October 1st marks the 60th anniversary of the closing gavel of the Nuremberg Trials — the true Trial of the Century just passed. For four years, the top 24 Nazi leaders, instigators and perpetrators had to sit through seeing their crimes fully explored and revealed. After the final gavel fell, most of these Nazis went to the hangman or to prison.
Most importantly, the Nuremberg Principles established that for all nations, whether they became signatories to the Principles or no, there is no excusing these crimes by any individual of any nation by means of claims that they were ‘just following orders,’ or by virtue of being a government official or head of state, or by claims of not knowing that it was a war crime, or of not being capable of stopping such crimes. No such excuses are allowed under international law.
The precise standard of absolute personal responsibility for war crimes that has been in place since that distant October morning has never been vague or uncertain — if the crime factually happened, and if you were present, or you were aware of it, or you took any part, or you failed to attempt to stop it — you committed a war crime, or a crime against humanity. And, there is no statute of limitations, none whatsoever, on these crimes. You are completely subject to prosecution, wherever you may be, for every remaining day of your life.
Sixty years since the final gavel fell, and the Nuremberg Principles established by those trials are now openly violated by the United States of America — crimes against peace, wars of aggression, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Both political parties, both sides of both Houses of Congress, by absconding from their sworn oaths and duties to our Constitution and our obligations to world peace, have left themselves entirely open to prosecution for permitting, abetting, conspiring and engaging in elective wars of aggression, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes against peace. By the precise standards of absolute personal responsibility for war crimes established by the Nuremberg Principles, not a one of America’s Senators or Congress members may walk this earth as free men and women from this day forth. They all belong to the same category now — they are non-prosecuted war criminals until such time as they actually are prosecuted.
Perhaps their trial will be held in the ancient city of Nuremberg.
Who was charged in the original Nuremberg Trial?
There were two dozen prominent Nazi leaders, officials, and officers. They were prosecuted as individuals, and as members of one or more of six “criminal organizations” of the defeated Nazi regime that were also prosecuted.
These six criminal organizations were:
the political leadership of the Nazi Party,
the Schutzstaffel (the infamous SS),
the High Command of the German Army,
the Gestapo,
the Sicherheitsdienst (the Intelligence Branch of the SS),
the Sturmabteilung (the Brownshirts).
What were these military, political, police and intelligence organizations charged with?
The charges against them (and the individual members of them) were:
1. Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of crime against peace
2. Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crime against peace
3. War crimes
4. Crimes against humanity
In order to constitute the court, and to prosecute the crimes of the Nazi regime, the Nuremberg Principles were created and agreed upon by the Allied Powers, most particularly the USA, Russia, Britain and France. The seven Nuremberg Principles are:
Principle I
Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefore and liable to punishment.
Principle II
The fact that internal law does not impose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who committed the act from responsibility under international law.
Principle III
The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.
Principle IV
The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.
Principle V
Any person charged with a crime under international law has the right to a fair trial on the facts and law.
Principle VI
The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law:
(a) Crimes against peace:
(i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;
(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).
(b) War Crimes:
Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation of slave labor or for any other purpose of the civilian population of or in occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the Seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.
(c) Crimes against humanity:
Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhumane acts done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime.
Principle VII
Complicity in the commission of a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity as set forth in Principle VI is a crime under international law.
The horrific revelations of crimes against persons and whole populations revealed during the four-year Nuremberg Trial, and subsequent lower level Nuremberg Trials, fostered unanimous international agreements and treaties to prevent any recurrence of such crimes against humanity from ever recurring.
These include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the Genocide Convention of 1948, the Geneva Convention on the Laws and Customs of War in 1949, the Convention on the Abolition of the Statute of Limitations on War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in 1968, and the Supplementary Protocols strengthening the Geneva Convention in 1977.
How America’s Senators, Judges, Congress members, military officers, police and intelligence agency personnel behave under the absolutely illegal and immoral scenarios pursued by the radical Bush Administration rests entirely on their individual heads. No excuses are permitted, as long as a moral choice to participate or not is even remotely possible. If these political, military, police and intelligence personnel do not stand against the Bush Administration, they will stand trial some fine day for participating, and for not standing against it.
When their trial comes, upon some unforeseen day between now and the end of their lives, not a one of them will be afforded any excuse for their complicity or participation in the capture, torture, interrogation, imprisonment, trials, punishment or death of any human beings under this Administration.
This Administration is a criminal organization by the clear definitions of the Nuremberg Principles. So are the government and military and police and intelligence organizations that follow the directives, orders and policies of this Administration. So are the individual members of those organizations. Just as the High Command, political leaders, intelligence, police and political operatives of the Nazi Administration were tried, convicted and variously hung or imprisoned, so will all participants in this criminal Bush Administration be variously hung or imprisoned if they do not leave off any and all participation in it and with it.
Stand apart from this radical Administration. Take no part in it. Get as far away from it as you can.
Or, stay the course and go down with it. Live with the shame of it for the remainder of your days. Tell your grandchildren that you were ‘just following orders’ — but don’t try telling that to the judge. Live in fear of your pending trial for as long as you may live, wherever you go. When every nation on earth is calling for your trial, where do you think you will go?
We will find you, no matter where you seek shelter from justice. Every nation on earth has long since agreed to the pursuit and prosecution of people like you. We will bring you to the docket, and you will answer for your participation in the Bush Administration.
Get out. Get away. It is no longer just a question of Bush and Friends being impeached and imprisoned. With the wholesale adoption of torture of any kind whatsoever, with the elective war of aggression on Iraq, and the imminent war of aggression on Iran, the Bush Administration and every government, police, political and intelligence organization that obeys its policies are clearly crossing the Rubicon, fully qualifying as ‘criminal organizations’ under the clear principles of international law.
Bush is not your King. Bush is not your Fuhrer. Bush is a traitor to his oath of office, and our Constitution.
Choose.
