.... As the story goes, President Obama or the Department of Justice (depending on which source you are looking at) have filed court documents granting the Bush administration immunity for war crimes. Looking closely at the case in question and reading through the court documents which are cited as sources for these stories, it becomes clear that the headlines on this are, at best, misleading. The Case Sundus Shaker Saleh, an Iraqi mother and citizen, who was residing in the country at the time of the US invasion filed suit on March 13, 2012, in California District Court. Filed as a “Complaint For Conspiracy To Commit Aggression and The Crime Of Aggression” Saleh’s suit alleges that the Bush administration plotted against the country of Iraq and that top members of the administration used the September 11th attacks to justify an invasion which had been planned as early as 1998. She also claims that the administration falsified information to justify the war and further, that they illegally invaded the country, without UN approval, in violation of international law. The suit cites additional violations of the Rule of Nuremberg and the Kellogg-Briand Pact, a Treaty signed by the US in 1928. Who’s Involved? Top members of the Bush administration including George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, Colin L. Powell and Paul M. Wolfowitz are named as defendants in the suit. The suit lists the Plaintiff’s as Saleh and “all innocent Iraqi civilians who, through no fault of their own, suffered damage as a result” of the Iraq war. The citizens are referred to as the “Iraqi Civilian Victim Class” later in the document. Court filings also reveal that the filing Plaintiff, Sundus Shaker Saleh has requested that a jury hear the evidence in the case. President Obama Grants Immunity To Bush Administration? No. In response to the suit US attorneys filed a Motion to Dismiss. This motion to dismiss cites the Westfall Act, which actually has nothing to do with Obama granting George Bush or his administration immunity from anything, since it was first put in place in 1948 and updated in 1961, 1966 and 1988. This law provides that any government employee who was acting as an agent of the US at the time a crime is committed, is immune from suits of the nature. It also requires that the United States government be named in place of any individual employee of the government. In the Motion, attorneys for the US government clearly state that in order for the suit to be legal, the United States government must be named as the defendant. Whether or not you agree with the law, the fact remains that Obama did not write the law, nor did he have anything to do with its creation, nor is he or the Department of Justice free to simply violate it because we don’t like it. Learn more: addictinginfo.org/2013/08/29/president-obama-grants-george-bush-immunity-for-crimes-not-quite/#ixzz2dPryc3Lt
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 02:42:04 +0000
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