���� laser directed bombs in its attack on Tripoli, Libya.

���� Illegal weapons killed thousands of civilians and soldiers.

���� The conduct violated the Hague and Geneva Conventions, the Nuremberg Charter and

���� the laws of armed conflict.

��������� 8. The United States intentionally attacked installations in Iraq

��������� containing dangerous substances and forces.

���� Despite the fact that Iraq used no nuclear or chemical weapons and in the face of UN

���� resolutions limiting the authorized means of removing Iraqi forces from Kuwait, the

���� U.S. intentionally bombed alleged nuclear sites, chemical plants, dams and other

���� dangerous forces. The U.S. knew such attacks could cause the release of dangerous

���� forces from such installations and consequent severe losses among the civilian

���� population. While some civilians were killed in such attacks, there are no reported

���� cases of consequent severe losses presumably because lethal nuclear materials and

���� dangerous chemical and biological warfare substances were not present at the sites

���� bombed.

���� The conduct violates Protocol I Additional, Article 56, to the Geneva Convention,

���� 1977.

��������� 9. President Bush ordered U.S. forces to invade Panama, resulting

��������� in the deaths of 1,000 to 4,000 Panamanians and the destruction of

��������� thousands of private dwellings, public buildings, and commercial

��������� structures.

���� On December 20, 1989, President Bush ordered a military assault on Panama using

���� aircraft, artillery, helicopter gunships and experimenting with new weapons, including

���� the Stealth bomber. The attack was a surprise assault targeting civilian and

���� non‑combatant government structures. In the E1 Chorillo district of Panama City alone,

���� hundreds of civilians were killed and between 15,000 and 30,000 made homeless.

���� U.S. soldiers buried dead Panamanians in mass graves, often without identification. The

���� head of state, Manuel Noriega, who was systematically demonized by the U.S.

���� government and press, ultimately surrendered to U.S. forces and was brought to

���� Miami, Florida, on extra‑territorial U.S. criminal charges.

���� The U.S. invasion of Panama violated all the international laws Iraq violated when it

���� invaded Kuwait and more. Many more Panamanians were killed by U.S. forces than

���� Iraq killed Kuwaitis.

���� President Bush violated the Charter of the United Nations, the Hague and Geneva

���� Conventions, committed crimes against peace, war crimes and violated the

���� U.S.Constitution and numerous U.S. criminal statutes in ordering and directing the

���� assault on Panama.

��������� 10. President Bush obstructed justice and corrupted United

��������� Nations functions as a means of securing power to commit crimes

��������� against peace and war crimes.

���� President Bush caused the United Nations to completely bypass Chapter VI provisions

���� of its Charter for the Pacific Settlement of Disputes. This was done in order to obtain

���� Security Council resolutions authorizing the use of all necessary means, in the absolute

���� discretion of any nation, to fulfill UN resolutions directed against Iraq and which were

���� used to destroy Iraq. To obtain Security Council votes, the U.S. corruptly paid

���� member nations billions of dollars, provided them arms to conduct regional wars,

���� forgave billions in debts, withdrew opposition to a World Bank loan, agreed to

���� diplomatic relations despite human rights violations and threatened economic and

���� political reprisals. A nation which voted against the United States, Yemen, was

���� immediately punished by the loss of millions of dollars in aid. The U.S. paid the UN

���� $187 million to reduce the amount of dues it owed to the UN to avoid criticism of its

���� coercive activities. The United Nations, created to end the scourge of war, became an

���� instrument of war and condoned war crimes.

���� The conduct violates the Charter of the United Nations and the Constitution and laws

���� of the United States.

��������� 11. President Bush usurped the Constitutional power of Congress

��������� as a means of securing power to commit crimes against peace, war

��������� crimes, and other high crimes.

���� President Bush intentionally usurped Congressional power, ignored its authority, and

���� failed and refused to consult with the Congress. He deliberately misled, deceived,

���� concealed and made false representations to the Congress to prevent its free

���� deliberation and informed exercise of legislature power. President Bush individually

���� ordered a naval blockade against Iraq, itself an act of war. He switched U.S. forces

���� from a wholly defensive position and capability to an offensive capacity for aggression

���� against Iraq without consultation with and contrary to assurances given to the

���� Congress. He secured legislation approving enforcement of UN resolutions vesting

���� absolute discretion in any nation, providing no guidelines and requiring no reporting to

���� the UN, knowing he intended to destroy the ammed forces and civilian economy of

���� Iraq. Those acts were undertaken to enable him to commit crimes against peace and

���� war crimes.

