Can individual citizens bring war crime charges against their leaders in

[Larkspur]

Federal Court?

Mark LeVine in his Commondreams.org op ed War Crimes Have Doomed the Occupation (http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0512-06.htm) said

There are at least three ... ways of bringing U.S., coalition (and let us not forget, Iraqi) perpetrators of war crimes to justice that are being considered by progressive international lawyers. If successful, these could severely damage American credibility for the foreseeable future.

The first would be the indictment of Tony Blair and other senior British officials at the International Criminal Court, to which Britain, unlike the United States, remains a signatory. Several international lawyers with whom I've spoken believe that President Bush and other American officials could actually be listed as co-conspirators and/or perpetrators of any crimes for which Blair and his subordinates might be indicted, based on Article 25 of the Rome ICC treaty, despite extensive efforts by the Bush Administration in the months before the invasion to force the EU (and other countries around the world) to grant "total exemption" from prosecution by the ICC to all American civilians and military personnel. The second would be to convince the UN General Assembly to convene a war crimes tribunal (or at least a Truth Commission) to investigate abuses by coalition and rebel forces. Finally, war crimes charges could be brought right here in the U.S. through Federal war crimes statutes. If the Justice Department (as is likely) refused to open such an investigation, plaintiffs could still sue in Federal court to compel it to do so. And if the Republican-dominated courts refused to order an investigation it would only further strengthen the worldwide sentiment that the U.S. operates by double standards in Iraq and the world at large.

Given the possibilities, why is the peace movement not moving on this issue? Certainly it can't be because it's not relevant to the larger issues of peace and justice in Iraq. As Voltaire reminded us over 250 years ago: "Those who can make you believe absurdities will get you to commit atrocities... As long as we believe in absurdities we will commit atrocities." In other words, as long as the occupation of Iraq is based on the absurdities sold to us by the Bush and Blair governments, its very structure will make atrocities a necessary part of the functioning of the system it's put in place. And as long as Americans continue to believe in the absurdities behind the much larger "war on terrorism," they will continue to be accomplices to international crimes, and to increasing violations of the rights of their fellow citizens as well -- and on a grand scale at that.

I'm not a lawyer, so any lawyers out here in DU land want to postulate how to bring war crimes charges against Bush & Blair & Co? Does anyone know of any US based groups checking into this task?

[riverwalker]

1. the law and the contractors

From Human Rights Watch

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/05/05/iraq8547.htm

Can contractors be prosecuted under U.S. military law?
U.S. civilians can only be tried by U.S. courts-martial during a declared war. As a US military field manual states: “Contractor employees are not subject to military law under the UCMJ when accompanying US forces, except during a declared war. Maintaining discipline of contractor employees is the responsibility of the contractor’s management structure, not the military chain of command.”

Can contractors be prosecuted under U.S. federal law?
Contractors may be prosecuted, depending on the offense. Military contractors who are U.S. nationals could be prosecuted by a U.S. federal court under the U.S. War Crimes Act of 1996 (18 U.S.C. 2441). The act defines a war crime as any grave breach of the 1949 Geneva Conventions (such as torture or inhuman treatment) or any violation of common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions (which not only includes torture, but also “outrages upon personal dignity” and “humiliating and degrading treatment”). Penalties include fines or imprisonment for life or any term of years, and the death penalty if death results to the victim.

Contractors might also be prosecuted under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-778), known as MEJA. This law permits the prosecution in federal court of U.S. civilians who, while employed by or accompanying U.S. forces abroad, commit certain crimes. Generally, the crimes covered are any federal criminal offense punishable by imprisonment for more than one year. MEJA authorizes Defense Department law enforcement personnel to arrest suspected offenders and specifies procedures for the transfer of accused individuals to the United States.

Prosecutions under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act would be handled by federal civilian authorities.

The MEJA law appears to be untested to date. It was enacted primarily to protect U.S. soldiers and their dependents living abroad. One problem facing the U.S. military at its foreign bases was that military contractors could commit crimes with virtual impunity since local authorities would have little interest in prosecuting a U.S. citizen committing a crime against another U.S. citizen on a U.S. military base.