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The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder

There is so much that is going to have to answer to for his behaviors while in office as President of the United States. The "high crimes and misdemeanors" that have already been documented are so numerous that the difficAulty might be where to begin and how to prioritize them. , as strong as the word and accusation is might be a fitting place to start.

BUGLIOSI Vincent Bugliosi agrees. I am certain that if you are a baby boomer, you are familiar with Mr. Bugliosi, who made his mark prosecuting Charles Manson and other defendants accused of the Tate-LaBianca murders which was then made into a cult classic titled, "Helter Skelter."

Well Mr. Bugliosi, after an illustrious career is a man who still has remained active in the issues of the day. He has taken a strong stance on our President, George Bush and has written an article that we, at The Lang Report, felt important enough to reprint.

Here it is....

The Legal Framework for the Prosecution

That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution. -Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1765

No living Homo sapiens is above the law. -(Notwithstanding our good friends and legal ancestors across the water, this is a fact that requires no citation.)

With respect to the position I take about the crimes of George Bush, I want to state at the outset that my motivation is not political. Although I've been a longtime Democrat (primarily because, unless there is some very compelling reason to be otherwise, I am always for "the little guy"), my political orientation is not rigid. For instance, I supported John McCain's run for the presidency in 2000. More to the point, whether I'm giving a final summation to the jury or writing one of my true crime books, credibility has always meant everything to me. Therefore, my only master and my only mistress are the facts and objectivity. I have no others. This is why I can give you, the reader, a 100 percent guarantee that if a Democratic president had done what Bush did, I would be writing the same, identical piece you are about to read.

Perhaps the most amazing thing to me about the belief of many that George Bush lied to the American public in starting his war with Iraq is that the liberal columnists who have accused him of doing this merely make this point, and then go on to the next paragraph in their columns. Only very infrequently does a columnist add that because of it Bush should be impeached. If the charges are true, of course Bush should have been impeached, convicted, and removed from office. That's almost too self-evident to state. But he deserves much more than impeachment. I mean, in America, we apparently impeach presidents for having consensual sex outside of marriage and trying to cover it up. If we impeach presidents for that, then if the president takes the country to war on a lie where thousands of American soldiers die horrible, violent deaths and over 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians, including women and children, even babies are killed, the punishment obviously has to be much, much more severe. That's just common sense. If Bush were impeached, convicted in the Senate, and removed from office, he'd still be a free man, still be able to wake up in the morning with his cup of coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice and read the morning paper, still travel widely and lead a life of privilege, still belong to his country club and get standing ovations whenever he chose to speak to the Republican faithful. This, for being responsible for over 100,000 horrible deaths?* For anyone interested in true justice, impeachment alone would be a joke for what Bush did.

Let's look at the way some of the leading liberal lights (and, of course, the rest of the entire nation with the exception of those few recommending impeachment) have treated the issue of punishment for Bush's cardinal sins. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote about "the false selling of the Iraq War. We were railroaded into an unnecessary war." Fine, I agree. Now what? Krugman just goes on to the next paragraph. But if Bush falsely railroaded the nation into a war where over 100,000 people died, including 4,000 American soldiers, how can you go on to the next paragraph as if you had been writing that Bush spent the weekend at Camp David with his wife? For doing what Krugman believes Bush did, doesn't Bush have to be punished commensurately in some way? Are there no consequences for committing a crime of colossal proportions?

Al Franken on the David Letterman show said, "Bush lied to us to take us to war" and quickly went on to another subject, as if he was saying "Bush lied to us in his budget."

Senator Edward Kennedy, condemning Bush, said that "Bush's distortions misled Congress in its war vote" and "No President of the United States should employ distortion of truth to take the nation to war." But, Senator Kennedy, if a president does this, as you believe Bush did, then what? Remember, Clinton was impeached for allegedly trying to cover up a consensual sexual affair. What do you recommend for Bush for being responsible for more than 100,000 deaths? Nothing? He shouldn't be held accountable for his actions? If one were to listen to you talk, that is the only conclusion one could come to. But why, Senator Kennedy, do you, like everyone else, want to give Bush this complete free ride?

The New York Times, in a June 17, 2004, editorial, said that in selling this nation on the war in Iraq, "the Bush administration convinced a substantial majority of Americans before the war that Saddam Hussein was somehow linked to 9/ 11, . . . inexcusably selling the false Iraq-Al Qaeda claim to Americans." But gentlemen, if this is so, then what? The New York Times didn't say, just going on, like everyone else, to the next paragraph, talking about something else.

