Francis A. Boyle
Gonzales is a prima facie war criminal
Thu Nov 11, 2004 20:01
64.140.158.59

Gonzales is a prima facie war criminal

Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (voice)
217-244-1478 (fax)
fboyle@law.uiuc.edu
(personal comments only)


-----Original Message-----
From: archive@blythe.org  [mailto:archive@blythe.org ] On Behalf Of
nytr@olm.blythe-systems.com
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2004 4:19 PM
To: nytr@olm.blythe-systems.com
Subject: [NYTr] Attorney General Pinochet (Boyle)


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit


Attorney General Pinochet

by Prof Francis A. Boyle
November 11, 2004

As White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales originated, authorized,
approved, and aided and abetted grave breaches of the Third and Fourth
Geneva Conventions of 1949, which are serious war crimes. In other
words, Gonzales is a prima facie war criminal. He must be prosecuted
under the Geneva Conventions and the US War Crimes Act.

For example, article 129 of the Third Geneva Convention on Prisoners of
War provides in relevant part with respect to presumptive U.S. war
criminals such as Gonzales: "Each High Contracting Party shall be under
the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to
have ordered to be committed, such graves breaches, and shall bring such
persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts."

To the same effect is article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention
protecting Civilians in wartime. This obligation to prosecute Gonzales
applies to every High Contracting Party to the Geneva Conventions, which
means every state in the world. And there is no statute of limitations
for the commission of such serious war crimes.

The same conclusions can be reached by the application of U.S.
Department of the Army Field Manual 27-10, The Law of Land Warfare,
which, by its own terms, also applies to civilian government officials
involved in ordering or participating in the commission of war crimes.

In any event, the U.S. Senate must reject his nomination. As a
presumptive war criminal, Gonzales is not fit to be Attorney General of
the United States of America. Should Gonzales travel around the world in
that capacity, human rights lawyers such as myself will attempt to get
him prosecuted wherever he might go along the lines of what happened
to General Pinochet in London. Like pirates, war criminals are hostes
humani generis--the enemies of all humankind.

[Francis A. Boyle is a Professor of International Law and the author of
"Destroying World Order" (Clarity Press: 2004)]

*
Search the NYTr Archives at: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr /