Champaign, U.S.A./The Hague, Netherlands (19 Jan 2010)
Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, U.S.A. has filed a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) in The Hague against U.S.citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet,Condoleezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales (the “Accused”) for theircriminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetratedupon about 100 human beings. This term is really their euphemism forthe enforced disappearance of persons and their consequent torture.This criminal policy and practice by the Accused constitute Crimesagainst Humanity in violation of the Rome Statute establishing theI.C.C.
The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute. Nevertheless theAccused have ordered and been responsible for the commission of I.C.C.statutory crimes within the respective territories of many I.C.C.member states, including several in Europe. Consequently, the I.C.C.has jurisdiction to prosecute the Accused for their I.C.C. statutorycrimes under Rome Statute article 12(2)(a) that affords the I.C.C.jurisdiction to prosecute for I.C.C. statutory crimes committed inI.C.C. member states.
The Complaint requests (1) that the I.C.C. Prosecutor open aninvestigation of the Accused on his own accord under Rome Statutearticle 15(1); and (2) that the I.C.C. Prosecutor also formally “submitto the [I.C.C.] Pre-Trial Chamber a request for authorization of aninvestigation” of the Accused under Rome Statute article 15(3).
For similar reasons, the Highest Level Officials of the Obamaadministration risk the filing of a follow-up Complaint with the I.C.C.if they do not immediately terminate the Accused’s criminal policy andpractice of “extraordinary rendition,” which the Obama administrationhas continued to implement.
The Complaint concludes with a request that the I.C.C. Prosecutorobtain International Arrest Warrants for the Accused from the I.C.C. inaccordance with Rome Statute articles 58(1)(a), 58(1)(b)(i),58(1)(b)(ii), and 58(1)(b)(iii).
In order to demonstrate your support for this Complaint you can contactthe I.C.C. Prosecutor by letter, fax, or email as indicated below.
Francis A. Boyle
Professor of International Law
Law Building
504 East Pennsylvania Avenue
Champaign, Illinois 61820
Phone: 217-333-7954
Fax: 217-244-1478
The Honorable Luis Moreno-Ocampo
Office of the Prosecutor
International Criminal Court
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM, The Hague
The Netherlands
Fax No.: 31-70-515-8555
Email: OTP.InformationDesk@icc-cpi.int
January 19, 2010
Dear Sir:
Please accept my personal compliments. I have the honor hereby to filewith you and the International Criminal Court this Complaint againstU.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, GeorgeTenet, Condoleezza Rice , and Alberto Gonzales (hereinafter referred toas the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of“extraordinary rendition.” This term is really a euphemism for theenforced disappearances of persons, their torture, severe deprivationof their liberty, their violent sexual abuse, and other inhumane actsperpetrated upon these Victims. The Accused have inflicted thiscriminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” upon aboutone hundred (100) human beings, almost all of whom areMuslims/Arabs/Asians and People of Color. I doubt very seriously thatthe Accused would have inflicted these criminal practices upon 100White Judeo-Christian men.
The Accused’s criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition”are both “widespread” and “systematic” within the meaning of RomeStatute article 7(1). Therefore the Accused have committed numerous“Crimes against Humanity” in flagrant and repeated and longstandingviolation of Rome Statute articles 5(1)(b), 7(1)(a), 7(1)(e), 7(1)(f),7(1)(g), 7(1)(h), 7(1)(i), and 7(1)(k). Furthermore, the Accused’s RomeStatute Crimes Against Humanity of enforced disappearances of personsconstitutes ongoing criminal activity that continues even as of today.
The United States is not a contracting party to the Rome Statute.Nevertheless, the Accused ordered and were responsible for thecommission of these I.C.C. statutory crimes on, in, and over therespective territories of several I.C.C. member states, including manylocated in Europe. Therefore, the I.C.C. has jurisdiction over theAccused for their I.C.C. statutory crimes in accordance with RomeStatute article 12(2)(a), which provides as follows:
Article 12
Preconditions to the Exercise of Jurisdiction
…
2. In the case of article 13, paragraph (a) or (c), the Court mayexercise its jurisdiction if one or more of the following States areParties to this Statute or have accepted the jurisdiction of the Courtin accordance with paragraph 3:
(a) The State on the territory of which the conduct in question occurred …
So the fact that United States is not a contracting party to the RomeStatute is no bar to the I.C.C.’s prosecution of the Accused becausethey have ordered and been responsible for the commission of RomeStatute Crimes against Humanity on, in, and over the respectiveterritories of several I.C.C. member states.