In a November 15, 2005, editorial, the New York Times said that "the president and his top advisers . . . did not allow the American people, or even Congress, to have the information necessary to make reasoned judgments of their own. It's obvious that the Bush administration misled Americans about Mr. Hussein's weapons and his terrorist connections." But if it's "obvious that the Bush administration misled Americans" in taking them to a war that tens of thousands of people have paid for with their lives, now what? No punishment? If not, under what theory? Again, you're just going to go on to the next paragraph?
I'm not going to go on to the next unrelated paragraph.

In early December of 2005, a New York Times-CBS nationwide poll showed that the majority of Americans believed Bush "intentionally misled" the nation to promote a war in Iraq. A December 11, 2005, article in the Los Angeles Times, after citing this national poll, went on to say that because so many Americans believed this, it might be difficult for Bush to get the continuing support of Americans for the war. In other words, the fact that most Americans believed Bush had deliberately misled them into war was of no consequence in and of itself. Its only consequence was that it might hurt his efforts to get support for the war thereafter. So the article was reporting on the effect of the poll findings as if it was reporting on the popularity, or lack thereof, of Bush's position on global warming or immigration. Didn't the author of the article know that Bush taking the nation to war on a lie (if such be the case) is the equivalent of saying he is responsible for well over 100,000 deaths? One would never know this by reading the article.

If Bush, in fact, intentionally misled this nation into war, what is the proper punishment for him? Since many Americans routinely want criminal defendants to be executed for murdering only one person, if we weren't speaking of the president of the United States as the defendant here, to discuss anything less than the death penalty for someone responsible for over 100,000 deaths would on its face seem ludicrous.** But we are dealing with the president of the United States here.

On the other hand, the intensity of rage against Bush in America has been such (it never came remotely this close with Clinton because, at bottom, there was nothing of any real substance to have any serious rage against him for) that if I heard it once I heard it ten times that "someone should put a bullet in his head." That, fortunately, is just loose talk, and even more fortunately not the way we do things in America. In any event, if an American jury were to find Bush guilty of first degree murder, it would be up to them to decide what the appropriate punishment should be, one of their options being the imposition of the death penalty.

Although I have never heard before what I am suggesting -- that Bush be prosecuted for murder in an American courtroom -- many have argued that "Bush should be prosecuted for war crimes" (mostly for the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo) at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. But for all intents and purposes this cannot be done.

*Even assuming, at this point, that Bush is criminally responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 people in the Iraq war, under federal law he could only be prosecuted for the deaths of the 4,000 American soldiers killed in the war. No American court would have jurisdiction to prosecute him for the one hundred and some thousand Iraqi deaths since these victims not only were not Americans, but they were killed in a foreign nation, Iraq. Despite their nationality, if they had been killed here in the States, there would of course be jurisdiction.
**Indeed, Bush himself, ironically, would be the last person who would quarrel with the proposition that being guilty of mass murder (even one murder, by his lights) calls for the death penalty as opposed to life imprisonment. As governor of Texas, Bush had the highest execution rate of any governor in American history: He was a very strong proponent of the death penalty who even laughingly mocked a condemned young woman who begged him to spare her life ("Please don't kill me," Bush mimicked her in a magazine interview with journalist Tucker Carlson), and even refused to commute the sentence of death down to life imprisonment for a young man who was mentally retarded (although as president he set aside the entire prison sentence of his friend Lewis "Scooter" Libby), and had a broad smile on his face when he announced in his second presidential debate with Al Gore that his state, Texas, was about to execute three convicted murderers.
In Bush's two terms as Texas governor, he signed death warrants for an incredible 152 out of 153 executions against convicted murderers, the majority of whom only killed one single person. The only death sentence Bush commuted was for one of the many murders that mass murderer Henry Lucas had been convicted of. Bush was informed that Lucas had falsely confessed to this particular murder and was innocent, his conviction being improper. So in 152 out of 152 cases, Bush refused to show mercy even once, finding that not one of the 152 convicted killers should receive life imprisonment instead of the death penalty. Bush's perfect 100 percent execution rate is highly uncommon even for the most conservative law-and-order governors.


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  1. 6 Comment(s)

  2. By lenny | Reply

    “he signed death warrants for an incredible 152 out of 153 executions against convicted murderers, the majority of whom ONLY KILLED ONE SINGLE PERSON.”

    WHAT??? Only killed ONE? How many people would YOU liked these convicted murderers to have killed before their sentences were imposed?

    The complete lack of sympathy for the VICTIMS is unbelievable.

    This hatred and slander of President Bush has addled people’s brains. I am seeing an alarming increase in the complete lack of REASON when looking at this president.

