University of Illinois International Law Professor Francis Boyle filed a complaint with the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, last Wednesday against:
U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales (the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetrated upon about 100 human beings.
Also:
For similar reasons, the Highest Level Officials of the Obama administration risk the filing of a follow-up Complaint with the I.C.C. if they do not immediately terminate the Accused’s criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition,” which the Obama administration has continued to implement.
This may seem like a quixotic endeavor, but Boyle has had success with filings in international courts before, gaining an indictment against former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
I spoke with Professor Boyle by phone last Friday:
Smile Politely: I’m curious about the timing of this filing. What prompted this to come out now?
Francis Boyle: Well, my own schedule. I was grading exams and everything until Christmas Eve, and then I took some time off, and came back and finished it up in between classes. My classes resumed on Tuesday, and I filed on Tuesday. It had nothing to do with Bush being appointed there in Haiti, although it sort of raises the question, Why did President Obama appoint an international criminal to bring so-called relief to the people of Haiti? Especially after what [Bush] did to the people of New Orleans after Katrina, but this is just based on my own… the schedule, the timing was really based on my own research and teaching schedule.
Smile Politely: Argentina was used as an example in the letter to the court. I’m assuming that’s because the prosecutor is Argentinian?
Francis Boyle: That’s right, he had extensive experience combating human rights violations in Argentina, and that’s why he was picked as ICC prosecutor. But, I wanted to point out to him the similarities between the dirty war of the Argentine junta and the Bush dirty war.
Smile Politely: I can see that connection. You mentioned that the Obama Administration is continuing the policy of extraordinary rendition. I was wondering if you knew of any examples of this policy being acted upon under the new administration, or whether the rhetoric is just the same?
Francis Boyle: They have officially stated that they are continuing the policy; however, so far I do not have any evidence as to precisely what they have done, because it’s all surreptitious to begin with. For that reason, I have not included the Obama Administration in my complaint. I’m an attorney, and I have an obligation to investigate the facts and the law before I take legal action against someone, and right now I do not have the legal evidence that that’s what Obama is doing, so I had to limit this complaint to what Bush was up to, because that has been very well-documented by the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe, or the so-called Marty Report [found here in pdf form], the official investigation by the Council of Europe, they had access to all the governments, solidly based. I could not really start drafting this complaint, couldn’t really contemplate it, until that report came out, and then it became clear that they had violated the ICC statute, and there was enough credible evidence produced by a report, and not just relying on news media sources. So, that came out last year, and it took a while to put that together, a 50-page, single-spaced complaint. And then referenced back to the Marty Report, which is even more substantial. So, my guess is, it’s going to take the prosecutor a while to work his way through all these documents.
Smile Politely: Did you write a similar complaint that led to the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic?
Francis Boyle: Yes, I did. On behalf of my clients, the Mothers of Srebrenica, I convinced the International Court of the Former Yugoslavia, Carlo Ponti, to indict Slobodan Milosevic for every crime that he committed in the ICTY [International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia] statute, including genocide and he was on trial for all those crimes when he expired. Unfortunately, he didn’t really take very good care of himself, he decided to run his own defense, and it looks like he died of high blood pressure or something, I’m really not sure. It was unfortunate, because we wanted a final judgment, we had survived a motion to dismiss. After the close of the prosecution’s case, Milosevic filed a motion to dismiss with the court on the grounds of the insufficiency of the case against him, on all counts including genocide, and the court denied that, and he was about to open his defense. But, he never got that far.
Smile Politely: Having dealt with this body before…
Francis Boyle: Well, they’re different. The ICTY is different from the International Criminal Court. The International Criminal Court applies to the whole world, at least those states that are parties (it’s about 100 states), and the ICTY only applied to crimes in the former Yugoslavia.
Smile Politely: Have you filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court before?
Francis Boyle: No, this is the first one I’ve done with them. People have asked me to file a complaint before with Bush, but there was no real basis under the jurisdiction as I saw it. But when the Marty Report came out, and I realized the extensive nature of the crimes committed, I felt there was a pretty good case here that could be applied. It’s not just enough that particular crimes are committed, they also have to be widespread and systematic, and in this case I already submitted to the prosecutor, they are both.
Smile Politely: Why these six people, not more or fewer?
Francis Boyle: These people are the kingpins, straight on down. It’s sort of like Nuremberg. At Nuremberg, we tried the kingpins, these are the kingpins, the ones directly responsible. In the complaint, I also mentioned some other officials, like Professor Yoo, the law professor at Berkeley, and I suspect Moreno-Ocampo will look at Yoo, but he wasn’t a kingpin, he was a second-level official.
Smile Politely: The email was mailed from Lawyers Against the War, but then it was signed by you individually…
Francis Boyle: I work with Lawyers Against the War, and they’re an outstanding organization. I’ve given them advice on Omar Cotter‘s case down there in Guantanamo, which is just a deplorable shame. He is clearly a child soldier under the Child Soldier’s Convention, he should be treated as a child soldier and he’s not. There’s no way he should be facing court-martial here, in this kangaroo court proceeding in Guantanamo, and it’s a disgrace that President Obama hasn’t pulled the plug on his prosecution, and it’s a disgrace that that Prime Minister Harper hasn’t intervened to stop it.
Smile Politely: But did you file this on behalf of Lawyers Against the War?
Francis Boyle: No, sometimes I work with them and sometimes they support me. I filed this with them for their information, and they circulated it.
Smile Politely: I don’t have a legal background, I was just…
Francis Boyle: Well, you have the letter I sent to Moreno-Ocampo, right?
Smile Politely: Yes.
Francis Boyle: Yeah, well that outlines the case right there. As I said, the complaint is about 50 pages long; I’m keeping that confidential now until I hear from Moreno-Ocampo about what he’s going to do. He has the complaint now, I faxed it through there on Tuesday, sent it FedEx on Wednesday, and also by email, and I have receipts, so they have it. Today’s only Friday, so Wednesday I prepared the press release, so we’ll see.
Smile Politely: Do you have a personal relationship with [Moreno-Ocampo]?
Francis Boyle: No, I don’t know him personally; I know him by reputation. As a fellow human rights lawyer, I have respect for him, but I don’t know him personally, no.
Smile Politely: Do you have any interest in speculating on a timetable that you might receive a response?
Francis Boyle: No, I don’t. I have requested a meeting with him. I would hope I’ll get that meeting after he’s had time to review these documents and make some preliminary inquiries. He’s very thorough, professional, meticulous person, so I think this will take some time. But hopefully, he will take my complaint seriously.
Smile Politely: Do you have any idea how many cases the ICC…?
Francis Boyle: Well, they have very few cases now. They have I think three out of Africa, one the president of Sudan, and I think that’s it. This isn’t a case yet, but they do have cases going on.
Smile Politely: That answers most of the questions I had come up with, Professor Boyle. Did you have anything that we didn’t talk about that you wanted to clear up or expand on?
Francis Boyle: No, but I think all Canadians have to support Omar Cotter and pressure Harper there to intervene to stop this kangaroo court proceeding, this atrocity down in Guantanamo, and have Cotter sent home to Canada and dealt with in accordance with the Child Soldiers’ Convention, which calls for his rehabilitation, not his prosecution.