Consequently, I hereby respectfully request that the Court exercise itsjurisdiction over the Accused for these Crimes against Humanity inaccordance with Rome Statute article 13(c), which provides as follows:
Article 13
Exercise of Jurisdiction
The Court may exercise its jurisdiction with respect to a crimereferred to in article 5 in accordance with the provisions of thisStatute if:
…
(c) The Prosecutor has initiated an investigation in respect of such a crime in accordance with article 15.
Pursuant to Rome Statute article 13(c), I hereby respectfully requestthat you initiate an investigation proprio motu against the Accused inaccordance with Rome Statute article 15(1): “The Prosecutor mayinitiate investigations proprio motu on the basis of information oncrimes within the jurisdiction of the Court.” My detailed Complaintagainst the Accused constitutes the sufficient “information” requiredby article 15(1).
Furthermore, I respectfully submit that this Complaint by itselfconstitutes “a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation” underRome Statute article 15(3). Hence, I also respectfully request that youformally “submit to the Pre-Trial Chamber a request for authorizationof an investigation” of the Accused under Rome Statute article 15(3) atthis time. Please inform me at your earliest convenience about thestatus and disposition of my two requests set forth immediately above.
Based upon your extensive human rights work in Argentina, you know fullwell from direct personal experience the terrors and the horrors ofenforced disappearances of persons and their consequent torture.According to reputable news media sources here in the United States,about 100 human beings have been subjected to enforced disappearancesand subsequent torture by the Accused. We still have no accounting forthese Victims. In other words, many of these Victims of enforceddisappearances and torture by the Accused could still be alive today.Their very lives are at stake right now as we communicate. You couldvery well save some of their lives by publicly stating that you areopening an investigation of my Complaint.
As for those Victims of enforced disappearances by the Accused who havedied, your opening an investigation of my Complaint is the only meansby which we might be able to obtain some explanation and accounting fortheir whereabouts and the location of their remains in order tocommunicate this critical information to their next-of-kin andloved-ones. Based upon your extensive experience combating enforceddisappearances of persons and their consequent torture in Argentina,you know full well how important that objective is. The next-of-kin,loved-ones, and friends of “disappeared” human beings can never benefitfrom psychological “closure” unless and until there is an accountingfor the fates, if not the remains, of the Victims. In part that isprecisely why the Accused’s enforced disappearances of about 100 humanbeings constitutes ongoing criminal activity that continues as of todayand will continue until the fates of all their Victims have beenofficially determined by you opening an investigation into my Complaint.
Let us mutually suppose that during the so-called “dirty war” inArgentina the International Criminal Court had been in existence. Isubmit that as an Argentinean human rights lawyer you would have movedheaven and earth and done everything in your power to get the I.C.C.and its Prosecutor to assume jurisdiction over the Argentine Junta inorder to terminate and prosecute their enforced disappearances andtorture of your fellow Argentinean citizens. I would have done thesame. Unfortunately, the I.C.C. did not exist during those darkest ofdays for the Argentine Republic when we could have so acted. But todayas the I.C.C. Prosecutor, you have both the opportunity and the legalpower to do something to rectify this mass and total human rightsannihilation, and to resolve and to terminate and to prosecute the“widespread” and “systematic” policy and practice of enforceddisappearances and consequent torture of about 100 human beings by theAccused.
Unfortunately, the new Obama administration in the United States hasmade it perfectly clear by means of public statements by PresidentObama and his Attorney General Eric Holder that they are not going toopen any criminal investigation of any of the Accused for theseaforementioned Crimes against Humanity. Hence an I.C.C. “case” againstthe Accused is “admissible” under Rome Statute article1(complementarity) and article 17. As of right now you and the I.C.C.Judges are the only people in the entire world who can bring somedegree of Justice, Closure, and Healing into this dire, tragic, anddeplorable situation for the lives and well-being of about one hundred“disappeared” and tortured human beings as well as for their loved-onesand next-of-kin, who are also Victims of the Accused’s Crimes againstHumanity. On behalf of them all, as a fellow human rights lawyer Iimplore you to open an investigation into my Complaint and to issue apublic statement to that effect.
