South Bay Mobilization Initiates Campaign to Prosecute all US Criminals Responsible for the Invasion of Iraq

On Monday, March 24, 2003, Patrick O'Connell initiated a citizens campaign demanding the prosecution of all criminals responsible for initiating and planning the illegal invasion of Iraq for genocide, crimes against the peace, crimes against humanity and violating the UN Charter by presenting these Demands to Adam Braun, Deputy US Attorney in San Jose.

Deputy US Attorney Braun told Mr. O'Connell that he had no jurisdiction over crimes that broke international law and that did not occur in the Norther California region. When asked who had such jurisdiction, Mr. Braun told Mr. O'Connell that the Attorney General's Office in Washington DC did in fact have jurisdiction to prosecute such crimes. In response, Mr. O'Connell asked what our recource would be if Attorney General Ashcroft refused to prosecute these criminals (which include President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secrtary of State Colin Powell, and others) for violating our laws and the laws of the international community. Mr. Braun replied that he was not sure what legal recource we would have under those circumstances, and Mr. O'Connell told him that we would bring these Demand to every US Attorney's office in the US until we found one that was willing to uphold the law and the Constitution and initiate such procedings. Mr. Braun refused to take the Demands and the documentation attached in his official capacity, but took them as a private citizen and said he would read them over. By doing so, Mr. Braun has accepted responsibility for taking whatever actions are in his power to stop this illegal and genocidal war, according to the Nuremberg Principles.

Now that the campaign has been launched, we are looking for groups and individuals who are interested in using these Demands in their anti-war organizing efforts in their own communities. They will be every evolving. We can add specific charges as we find them (I would love to find a law that makes it illegal to send US troops knowingly and unnessessarily into harms way through the use of depleted uranium and experimenting on them with vaccines - this would really expose the lie of "supporting our troops."). And as communities across the US begin to use the Demands, the list of criminals will begin to grow as well.

Please look over the Demands & Documentation and send us suggestions of how to better word the Demands or what crimes to add, or what documentation we should add (documents, articles or books) to add.

Basically, these Demands can be used to bring up the reality that this war is indeed illegal and is a violation of many international and national laws (Genocide is a US crime since the Genocide Convention Implementation Act was passed into law in 1987). They can be used to:

• Bring the Demands to the US Attorney in your area (usually located in a Federal Building) and demand that he/she initiate procedings to prosecute the criminals listed on the Demand.
  
  
• Confront local congressional representatives as a way of motivating them to sign onto the repeal of Bush's war powers - our own verion of "Three Strikes" :
  you voted to give Bush War Powers, supported the initiation of the war and if you refuse to vote to repeal the war powers, we vow to confront them publicly as a participant in the crimes of genocide, etc. wherever they go in public.
  
  
• Initiate a nationwide citizens arrest committee that attempts to put Bush under arrest wherever he speaks on the 2004 election campaign trail for the crimes he has committed
  
  
• Initiate similar programs with local defense contractors for the roles their weapons are playing in this illegal war.
  
  
• The media could be prosecuted for inciting genocide (section (c) of the Genocide Convention Implementation Act states that whoever "incites another to violate subsection (a) shall be fined for not more than $500,000 or imprisoned for no more than 5 years, or both." (Maybe this would put a different spin on the media's responsilibity under these circumstances.)
  

The possibilities are literally endless. The more creative we are, the more effective we will become at really confronting both the Bush Administration and our society as a whole with the fact that this invasion is illegal, immoral and is not something that will make us safer from terrorism.

If you'd like to start using the Demands in your community, let us know and we can put your contact info up here so that folks in your area can join you. If you have any questions or suggestions, send them to us. And also let us know if you'd like to get on our email list, so we can update you as things progress.