  3. By Michael Lang | Reply

    Lenny, if i am reading your comment correctly I believe you have missed the point.
    The only reason that Bush’s record of signed death warrants was mentioned was to show the contrast between a murderer killing and how many Americans gave died in Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of his actions and decisions.
    Obviously there is no comparison!
    The entire motivation and messageof this article was too ensure that George Bush answer for his actions…that’s it!

  4. By Joseph Banana | Reply

    Vincent should be commended for telling the truth even if only partially. Bushes’ crimes exceed this article…the lie about Military Service in the National Guard, the stealing as Governor pof a farmer’s land for a baseball stadium, the Harkan Oil stock fiasco, and on and on. He’s a man who cheated his way thru life and God will have His final say in due time but for now He has entrusted us with Justice. Will we adminsiter it? The Republican COngress failed themselves and humankind. Each member of that COngrss will likewise answer to God for its lies and deviousness. Bush is a criminal and the worst kind. He deserves to be prosecuted and America needs to show genuine Democracy to the world or take a back seat as it is now progressively doing. Until it comes clean with God and itself, it is cursed according to Deuteronomy 28. The voice of Abels blood cries from the ground and deserves justice. America needs to come clean with iself and the world. Only then will the Arab, the Jew, the Asian, the Red, the White, the victim and perpetrator embrace in forgivenss and love. We need to show the world that we do not lie and hide our criminals and the world will likewise not stand behind a cloak of power, lies, hypocrisy and deceit. Until then, we give Iran, Osamma, and every Dictator in the world the right to labe us as liars and deceivers. Bush is the worst. He carries a Bible under his arm and falsely represents the greatest thing we have in the Western world, the carrying forth of the Word of God made flesh in what we say and do or do not say and fail to do. Bush has judged himself….he is a liar, criminal, deceiver, and murderer and cold-hearted man failing in mercy. America deserves better than this monster and must step to the plate and give Justice to the world.

  5. By Michael Lang | Reply

    Joseph, it appears that you are as frustrated and passionate as I am over Bush and his “Crime Family” getting away the crimes they’ve committed against the American people. Whatever your belief system we cannot leave the matter totally up to higher powers but must take action ourselves and keep the pressure on out elected representatives to act according to the U.S. Constitution. In other words, all I am saying is, “faith without works is dead.”

    Mike Lang
    Publisher

  6. By huck | Reply

    Most average Americans can’t get their minds around the despicable acts this administration has carried out. G.H.W. Bush, Bush Jr, his siblings, Dick Cheney and the rest of the gang are among pathological elites who were raised to believe they are far above “regular people”. They hold humans in utter contempt and are involved in associations such as the Council on Foreign Relations, members of which actually put forth plans to exterminate 80% of humans on earth, “for the good of the planet”. Of course the elites are exempt from the killing, because they are much too important. Once we realize this Bush/ Cheney/ Kissinger/ Rockefeller junta possess no morality as we know it, then it becomes clear these are the cockroaches that must be rooted out or the civilized world is doomed. Adolf Hitler was one of these self-proclaimed elitists, and the Bush family heartily helped him with his genocide 2 generations ago. Now like-minded psychopaths are at work in Washington DC. These people must not just be tried and jailed for life because in the event another crony gets in high office they could be pardoned. Scaffolds need to be built on Ground Zero and hangings need to take place on the spot. This kind of evil has rarely raised its hideous head in modern memory, and must be thoroughly destroyed. These people are cancer to moral, civil society.

  7. By Michael Lang | Reply

    Huck, I agree that most Americans suffer a disconnect or a deep denial when it comes to the crimes committed by the “Bush Crime Family.” As frustrating as it is and as enraged as it makes people like you and I, there would probably be a storming of the White House if the denial was suddenly broken through.
    I, like you, believe that the issue is much larger then just a yahoo like George Bush although Dick Cheney is far more knowing and devious.
    I am aware of the “Council on Foreign Relations” and their very scary influence they have maintained since their founding by Elihu Root in 1921.
    Your mention of the CFR has, however, raised my interest and The Lang Report, in our effort to keep our Readers informed, will publish an article on them and others like the Trilateral Commission. It has always amazed me that these organizations have been able to maintain the influence that they have for decades and numerous administrations, all in the light of day!
    I will also go a step further in agreeing with your rather extreme suggestion that we “build scaffolds on Ground Zero and facilitate hangings on the spot. The problem with that is that altough it would removed a portion of the “tumor” (and make you and I happy)it would probably do little to kill the underlying cancer that they were born from.

    Mike Lang
    Publisher

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