���� The conduct violates the Constitution and laws of the United States, all committed to

���� engage in the other impeachable offenses set forth in this Complaint.

��������� 12. The United States waged war on the environment.

���� Pollution from the detonation of 88,000 tons of bombs, innumerable missiles, rockets,

���� artillery and small arms with the combustion and fires they caused and by 110,000 air

���� sorties at a rate of nearly two per minute for six weeks has caused enormous injury to

���� life and the ecology. Attacks by U.S. aircraft caused much if not all of the worst oil

���� spills in the Gulf. Aircraft and helicopters dropping napalm and fuel‑air explosives on oil

���� wells, storage tanks and refineries caused oil fires throughout Iraq and many, if not

���� most, of the oil well fires in Iraq and Kuwait. The intentional destruction of municipal

���� water systems, waste material treatment and sewage disposal systems constitutes a

���� direct and continuing assault on life and health throughout Iraq.

���� The conduct violated the UN Charter, the Hague and Geneva Conventions, the laws of

���� ammed conflict and constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity.

��������� 13. President Bush encouraged and aided Shiite Muslims and

��������� Kurds to rebel against the government of Iraq causing fratricidal

��������� violence, emigration, exposure, hunger and sickness and

��������� thousands of deaths. After the rebellion failed, the U.S. invaded

��������� and occupied parts of Iraq without authority in order to increase

��������� division and hostility within Iraq.

���� Without authority from the Congress or the UN, President Bush continued his

���� imperious military actions after the cease fire. He encouraged and aided rebellion

���� against Iraq, failed to protect the warring parties, encouraged migration of whole

���� populations, placing them in jeopardy from the elements, hunger, and disease. After

���� much suffering and many deaths, President Bush then without authority used U.S.

���� military forces to distribute aid at and near the Turkish border, ignoring the often

���� greater suffering among refugees in Iran. He then arbitrarily set up bantustan‑like

���� settlements for Kurds in Iraq and demanded Iraq pay for U.S. costs. When Kurds

���� chose to return to their homes in Iraq, he moved U.S. troops further into northern Iraq

���� against the will of the government and without authority.

���� The conduct violated the Charter of the United Nations, international law, the

���� Constitution and laws of the United States, and the laws of Iraq.

��������� 14. President Bush intentionally deprived the Iraqi people of

��������� essential medicines, potable water, food, and other necessities.

���� A major component of the assault on Iraq was the systematic deprivation of essential

�� �� human needs and services. To break the will of the people, destroy their economic

���� capability, reduce their numbers and weaken their health, the United States:

��������� imposed and enforced embargoes preventing the shipment of needed medicines,

� �������� water purifiers, infant milk formula, food and other supplies;

��������� individually, without congressional authority, ordered a U.S. naval blockade of

��������� Iraq, an act of war, to deprive the Iraqi people of needed supplies;

��������� froze funds of Iraq and forced other nations to do so, depriving Iraq of the

��������� ability to purchase needed medicines, food and other supplies;

��������� controlled information about the urgent need for such supplies to prevent

��������� sickness, death and threatened epidemic, endangering the whole society;

��������� prevented international organizations, governments and relief agencies from

��������� providing needed supplies and obtaining information concerning needs;

��������� failed to assist or meet urgent needs of huge refugee populations including

��������� Egyptians, Indians, Pakistanis, Yemenis, Sudanese, Jordanians, Palestinians, Sri

��������� Lankans, Filipinos, and interfered with efforts of others to do so;

��������� consistently diverted attention from health and epidemic threats within Iraq

��������� caused by the U.S. even after advertising the plight of Kurdish people on the

��������� Turkish border;

��������� deliberately bombed the electrical grids causing the closure of hospitals and

��������� laboratories, loss of medicine and essential fluids and blood; and

��������� deliberately bombed food storage, fertilizer, and seed storage facilities.

���� As a result of these acts, thousands of people died, many more suffered illness and

���� permanent injury. As a single illustration, Iraq consumed infant milk formula at a rate of

���� 2,500 tons per month during the first seven months of 1990. From November 1, 1990,

���� to February 7, 1991, Iraq was able to import only 17 tons. Its own productive

���� capacity was destroyed. Many Iraqis believed that President Bush intended that their

���� infants die because he targeted their food supply. The Red Crescent Society of Iraq

���� estimated 3,000 infant deaths as of February 7, 1991, resulting from infant milk formula

���� and infant medication shortages.

