George W. Bush Returns As The Statute of Limitations on His War Crimes Expires in 2 Months

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A statute of limitations is an enactment in a legal system that sets the maximum time after a crime that legal proceedings based on that crime may be initiated. Criminals use the statute of limitations as a defense to defeat prosecutorial action brought against them after the appropriate time has elapsed regardless of their certain guilt, and it is likely they will stay out of law enforcement’s sight leading up to the day the statute of limitations has run its course. If a criminal sees there is little chance a prosecutor can start legal proceedings against them before the time limitation expires, they may take a chance and emerge from hiding comfortable in the knowledge their crime will go unpunished. Americans may have noticed that this nation’s most well-known criminal, George W. Bush, has made his presence known with two barely reported appearances over the past week, and it is likely because the statute of limitations to investigate, charge, prosecute, and convict the war criminal are set to expire in two months.

Last week, the already convicted war criminal Bush was the keynote speaker at a Messianic Jewish event to promote a vigorous campaign to convert Jews to Christianity as part of an effort to hasten the war of Armageddon and bring about the end of the world according to evangelical Christians’ timetable. Many human beings the world over already believe Bush did everything in his power to bring about Armageddon by launching crusades against Islamic people in Iraq that exterminated over six-hundred-thousand innocent Muslims to profit his partner in war crimes Dick Cheney as well as the oil and defense industry. Perhaps Bush hopes his new crusade to bring on biblical end times will spare him from several nations’ attempts to try him and his fellow warmongers for crimes against humanity, or he just hopes biblical god will focus all his Armageddon wrath on the Middle East and finish his crusade to annihilate millions of Muslims the Iraq and Afghanistan wars failed to accomplish.

Last Thursday, Bush made another public appearance at an oil and gas industry confab and graced the 2,500 oil industry leaders with his economic expertise that sent the world, and America, into a recession unseen since the Great Depression. According to the man who illegally invaded Iraq to enrich the oil industry, the key to economic prosperity is investing in the private sector (read privatization), and by all means “build the damn” KeystoneXL pipeline. The man who lied America into a war with Iraq lied again and claimed immediately building the Canadian tar sand export pipeline will create 20,000 jobs that will jumpstart the economy and engender a robust recovery.

Bush said, “‘how do we grow the private sector? Once that’s the goal, an issue like Keystone pipeline becomes a no-brainer. If private-sector growth is the goal, and Keystone pipeline creates 20,000 new jobs, build the damn thing.” Of course the 2,500 oil industry leaders cheered wildly at the prospect of transporting Canadian tar to Koch refineries on its way Texas before being sent to China and Europe. The pipeline will create at most 3,900 temporary jobs and 39 permanent jobs, as well as heap more money on the Kochs and oil exporters that Bush certainly knows is the truth, but like his lies leading America into deficit-exploding war, the war criminal just could not resist lying through his teeth.

It is Bush’s lies to the United States Congress leading America to invade Iraq that have the best chance of convicting the war criminal in America, but the statute of limitations to charge Bush and Cheney are running out as of January 20, 2014; exactly five years after Bush left office. Just one of the laws Bush and his team violated is 18 U.S.C. § 371 Conspiracy to Defraud the United States that was used successfully to prosecute Nixon and Reagan officials in the Watergate and Iran/Contra scandals respectively. Together with other warmongers in his administration, Bush conspired and lied to the United States Congress about the Iraq War. In one remarkable instance, just prior to authorizing an invasion on a sovereign nation, Bush advised Congress that the impending invasion met the conditions Congress set out for an attack. Bush claimed categorically that America’s invasion was aimed at “persons or nations that planned or aided the 9/11 terror attacks” on the World Trade Towers, the Pentagon, and the failed attempt that crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. By now, any human being with a pulse knows that neither Saddam Hussein, nor Iraq, had any part in planning nor aiding the attacks of 9/11; Bush knew Saddam and Iraq had no culpability long before he went to Congress to lie America into the Iraq War.

The five-year statute of limitations for defrauding the US Congress, and the people, into invading Iraq started running the day Bush left office which means they will expire on January 20, 2014. Bush and Cheney are also criminally culpable for waterboarding and other forms of torture, and the good news is there is no statute of limitation for life-threatening forms of torture; Bush and Cheney may be prosecuted as long as they live. Both convicted war criminals have publicly admitted their involvement in waterboarding detainees abroad, and the federal anti-torture statute makes it a war crime to have done so. Previously, Attorney General Eric Holder exonerated CIA agents involved in torture because there are Bush administration Justice Department memos regarding the alleged legality of torture. The memos do not apply to Bush and Cheney because they produced the memos directing CIA operatives to torture detainees.

Since the Department of Justice is forbidden to prosecute Bush and Cheney after the statute of limitations run out, it is incumbent that an investigation is started soon or the war mongers’ crimes will go unprosecuted, unpunished, and destroy the concept that all Americans are held to the same rule of law. Attorney General Eric Holder can appoint a special prosecutor without Congressional approval and no Republican can prevent or interfere with an investigation. For President Obama’s part, his oath of office requires that he faithfully execute the laws that arguably leave him little political discretion on a matter of this importance. If an investigation does lead to a prosecution and conviction, the President always has the option, and executive power, to pardon the war criminals in the same manner that Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon if he felt throwing the rat-bastards Bush and Cheney in prison.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, or any of the war criminals will ever face an investigation or prosecution in America before, or after, the statute of limitations expire. In August, the Justice Department requested immunity for the war criminals as a result of a lawsuit filed by an Iraqi single mother alleging Bush and much of his administration should be tried for violating international law by executing the illegal Iraq War. It is too bad that Bush, Cheney, or any of his war criminal cohort will not face an investigation or prosecution and it sends the wrong message to Americans, and the world, that the American rule of law does not apply to the highest government officials in spite of admissions and indications that Bush and Cheney deliberately lied to Congress and the American people to launch a crusade to kill innocent Muslims, overthrow a sovereign nation’s government, and reap immeasurable profits for the oil and defense industry. For Americans still reeling from the devastation of the Bush administration, letting the clock run out on his crimes means they will be seeing a lot more of the worst president in American history.

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Rmuse

Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.

Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.

Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.