Here is a question for Senators Clinton and Obama: "If elected and sworn in as President, would you cooperate with the Hague War Crimes Tribunal in prosecution of Bush / Cheney / Rumsfeld / et al for their parts in the Iraq War?"
If there is the slightest chance the answer is yes, the Bush White House and the Ashcroft / Gonzales Justice Department must be researching ways to prevent the 2008 Presidential election from taking place. Think about it...
It finally appears the long-awaited unraveling has begun. The first conviction has been handed down to I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who had resigned as Vice-President Cheney's chief of staff and assistant for National Security Affairs. Although this indictment is not specifically related to the war crimes in Iraq, the crack has been opened.
This website is a beginning look at the cast of characters, who someday may find themselves explaining Iraq to the Hague War Crimes Tribunal.
I. (for Irving, but he doesn't use it) Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Junior, worked for Cheney when Cheney worked for Bush I as SecDef. Libby was brought into the Pentagon by Paul Wolfowitz, his former Yale professor, who was an under secretary of Defense. Libby is a lawyer and (now former) Chief of Staff and assistant for National Security Affairs to Dick Cheney. The Wolfowitz connection makes even more sense when you know that Irving's family name was changed from Liebowitz. "Scooter Libby" might not give you a clue that he's Jewish, but "Irving Liebowitz" might be a dead giveaway.
Richard ("Dick") Bruce Cheney, Bush II's Vice President and Bush I's Defense Secretary. Former Wyoming Congressman for ten years. Religion: Methodist. No military service.
Donald Henry Rumsfeld, former Defense Secretary for both Bush II and Gerald Ford. Eight years as an Illinois Congressman, worked in the Nixon White House starting 1969. Former Navy pilot.
Paul Dundes Wolfowitz, Deputy Defense Secretary for Rumsfeld, resigned Feb 2004; now President of the World Bank. Served three years as U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia for President Reagan. Known as a passionate pro-Israel advocate. Religion: Jewish.
Karl Christian Rove, President George W. Bush's senior advisor, chief political strategist, and Deputy White House Chief of Staff in charge of policy. Also known as "W's Brain" and "America's Joseph Goebbels."
Richard Norman Perle, Member, former Defense Policy Advisory Board, protege of Wolfowitz. Said to be the person behind the US policy on Iraq. Now based at the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute. Worked with Douglas Feith in Israel in 1996 for Benjamin Netanyahu.
Douglas J. Feith, Rumsfeld's UnderSecretary of Defense for Policy, former deputy to Perle in the 1980's. Feith’s father's parents, three brothers, and four sisters died in German death camps. Feith is a longtime supporter of right-wing Israeli leaders. Former Special Counsel to Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle. Left Defense January 26, 2005. Information at http://middleeastinfo.org/article701.html. Worked with Richard Perle in Israel in 1996 for Benjamin Netanyahu.
John Robert Bolton, former Under Secretary for Arms Control & International Security, now US Ambassador to the United Nations. Raised as a Lutheran. "Bolton has been a prominent participant in many neoconservative lobbying groups such as the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) (see Richard Perle, above), the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA)..." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Bolton
David S. Addington, Vice Presidential Counsel and top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney; Scooter Libby's replacement. Former assistant general counsel for the Central Intelligence Agency; former general counsel for the Department of Defense. Per the Washington Post was the person who proposed torture to Alberto Gonzales (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48446-2005Jan4.html). Ghostwrote legal memoranda with Gonzales' name thereon.
John David Ashcroft, appointed by President George W. Bush as Attorney General after he lost a Senate re-election race to a dead opponent (which is a story in itself...). Former U.S. Senator from and Governor of Missouri. A leading member of the Christian right wing of the Republican Party, Ashcroft is a believer in "Christian Reconstructionism" (or "Christian Dominionism") which advocates (among other things) death by stoning for non-Christians, "disobedient women," and almost everybody else who isn't just like him. Has employed Karl Rove throughout his political career. Ashcroft attends the Assembly of God church. Whenever he was sworn in to any political office, he had himself anointed (using cooking oil when no holy oil was available). In 2005 Ashcroft joined the faculty of Pat Robertson's Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in the law and government school.
Alberto Gonzales, former White House Counsel and current Attorney General of the United States. Confidant, general counsel, secretary of state and Texas Supreme Court justice during reign of Texas Governor George W. Bush. Former member of the law firm that defended Enron.
Monica Goodling - The collective embarrassment in the Justice Department over Ms Goodling’s refusal to testify on Fifth Amendment grounds about her job duties ended when she resigned on April 6, 2007. Ms Goodling, 33, is a 1995 graduate of Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., and received her law degree at Regent University (she is one of a cadre of 150 graduates of Pat Robertson's Regent University now working in the Bush Administration). Messiah College, whose motto is "Christ Preeminent," describes itself as “committed to an embracing evangelical spirit.” Ms. Goodling has been a supporting actor in the takeover of the government by the religious right.
Jay S. Bybee, Assistant Attorney General: "The mere inflicting of pain and suffering on another is not torture."
John C. Yoo, Deputy Assistant Attorney General (and former law clerk for Clarence Thomas): January 2002 memo states the President and Executive are not bound by the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War.
Timothy E. Flanigan, Deputy White House Counsel under Alberto Gonzales 2001-2002; nominated by Bush as Depty Attorney General but withdrawn because of "torture memos".
This list is obviously not complete; not all the dots have been connected. But it becomes obvious that control of the Bush administration and the Republican Party is firmly in the hands of right-wing religious fundamentalists of several different stripes.
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