Little more than a year ago, Democracy Now headlined a story "Bush's Shrinking World" as they reported on the international communities efforts to hold the former US President accountable for war crimes. As a result, the former President had to Cancel a trip to Switzerland in February 2011 due to pressures from human rights attorneys threatening to take legal action against him for sanctioning the use of torture. George W. Bush was scheduled for the weekend jaunt, as his first trip to Europe since leaving office. He was set to speak at a Saturday dinner in Geneva in honor of United Israel Appeal.
While this issue has been largely ignored by the mainstream media in the States, the rest of the world seems to be taking the issue of the US torture policy more seriously. Al Jazeera News also reported "Amnesty International's continuous calls for Canadian authorities to arrest and prosecute George W Bush, saying the former US president authorized torture in the course of the United States' "war on terror". When the former President did attend an economic summit in Surrey in Canada's westernmost British Columbia province on October 20 he and former President Clinton were met by hundreds of protestors demanding "the war criminal" Bush leave their country.
The human rights organization issued a statement the day before the event stating that the Canadian government had "international obligations ... given [Bush's] responsibility for crimes under international law including torture". The London-based group also issued a 27-page memorandum they'd submitted in September to Canada's attorney general laying out its legal case against Bush W. According to Amnesty's Americas director "As the US authorities have, so far, failed to bring former president Bush to justice, the international community must step in,". "A failure by Canada to take action during his visit would violate the UN Convention against Torture and demonstrate contempt for fundamental human rights." At the time, the Canadian officials remained mum on the highly charged issue as no spokesperson for the Canadian government, has really made a comment of any real substance to date.
But wait, it gets worse: the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights issued a 42-page document they call a preliminary indictment against Bush. According to international human rights lawyers, former Bush could now face a lawsuit wherever he travels outside the United States.
Yes indeed, the president of the United States could be effectively jailed within the confines of the US. But George W. Bush is not the only person of interest to the international community as several other hight ranking officials within the Bush W. administration including Vice President Dick Cheney are wanted for war crimes.
The former vice president had planned to speak April 24 2012 in Toronto. However, citing health and security concerns were at stake in Canada, both he and daughter Elizabeth will stay on the safer side of the border.
There is no doubt Cheney, a former heavy smoker, until recently relied on a battery-powered heart pump and had no pulse, the former vice president would not have wanted to stress test his new heart by facing large scale protest and the real possibility of arrest. Canadian critics as high up as Parliament, have accused Cheney of being a war criminal, for advocating tactics such as water boarding and sleep deprivation.
During Cheney's Sept. 26 trip to our "Cool" neighbors to the north, protests took place at the exclusive Vancouver Club, where participants paid $500 for dinner and a talk with the former VP. An estimated 250 to 600 protestors came in full rioter gear: placards, chants, drums, and whistles. Cheney had to hide out in the exclusive "club of choice" for seven hours.
For a guy road testing a new ticker and carrying around all the heavy war crimes baggage he and his handlers decided a good cover story was better than risking the Vice President receiving his next heart transplant courtesy the Canadian penal system.
Some might think this is a subject better left to historians and just move on. The mainstream media catering to a domestic audience apparently agrees. But we think it is precisely because America was so willing to move on, is the primary reason the world now views the United States as an enemy to be feared and not a friend to be revered. The US may want to forget, but the world has a long and vivid memory when it comes to war crimes of torture.
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