���� This conduct violates the Hague and Geneva Conventions, the Universal Declaration of

���� Human Rights and other covenants and constitutes a crime against humanity.

��������� 15. The United States continued its assault on Iraq after the cease

��������� fire, invading and occupying areas at will.

���� The United States has acted with dictatorial authority over Iraq and its external

���� relations since the end of the military conflict. It has shot and killed Iraqi military

���� personnel, destroyed aircraft and materiel at will, occupied vast areas of Iraq in the

���� north and south and consistently threatened use of force against Iraq.

���� This conduct violates the sovereignty of a nation, exceeds authority in UN resolutions,

���� is unauthorized by the Constitution and laws of the United States, and constitutes war

���� crimes.

��������� 16. The United States has violated and condoned violations of

��������� human rights, civil liberties and the U.S. Bill of Rights in the

��������� United States, in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere to achieve

��������� its purpose of military domination.

���� Among the many violations committed or condoned by the U.S. government are the

�� �� following:

��������� illegal surveillance, arrest, interrogation and harassment of Arab‑American,

��������� Iraqi‑American, and U.S. resident Arabs;

��������� illegal detention, interrogation and treatment of Iraqi prisoners of war;

��������� aiding and condoning Kuwaiti summary executions, assaults, torture and illegal

��������� detention of Palestinians and other residents in Kuwait after the U.S. occupation;

��������� and

��������� unwarranted, discriminatory, and excessive prosecution and punishment of U.S.

��������� military personnel who refused to serve in the Gulf, sought conscientious

��������� objector status or protested U.S. policies.

���� Persons were killed, assaulted, tortured, illegally detained and prosecuted, harassed

���� and humiliated as a result of these policies.

���� The conduct violates the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of

���� Human Rights , the Hague and Geneva Conventions and the Constitution and laws of

���� the United States.

��������� 17. The United States, having destroyed Iraq's economic base,

��������� demands reparations which will permanently impoverish Iraq and

��������� threaten its people with famine and epidemic.

���� Having destroyed lives, property and essential civilian facilities in Iraq which the U.S.

���� concedes will require $50 billion to replace (estimated at $200 billion by Iraq, killed at

���� least 125,000 people by bombing and many thousands more by sickness and hunger,

���� the U.S. now seeks to control Iraq economically even as its people face famine and

���� epidemic.[l1] Damages, including casualties in Iraq, systematically inflicted by the U.S.

���� exceed all damages, casualties and costs of all other parties to the conflict combined

���� many times over. Reparations under these conditions are an exaction of tribute for the

���� conqueror from a desperately needy country. The United States seeks to force Iraq to

���� pay for damage to Kuwait largely caused by the U.S. and even to pay U.S. costs for

���� its violations of Iraqi sovereignty in occupying northern Iraq to further manipulate the

���� Kurdish population there. Such reparations are a neocolonial means of expropriating

���� Iraq's oil, natural resources, and human labor.

���� The conduct violates the Charter of the United Nations and the Constitution and laws

���� of the United States.

��������� 18. President Bush systematically manipulated, controlled,

��������� directed, misinformed and restricted press and media coverage to

��������� obtain constant support in the media for his military and political

��������� goals.

���� The Bush Administration achieved a five‑month‑long commercial for militarism and

���� individual weapons systems. The American people were seduced into the celebration

���� of a slaughter by controlled propaganda demonizing Iraq, assuring the world no harm

���� would come to Iraqi civilians, deliberately spreading false stories of atrocities including

���� chemical warfare threats, deaths of incubator babies and threats to the entire region by

���� a new Hitler.

���� The press received virtually all its information from or by permission of the Pentagon.

���� Efforts were made to prevent any adverse information or opposition views from being

���� heard. CNN's limited presence in Baghdad was described as Iraqi propaganda.

���� Independent observers, eyewitnesses' photos, and video tapes with information about

���� the effects of the U.S. bombing were excluded from the media. Television network

���� ownership, advertizers, newspaper ownership, elite columnists and commentators

���� intimidated and instructed reporters and selected interviewees. They formed a

���� near‑single voice of praise for U.S. militarism, often exceeding the Pentagon in

���� bellicosity.

