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Phoney Invasion of Saudi Arabia
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.
President Bush from
August 2, 1990, intended and acted to prevent any interference with
his plan to destroy Iraq economically and militarily
2.
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.
3. President
Bush ordered the destruction of facilities essential to civilian life
and economic productivity throughout Iraq.
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.
5. The United States
intentionally bombed indiscriminately throughout Iraq.
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.
7. The United States
used prohibited weapons capable of mass destruction and inflicting
indiscriminate death and unnecessary suffering against both military
and civilian targets.
8. The United States intentionally
attacked installations in Iraq containing dangerous substances and
forces.
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.
10. President Bush obstructed justice
and corrupted United Nations functions as a means of securing power
to commit crimes against peace and war crimes.
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.
12. The United States waged war on the
environment.
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.
14. President Bush
intentionally deprived the Iraqi people of essential medicines,
potable water, food, and other necessities.
15. The United
States continued its assault on Iraq after the cease fire, invading
and occupying areas at will.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Results --- http://deoxy.org/wc/warcrim3.htm
