Ayoon wa Azan (The Author Documents What He Is Saying as if in Court)

Vincent Bugliosi, as the name suggests, is not an Islamist fundamentalist or a leftist Arab. He works at the L.A. County District Attorney's office, where he successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 trials, including 21 murder convictions. One of these convictions was among the most famous in US history: the case of the Charles Manson and his group, which killed actress Sharon Tate. The case became the basis of Bugliosi's novel, Helter Skelter, the best selling true-crime book in publishing history. Two of Bugliosi's other books also reached the top spot on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list.

Recently, Bugliosi (I am repeating the name so the Arab reader can memorize it) published a book called "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder". In the first few lines the writer says: "The book you are about to read deals with what is believe to be the most serious crime ever committed in American history - George W. Bush, knowingly and deliberately taking this country to war in Iraq under false pretenses, a war that condemned over 100.000 human beings, including 4.000 young American soldiers, to horrible, violent deaths."

I pause here to say that the war killed around one million Iraqis, according to British medical journal The Lancet and researchers in Johns Hopkins University. However, Bugliosi is a lawyer and he uses a sufficient figure that the defense cannot refute.

Every page of the book reflects the way this lawyer thinks, not that of an Arab fundamentalist nor of a leftist. The writer finds it very weird that Saddam Hussein be convicted for the Dujail case even though he is accused of much bigger crimes during his rule. Bugliosi sees that Saddam was executed for the least of his crimes and where he has a legitimate defense. In 28/7/1982, an assassination attempt on the life of Saddam occurred in Dujail. He arrested hundreds, some of them died of torture and others were convicted (148 starting May 1984). Had Saddam wanted revenge he would have immediately killed thousands of the village's mostly Shiite population (37 thousands).

The author documents what he is saying as if in court. He says that weapons of mass destruction are the only reason given by the Administration to justify the war. The joint resolution given by Congress on October 11, 2002, authorizing war was a national security issue, not more. The resolution read: "The president is authorized to use the armed forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq..." The day the war began on March 19, 2003 and in a report to Congress, Bush spoke of nothing else but Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and US national security. There wasn't even a mention of any other motive for war.

Of course, after the occupation of Iraq, it turned out that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction and the Administration's and neocons' talk turned to spreading democracy in the Middle East. However, Bugliosi says that this is not true. If it were, it would be an indictment to the president as well, because it means that President Bush was lying when he claimed that WMD were the reason for war. His lie led to the death of tens of thousands of innocent people and maybe more.

Bugliosi goes on to say that President Bush cannot use the legal passing of time as a pretext, if he is ever to be taken to trial in the future. Murder is not linked to any legal duration; it stays open. Augusto Pinochet was convicted in 2004 for crimes dating back to 1973, thirty-one years earlier. Also, Bush cannot claim that the murders he is accused of happened but he was not at the crime scene. Bugliosi himself indicted Charles Manson without him being present when Sharon Tate and 4 others were murdered in her house in 1969. The law states that every member of a conspiracy leading to death is responsible for death, even if the member did not personally participate. The Congress resolution does not spare him the legal liability. The law spares in the case or robbery or rape, but not murder.

Bugliosi said that the lies leading to the war were deliberate. To be continued tomorrow.