Also, most regretfully, the new Obama administration has publiclystated that it will continue the Accused’s policy and practice of“extraordinary rendition,” which is really their euphemism for enforceddisappearances of human beings and consequent torture by other States.Hence the Highest Level Officials of the Obama administration fullyintend to commit their own Crimes against Humanity under the I.C.C.Rome Statute – unless you stop them! Your opening an investigation ofmy Complaint will undoubtedly deter the Obama administration fromengaging in any more “extraordinary renditions” — enforceddisappearances of human beings and having them tortured by otherStates. Indeed your opening of an investigation into my Complaint mightencourage the Obama administration to terminate its criminal“extraordinary rendition” program immediately and thoroughly by meansof issuing a public statement to that effect. In other words, youropening an investigation of my Complaint could very well save the livesof a large number of additional human beings who otherwise will besubjected by the Obama administration to the Rome Statute Crimesagainst Humanity of enforced disappearances of persons and theirconsequent torture by other States, inter alia.
The lives and well-being of countless human beings are now at risk,hanging in the balance, waiting for you to act promptly, effectively,and immediately to save them from becoming Victims of Rome StatuteCrimes against Humanity perpetrated by the Highest Level Officials ofthe Obama administration as successors-in-law to the Accused by openingan investigation of my Complaint. Otherwise, I shall be forced to filewith you and the I.C.C. a follow-up Complaint against the Highest LevelOfficials of the Obama administration. I certainly hope it will notcome to that. Please make it so.
Finally, for reasons more fully explained in the Conclusion to myComplaint, I respectfully request that you obtain I.C.C. arrestwarrants for the Accused in accordance with Rome Statute articles58(1)(a), article 58(1)(b)(i), article 58(1)(b)(ii), and article58(1)(b)(iii). The sooner, the better for all humankind.
I respectfully request that you schedule a meeting with me at ourearliest mutual convenience in order to discuss this Complaint. I lookforward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
This transmission letter is an integral part of my Complaint againstthe Accused and is hereby incorporated by reference into the attachedComplaint dated as of today as well.
Please accept, Sir, the assurance of my highest consideration.
Francis A. Boyle
Professor of International Law
http://australia.to/2010/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=586:icc-complaint-against-bush-cheney-et-al&catid=107:francis-boyle&Itemid=147
http://www.puppetgov.com/2010/01/20/international-criminal-court-complaint-filed-against-bush-cheney-rumsfeld-tenet-rice-gonzales/
Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, U.S.A. has filed a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) in The Hague against U.S.citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet,Condoleezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales (the “Accused”) for theircriminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetratedupon about 100 human beings. This term is really their euphemism forthe enforced disappearance of persons and their consequent torture.This criminal policy and practice by the Accused constitute Crimesagainst Humanity in violation of the Rome Statute establishing theI.C.C.
The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute. Nevertheless theAccused have ordered and been responsible for the commission of I.C.C.statutory crimes within the respective territories of many I.C.C.member states, including several in Europe. Consequently, the I.C.C.has jurisdiction to prosecute the Accused for their I.C.C. statutorycrimes under Rome Statute article 12(2)(a) that affords the I.C.C.jurisdiction to prosecute for I.C.C. statutory crimes committed inI.C.C. member states.
The Complaint requests (1) that the I.C.C. Prosecutor open aninvestigation of the Accused on his own accord under Rome Statutearticle 15(1); and (2) that the I.C.C. Prosecutor also formally “submitto the [I.C.C.] Pre-Trial Chamber a request for authorization of aninvestigation” of the Accused under Rome Statute article 15(3).
For similar reasons, the Highest Level Officials of the Obamaadministration risk the filing of a follow-up Complaint with the I.C.C.if they do not immediately terminate the Accused’s criminal policy andpractice of “extraordinary rendition,” which the Obama administrationhas continued to implement.
The Complaint concludes with a request that the I.C.C. Prosecutorobtain International Arrest Warrants for the Accused from the I.C.C. inaccordance with Rome Statute articles 58(1)(a), 58(1)(b)(i),58(1)(b)(ii), and 58(1)(b)(iii).
In order to demonstrate your support for this Complaint you can contactthe I.C.C. Prosecutor by letter, fax, or email as indicated below.
