Some of these articles may have been shared before by myself below, but for the sake of time I am posting them all here now, just so you can see now just how much press this is getting.
END OF MY COMMENTS
11/19/2011
Streaming Video: Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal; BREAKING: The Trial of George W. Bush and Tony Blair: Sparks Fly at the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal
Chief Judge, Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal
Streaming Video: Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal -
The following URL will stream video of each session of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal within 1-2 hours after the specific session has ended. To access this streaming video please go to:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/war-is-a-crime-exhibition
Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal
Schedule of Sessions
Saturday Nov. 19, 2011 9AM - 5 PM Kuala Lumpur time;
Sunday Nov. 20, 2011 9AM - 5 PM Kuala Lumpur time;
Monday Nov. 21, 2011 9AM - 5 PM Kuala Lumpur time;
Tuesday Nov. 22, 2011 9AM - 5 PM Kuala Lumpur time;
CONVERT TO YOUR TIME ZONE:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
Sessions of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal will also be online on You Tube.
BREAKING: The Trial of George W. Bush and Tony Blair: Sparks Fly at the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal
By Cynthia McKinney
Global Research, November 19, 2011
19 November 2011 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Today, seven judges of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal sat to hear formal charges against former President of the United States George W. Bush and former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair for Crimes Against the Peace.
But before the actual proceedings could get underway, Defense Counsel Team Leader Jason Kay Kit Leon charged one of the Judges with bias. Prosecutors characterized the allegation of bias and request for recusal as a "surprise" attack for which the Court had not had the opportunity to prepare.
Judge Niloufer Bhagwat, who served as a Judge with the Tokyo International Tribunal for War Crimes in Afghanistan, wrote in her decision that she found George W. Bush guilty for waging war against Afghanistan and the Afghani people. In addition, Judge Bhagwat served as a prosecutor of George W. Bush at the People's Tribunal on Iraq in 2005 in Istanbul. Defense Counsel alleged that because of Judge Bhagwat's participation in these various efforts and due to the opinions she has issued, that she cannot be fair in these Kuala Lumpur proceedings. Judge Bhagwat did find that no Head of State, including George W. Bush, can exempt himself from international treaty organizations.
Judge Niloufer implored the panel in Istanbul to have the courage to speak the truth. Counsel for the defendants found Judge Alfred Webre made the point that George W. Bush was served appropriately but failed to appear at the various people's tribunals seeking justice for the victims of his Presidential decisions to take the people of the United States to war.
However, he made the point in defense of his colleague, Judge Bhagwat, that President Bush did not fail to appear at a Vancouver dinner at which he collected a US$150,000 speaking fee. Judge Webre stated that perhaps the Tribunal should have offered the former U.S. President a sizeable speaking fee in order to gain his attendance at the Tribunal.
Francis Boyle, a part of the prosecuting team, spoke on the matter of bias and recusal based on precedents at the International Court of Justice and the United States Supreme Court, where judges are presumed to be able to render judgments despite what might appear at first glance to be conflicst of interests. Interestingly, both Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. have currently turned their sights onto two the Supreme Court Justices alleged to have bias on the President's health care law which the Supreme Court has agreed to hear during this term. Justices Clarence Thomas and Elena Kagan have been challenged for by Republicans and Democrats, respectively, in the Court's health care deliberations due to the financial ties of Mrs. Clarence Thomas to organizations against the law and Justice Kagan's role in preparing the defense of the controversial health care law while she served as the Administration's Solicitor General.
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal Chief Judge Abdul Kadir Sulaiman announced that he was "shocked" by the turn of events that required this matter to be aired in public. Judge Bhagwat announced that she would recuse herselF from Charge 1 deliberations; her decision was accepted by the Court, and she left the Chambers.
Defense Counsel then proceeded to argue that the Tribunal lacked jurisdiction to consider the actions of the President and Prime Minister. The Prosecution anticipated this line of argument and was prepared with its counter-argument and declared that they are prepared to show that war crimes have been committed and deriving its power directly from the people who refuse to be complicit in war crimes, the people will not be silenced and conscience cannot be silenced. Francis Boyle added that complaints had already been filed at the International Criminal Court (ICC) against both Bush and Blair, but that the ICC had refused prosecution. The Tribunal is expected to overrule Defense objection based on jurisdiction and proceed to the trial of President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair.
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BACKGROUND NEWS ARTICLES
Activists in Malaysia plan 'war crime trial' of George W. Bush and Tony Blair
Malaysian-led activists will hold a symbolic trial this month for former President George W. Bush and British ex-leader Tony Blair on charges of committing crimes against peace in the Iraq war, the event's organisers said on Tuesday.
10:27AM GMT 15 Nov 2011
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal is an initiative of Malaysia's retired Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who staunchly opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The tribunal will convene a four-day public hearing starting Saturday to determine whether Bush and Blair committed crimes against peace and violated international law in the Iraq invasion, said Malaysian lawyer Yaacob Hussain Marican.
"For these people who have been immune from prosecution, we want to put them on trial in this forum to prove that they committed war crimes," Yaacob told The Associated Press.
Activists sent information about the charges to Bush and Blair recently but received no response, Yaacob said.
Francis Boyle, an American international law professor based in Illinois, will be among the prosecutors at the hearing, which follows two years of investigations by a Malaysian peace foundation founded by Mahathir that looked into complaints by people affected by the Iraqi war.
The effort is modelled after a 1967 Vietnam War crimes panel convened in Sweden and Denmark by philosophers Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre, Yaacob said. The Vietnam tribunal said the U.S. committed acts of aggression against Vietnam and bombarded civilian targets, but it was mostly ignored in United States.
The Kuala Lumpur tribunal will have a seven-member panel of judges including two retired judges from Malaysia's highest court, peace activist Alfred Lambremont Webre of the United States and Mumbai-based lawyer Niloufer Bhagwat of India.
If the tribunal finds Bush and Blair guilty, it will enter their names into a symbolic "Register of War Criminals."
The tribunal is also scheduled to hold a separate hearing next year on charges of torture linked to the Iraq war against former U.S. officials including ex-Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld and ex-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Yaacob said.
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