We Must Hold the Scoundrels Accountable
Paul Craig Roberts
November 20, 2005, 9:00 am
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The BBC reports (Nov.
17) that two former British government employees
have been charged with violating the Official Secrets
Act.
The Official Secrets Act is useful
for protecting the British government from
accountability. Anyone who reveals wrongdoing by
government officials can be charged under the act.
The two men are charged with
leaking a harmless memo, "Iraq in the Medium
Term," that expresses British Foreign Office
doubts about US tactics in Iraq. The real crime is not
the leak but her Majesty`s government`s continuing
support for a policy that the British government knows
to be illegal and bulging with war crimes. It is Prime
Minister Tony Blair and his ministers who should be
facing charges.
As the publication by the London
Times (May
1, 2005) of the super secret
Downing Street Memo (July 23, 2002) made clear,
prior to the US invasion of Iraq the head of British
intelligence returned from meetings in Washington to
tell the British cabinet that the Bush administration
first made the decision to invade Iraq and then
manufactured the "intelligence" to justify the
decision.
The British government knew in
advance that the invasion was wrong. Members of the
British cabinet were concerned that British
participation in an act of naked aggression would expose
British government officials to war crimes charges.
Nevertheless, Blair insisted that the UK had to support
Bush. Little doubt but Blair was concerned that
otherwise his political retirement would not be secured
with
US corporate directorships.
Consequently, the US and UK
governments invaded a country for reasons that were
different from the fabricated reasons used to make the
case to the public. Thus did the highest officials in
the two governments commit a plethora of crimes.
Under the Nuremberg standard, it is
a war crime to initiate military aggression.
It is a criminal act both in the US
and the UK to commit military forces to action under
false pretenses.
Many aspects of the conduct of the
war are criminal. Torture, murder of civilians,
corruption in contracts. Prosecutors could build a list
of charges against President George W. Bush, Vice
President Richard Cheney, Defense secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, and Prime Minister Blair.
In England it is not Blair who is
on trial for participating in what he knew was a
wrongful act that has resulted in thousands of deaths.
It is not the crimes committed in secret that get
punished. The people who are punished are the ones who
leak memos that reveal wrongdoing has occurred.
Blair may escape punishment for his
treachery to the British and Iraqi people. Bush,
however, may not. One of the neocon architects of the
illegal invasion,
Lewis "Scooter" Libby, has been
indicted on a peripheral issue. Another of the
neocon architects,
Douglas Feith, is being investigated by the
inspector general of the Department of Defense at the
insistence of the Senate Armed Services Committee and
Senate Intelligence Committee. Feith is suspected of
overseeing the task of creating the false intelligence.
Bush`s public support has
plummeted. A majority of Americans believe Bush lied
about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction and now
they doubt his integrity. Trapped in their lies, Bush
and Cheney are lashing out at critics, proving once
again the truth of Samuel Johnson`s 18th century
observation that
"patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
Rep. John Murtha (D, Pa.), a former
marine, has had enough of the senseless killing,
maiming, and expense of the Iraq war, which he termed
"a flawed policy wrapped in illusion."
Murtha, a strong supporter of the
US military, has realized along with
General George W. Casey that US occupation, not
terrorism, is the driving force behind the Iraq
insurgency.
On November 17 Murtha
declared: "We cannot continue on the present
course. It is evident that continued military action in
Iraq is not in the best interest of the United States of
America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf Region."
A new CNN/USA Today Gallup poll
shows that the American public agrees with Murtha.
Fifty-two percent of respondents believe all US soldiers
should be withdrawn immediately from Iraq or over the
next 12 months. Only 38 percent believe the troops
should remain in Iraq.
The neocon architects of the war
believed that the "cakewalk" invasion of Iraq
would flow seamlessly into the overthrow of the Syrian
and Iranian governments, making the Middle East safe for
whatever policy Israel wished to pursue. Instead, the
invasion has poisoned Muslims against America and
created chaos and instability that play into the hands
of Osama bin Laden.
The Bush administration believed
that the euphoria of a "cakewalk" conquest would
prevent the nonexistence of weapons of mass destruction
from becoming an issue. Success would mask the lies, and
the issue of accountability would not arise.
Success, however, was never in the
cards. Congress has caught on, and pressure is mounting
to bring our troops home. The determination of the Bush
administration to discredit all critics resulted in
illegal acts and Libby`s indictment. The prosecutor,
Patrick Fitzgerald, has announced the formation of a new
grand jury to continue the investigation of illegal acts
by Bush administration high officials.
As events unfold, we must keep in
mind that matters do not end with bringing home the
troops and punishing the administration officials who
blew the cover of a covert US agent. The worst
transgression was the Bush administration`s decision to
deceive our nation in order to use a war in Iraq to
pursue an undeclared agenda in the Middle East. Bush,
Cheney and Rumsfeld committed treason. They still have
not told us the real reason they were so determined to
invade Iraq that they used falsified intelligence to
justify a war of aggression. We must find out their real
agenda and hold them fully accountable for their crimes.
If low level British government
employees are to be punished for leaking a memo that had
no adverse consequences except for the reputation of
Blair and his cabinet, the monsters who started a war
that has killed and maimed tens of thousands must be
held accountable.
COPYRIGHT
CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
Paul Craig Roberts is the author with Lawrence M.
Stratton of
here
for Peter Brimelow`s
Forbes Magazine interview with Roberts about the
recent epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct.