Francis A. Boyle
Professor of International Law
Law Building
504 East Pennsylvania Avenue
Champaign, Illinois 61820
Phone: 217-333-7954
Fax: 217-244-1478
The Honorable Luis Moreno-Ocampo
Office of the Prosecutor
International Criminal Court
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM, The Hague
The Netherlands
Fax No.: 31-70-515-8555
Email: OTP.InformationDesk@icc-cpi.int
January 19, 2010
Dear Sir:
Please accept my personal compliments. I have the honor hereby to filewith you and the International Criminal Court this Complaint againstU.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, GeorgeTenet, Condoleezza Rice , and Alberto Gonzales (hereinafter referred toas the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of“extraordinary rendition.” This term is really a euphemism for theenforced disappearances of persons, their torture, severe deprivationof their liberty, their violent sexual abuse, and other inhumane actsperpetrated upon these Victims. The Accused have inflicted thiscriminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” upon aboutone hundred (100) human beings, almost all of whom areMuslims/Arabs/Asians and People of Color. I doubt very seriously thatthe Accused would have inflicted these criminal practices upon 100White Judeo-Christian men.
The Accused’s criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition”are both “widespread” and “systematic” within the meaning of RomeStatute article 7(1). Therefore the Accused have committed numerous“Crimes against Humanity” in flagrant and repeated and longstandingviolation of Rome Statute articles 5(1)(b), 7(1)(a), 7(1)(e), 7(1)(f),7(1)(g), 7(1)(h), 7(1)(i), and 7(1)(k). Furthermore, the Accused’s RomeStatute Crimes Against Humanity of enforced disappearances of personsconstitutes ongoing criminal activity that continues even as of today.
The United States is not a contracting party to the Rome Statute.Nevertheless, the Accused ordered and were responsible for thecommission of these I.C.C. statutory crimes on, in, and over therespective territories of several I.C.C. member states, including manylocated in Europe. Therefore, the I.C.C. has jurisdiction over theAccused for their I.C.C. statutory crimes in accordance with RomeStatute article 12(2)(a), which provides as follows:
Article 12
Preconditions to the Exercise of Jurisdiction
…
2. In the case of article 13, paragraph (a) or (c), the Court mayexercise its jurisdiction if one or more of the following States areParties to this Statute or have accepted the jurisdiction of the Courtin accordance with paragraph 3:
(a) The State on the territory of which the conduct in question occurred …
So the fact that United States is not a contracting party to the RomeStatute is no bar to the I.C.C.’s prosecution of the Accused becausethey have ordered and been responsible for the commission of RomeStatute Crimes against Humanity on, in, and over the respectiveterritories of several I.C.C. member states.
Consequently, I hereby respectfully request that the Court exercise itsjurisdiction over the Accused for these Crimes against Humanity inaccordance with Rome Statute article 13(c), which provides as follows:
Article 13
Exercise of Jurisdiction
The Court may exercise its jurisdiction with respect to a crimereferred to in article 5 in accordance with the provisions of thisStatute if:
…
(c) The Prosecutor has initiated an investigation in respect of such a crime in accordance with article 15.
Pursuant to Rome Statute article 13(c), I hereby respectfully requestthat you initiate an investigation proprio motu against the Accused inaccordance with Rome Statute article 15(1): “The Prosecutor mayinitiate investigations proprio motu on the basis of information oncrimes within the jurisdiction of the Court.” My detailed Complaintagainst the Accused constitutes the sufficient “information” requiredby article 15(1).
Furthermore, I respectfully submit that this Complaint by itselfconstitutes “a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation” underRome Statute article 15(3). Hence, I also respectfully request that youformally “submit to the Pre-Trial Chamber a request for authorizationof an investigation” of the Accused under Rome Statute article 15(3) atthis time. Please inform me at your earliest convenience about thestatus and disposition of my two requests set forth immediately above.
Based upon your extensive human rights work in Argentina, you know fullwell from direct personal experience the terrors and the horrors ofenforced disappearances of persons and their consequent torture.According to reputable news media sources here in the United States,about 100 human beings have been subjected to enforced disappearancesand subsequent torture by the Accused. We still have no accounting forthese Victims. In other words, many of these Victims of enforceddisappearances and torture by the Accused could still be alive today.Their very lives are at stake right now as we communicate. You couldvery well save some of their lives by publicly stating that you areopening an investigation of my Complaint.
As for those Victims of enforced disappearances by the Accused who havedied, your opening an investigation of my Complaint is the only meansby which we might be able to obtain some explanation and accounting fortheir whereabouts and the location of their remains in order tocommunicate this critical information to their next-of-kin andloved-ones. Based upon your extensive experience combating enforceddisappearances of persons and their consequent torture in Argentina,you know full well how important that objective is. The next-of-kin,loved-ones, and friends of “disappeared” human beings can never benefitfrom psychological “closure” unless and until there is an accountingfor the fates, if not the remains, of the Victims. In part that isprecisely why the Accused’s enforced disappearances of about 100 humanbeings constitutes ongoing criminal activity that continues as of todayand will continue until the fates of all their Victims have beenofficially determined by you opening an investigation into my Complaint.
