The killing of Hussein's sons: the Nuremberg precedent and ...

[Emillereid]

<snip>
Less than sixty years ago, Washington opposed the summary execution of the leaders of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan—who had committed crimes on a far more massive scale than any carried out by the regime of Saddam Hussein—and insisted they be placed on public trial and accorded all of the legal privileges of due process. The vast contrast between then and now underscores the break with any conception of democratic principles that has occurred within the American ruling elite.

<snip>



Dennis Hutchinson of the University of Chicago in a November 18, 2001 Chicago Tribune article cited the comments of Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, chosen to represent the US in any post-war proceeding, explaining the options he presented to President Harry Truman: “We could execute or otherwise punish them without a hearing. But undiscriminating executions or punishments without definite findings of guilt, fairly arrived at, would ... not set easily on the American conscience or be remembered by our children with pride.” Jackson insisted that the only appropriate “course is to determine the innocence or guilt of the accused after a hearing as dispassionate as the times and horrors we deal with will permit, and upon a record that will leave our reasons and motives clear.”



<snip>

Jackson declared, “The president of the United States has no power to convict anyone. He can only accuse. He cannot arrest in most cases without judicial authority. Therefore, the accusation made carries no weight in an American trial whatsoever. These declarations are an accusation and not a conviction. That requires a judicial finding. Now we could not be parties to setting up a formal judicial body to ratify a political decision to convict. Then judges will have to inquire into the evidence and give an independent decision.”



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The prevailing atmosphere in present-day Washington, which venerates repression and murder, represents the collapse of any adherence to democracy, at home and abroad. The Bush administration, which came to power through fraud and thuggery, serves the interests of a crisis-ridden ruling elite that can only hope to exercise power through the unrestrained use of violence on a global scale.




The campaign of political assassinations in Iraq is a further demonstration of the criminalization of the American ruling elite.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/iraq-j24.shtml

I grieve for the late, great US of A.

[DemoTex]

1. Three comments leap at me from off my screen:

1. On the plane of morality, there exist no fundamental differences between the personnel of the Hussein regime and the Bush administration.

2. The assault had the character of a gangland slaying, the vengeful wiping out of the cornered leadership of one gang by a more powerful and better-armed outfit. An unnamed senior US military official in Iraq spoke like a Mafia don, telling the UPI: “This is a very beneficial hit. They cannot feel anything other than doom, since if we can take down these guys, we can take down anybody.” (My emphasis)

3. The campaign of political assassinations in Iraq is a further demonstration of the criminalization of the American ruling elite.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/iraq-j24.shtml

In Iraq, we will pay, and pay, and pay. In blood. Ad infinitum. I think, too, that the crass publicity and capitalization of these political assassinations in Iraq will result in opportunistic, retributory terrorist attacks - perhaps in the form of political assassinations - in this country. It is just a matter of time. Verb Sap you stupid motherfuckers. "Live by the sword", "reap what you sow," and all that other stuff the Bible's Old Testament warns you about. Or do you think that doesn't apply to you?

[benfranklin1776]

2. Yes and its damn interesting ........

.....that Mr. Justice Jackson recognized sixty years ago that the Constitution afforded the President no right to act as summary executioner. Interestingly Mr. Justice Jackson's position has been bolstered considerably by the executive order banning assasinations which remains an active order which Mr. Bush is subject to. Outlaw justice such as that practiced by Mr. Bush will only have the effect that Mister Justice Jackson feared, namely a building world view that we are an outlaw nation. Such a world view does not make us safer, by any stretch of demented imagination.