���� The American people and their democratic institutions were deprived of information

���� essential to sound judgment and were regimented, despite profound concem, to

���� support a major neocolonial intervention and war of aggression. The principal purpose

���� of the First Amendment to the United States was to assure the press and the people

���� the right to criticize their government with impunity. This purpose has been effectively

���� destroyed in relation to U.S. military aggression since the press was denied access to

� ��� assaults on Grenada, Libya, Panama and, now on a much greater scale, against Iraq.

���� This conduct violates the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and

���� is part of a pattern of conduct intended to create support for conduct constituting

���� crimes against peace and war crimes.

��������� 19. The United States has by force secured a permanent military

��������� presence in the Gulf, the control of its oil resources and

��������� geopolitical domination of the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf region.

���� The U.S. has committed the acts described in this complaint to create a permanent

���� U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf, to dominate its oil resources until depleted

���� and to maintain geopolitical domination over the region.

���� The conduct violates the Charter of the United Nations, international law, and the

���� Constitution and laws of the United States.

���� Scope of the Inquiry

���� The Commission of Inquiry will focus on U.S. criminal conduct because of its

���� destruction of Iraq, killing at least 125,000 persons directly by its bombing while

���� proclaiming its own combat losses as 148, because it destroyed the economic base of

���� Iraq and because its acts are still inflicting consequential deaths that may reach

���� hundreds of thousands. The Commission of Inquiry will seek and accept evidence of

���� criminal acts by any person or government, related to the Gulf conflict, because it

���� believes international law must be applied uniformly. It believes that "victors' justice" is

���� not law, but the extension of war by force of the prevailing party. The U.S. Senate,

���� European Community foreign ministers, and the western press, even former

���� Nuremberg prosecutors, have overwhelmingly called for war crimes trials for Saddam

���� Hussein and the Iraqi leadership alone. Even Mrs. Barbara Bush has said she would

���� like to see Saddam Hussein hanged, albeit without mentioning a trial. Comprehensive

���� efforts to gather and evaluate evidence, objectively judge all the conduct that

���� constitutes crimes against peace and war crimes and to present these facts for

���� judgment to the court of world opinion requires that at least one major effort focus on

���� the United States. The Commission of Inquiry believes its focus on U.S. criminal acts is

���� important, proper, and the only way to bring the whole truth, a balanced perspective

���� and impartiality in application of legal process to this great human tragedy.

���� Ramsey Clark

���� May 9, 1991

������������� Final Judgement: International War Crimes Tribunal

��������� The Basis in International Law

��������� Testimony and Evidence

��������� International Law

���� Notes

������������ 1.Covert Operations: The Persian Gulf and the New World

�������������� Order (Washington, DC: Christic Institute, 1991).

������������ 2.Rhodri Jeffreys‑Jones, The CIA and American Democracy (New

�������������� Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), p. 206.

������������ 3.Independent Commission of Inquiry on the U.S. Invasion of

�������������� Panama, The U.S. Invasion of Panama: The Truth Behind

�������������� Operation Just Cause(Boston: South End Press, 1990).

������������ 4.Amnesty International Reports, 1991, pp. 122‑124.

������������ 5.Congressional Record, June 12, 1990, S8605.

������������ 6."Saddam's Oil Plot." London Observer, October 21, 1990.

������������ 7.Rick Atkinson, "U.S. to Rely on Air Strikes if War Erupts,"

�������������� Washington Post, September 16, 1990: Al + . Eric Schmitt,

���� ���������� "Ousted General Gets A Break," New York Times, November 7,

�������������� 1991: Al9.

������������ 8.Joint WHO / UNICEF Team Report: A Visit to Iraq (New

�������������� York: United Nations, 1991). A report to the Secretary General,

������������ �� dated March 20, 1991 by representatives of the U.N. Secretariat,

�������������� UNICEF, UNDP, UNDRO, UNHCR, FAO and WHO.

������������ 9.Patrick E. Tyler, "Powell Says U.S. Will Stay In Iraq," New York

�������������� Times, March 23, 1991: Al + .

����� ������ 10.Patrick J. Sloyan, "Massive Battle After Cease Fire," New York

�������������� Newsday, May 8, 1991: A4+.

����������� 11."U.S. Prepares UN Draft on Claims Against Iraq," New York

�������������� Times, November 1, 1990.

�������������� Final Judgement: International War Crimes Tribunal

��������� The Basis in International Law

��������� Testimony and Evidence

��������� International Law

Index

WWW URL: http://deoxy.org/warcrim2.htm

Copyright � 1992 by The Commission of Inquiry for the International War Crimes Tribunal