Let us mutually suppose that during the so-called “dirty war” inArgentina the International Criminal Court had been in existence. Isubmit that as an Argentinean human rights lawyer you would have movedheaven and earth and done everything in your power to get the I.C.C.and its Prosecutor to assume jurisdiction over the Argentine Junta inorder to terminate and prosecute their enforced disappearances andtorture of your fellow Argentinean citizens. I would have done thesame. Unfortunately, the I.C.C. did not exist during those darkest ofdays for the Argentine Republic when we could have so acted. But todayas the I.C.C. Prosecutor, you have both the opportunity and the legalpower to do something to rectify this mass and total human rightsannihilation, and to resolve and to terminate and to prosecute the“widespread” and “systematic” policy and practice of enforceddisappearances and consequent torture of about 100 human beings by theAccused.
Unfortunately, the new Obama administration in the United States hasmade it perfectly clear by means of public statements by PresidentObama and his Attorney General Eric Holder that they are not going toopen any criminal investigation of any of the Accused for theseaforementioned Crimes against Humanity. Hence an I.C.C. “case” againstthe Accused is “admissible” under Rome Statute article1(complementarity) and article 17. As of right now you and the I.C.C.Judges are the only people in the entire world who can bring somedegree of Justice, Closure, and Healing into this dire, tragic, anddeplorable situation for the lives and well-being of about one hundred“disappeared” and tortured human beings as well as for their loved-onesand next-of-kin, who are also Victims of the Accused’s Crimes againstHumanity. On behalf of them all, as a fellow human rights lawyer Iimplore you to open an investigation into my Complaint and to issue apublic statement to that effect.
Also, most regretfully, the new Obama administration has publiclystated that it will continue the Accused’s policy and practice of“extraordinary rendition,” which is really their euphemism for enforceddisappearances of human beings and consequent torture by other States.Hence the Highest Level Officials of the Obama administration fullyintend to commit their own Crimes against Humanity under the I.C.C.Rome Statute – unless you stop them! Your opening an investigation ofmy Complaint will undoubtedly deter the Obama administration fromengaging in any more “extraordinary renditions” — enforceddisappearances of human beings and having them tortured by otherStates. Indeed your opening of an investigation into my Complaint mightencourage the Obama administration to terminate its criminal“extraordinary rendition” program immediately and thoroughly by meansof issuing a public statement to that effect. In other words, youropening an investigation of my Complaint could very well save the livesof a large number of additional human beings who otherwise will besubjected by the Obama administration to the Rome Statute Crimesagainst Humanity of enforced disappearances of persons and theirconsequent torture by other States, inter alia.
The lives and well-being of countless human beings are now at risk,hanging in the balance, waiting for you to act promptly, effectively,and immediately to save them from becoming Victims of Rome StatuteCrimes against Humanity perpetrated by the Highest Level Officials ofthe Obama administration as successors-in-law to the Accused by openingan investigation of my Complaint. Otherwise, I shall be forced to filewith you and the I.C.C. a follow-up Complaint against the Highest LevelOfficials of the Obama administration. I certainly hope it will notcome to that. Please make it so.
Finally, for reasons more fully explained in the Conclusion to myComplaint, I respectfully request that you obtain I.C.C. arrestwarrants for the Accused in accordance with Rome Statute articles58(1)(a), article 58(1)(b)(i), article 58(1)(b)(ii), and article58(1)(b)(iii). The sooner, the better for all humankind.
I respectfully request that you schedule a meeting with me at ourearliest mutual convenience in order to discuss this Complaint. I lookforward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
This transmission letter is an integral part of my Complaint againstthe Accused and is hereby incorporated by reference into the attachedComplaint dated as of today as well.
Please accept, Sir, the assurance of my highest consideration.
Francis A. Boyle
Professor of International Law
http://australia.to/2010/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=586:icc-complaint-against-bush-cheney-et-al&catid=107:francis-boyle&Itemid=147
http://www.puppetgov.com/2010/01/20/international-criminal-court-complaint-filed-against-bush-cheney-rumsfeld-tenet-rice-gonzales/
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