New revelations on invasion of Iraq (Dutch officials withheld memo questioning legality of war)

[sabra]

Source: SP INTL



January 17th, 2009 • SP Foreign Affairs specialist Harry van Bommel wants the government to comment on the report in the leading Dutch daily NRC-Handelsblad that a meeting of top foreign affairs officials in April 2003 deliberately withheld from the Foreign Minister a legal advice note critical of the Netherlands' political support for the war on Iraq. In the note, leading civil servants argue that the government's standpoint is wrong-headed. “At the Ministry of Defence there were serious doubts about the lawfulness of the invasion of Iraq,” said Van Bommel. “The Foreign Minister always spoke out against such doubts. This revelation underlines the need for a parliamentary enquiry. No stone should be left unturned.”

According to the official memorandum acquired by NRC-Handelsblad, the Netherlands' standpoint put the government at risk of being prosecuted by the International Court of Justice. The most senior official involved suppressed the advice note with the words “file away for posterity in the archives.” As Van Bommel sees it, “the minister has a problem, one way or another. Either his highest official has kept an important advice note from him, or he knew about it but decided to ignore it.”

Van Bommel has put a series of parliamentary questions to the minister in an attempt to find out which of these explanations comes closest to the truth.



Read more: http://international.sp.nl/bericht/31048/090117-new_revelations_on_invasion_of_iraq_van_bommel_demands_explanation.html

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. drip....drip. drip... drip.

[tekisui]

3. Over the next few days I expect the faucets to gush.

Once the war criminals are out of power, everyone will be free to sing about what they know.

[AwakeAtLast]

5. I was going to post

the EXACT same thing.

We all know where this is headed, don't we?

:hi:

[jmpnfool]

15. yeah, nowhere is my guess. It sucks,

they will probably pay no price for their crimes

[Optical.Catalyst]

12. The Netherlands should forward this to the Hague to be placed in the Bush / Cheney file

Nancy Pelosi, are you listening?

Harry Reid, are you listening?

[BB1]

17. They'll forward it, allright, but...

since they're all in the same town (govt and the ICC), the Dutch do not expect much activity on this.

Besides, the people in power in the Dutch govt are the same ones who had breakfast with Bush&Rice prior to the two wars. And they have their friends in high places too.

As it stands now, the complete Cabinet should step down. They won't, and even if they would, the Queen wouldn't allow it, since she is Royal Dutch Shell's biggest shareholder.

[blm]

16. Add this to Downing Street Memos and Bush-Cheney and their Iraq War Group should be jailed.

Rumsfeld, Feith, Rove, Matalin, Bartlett - all should be jailed for the rest of their slimy lives.

[Javaman]

2. The dutch are dead to me and they can take their paint with them! nt

[DCKit]

4. They could assuage their collective conscience by coming clean...

and making sure everything is out in the open. If a few (dozen) American officials get burned, oh well.

[bluesmail]

6. No kidding. The next several days will be telling. n/t

[shintao]

7. I think the message is there already!

The message is, you take an American to court & the US will cut off your foreign aid and hurt you anyway we can.

==========
BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Aug. 18 - Three years ago the Bush administration began prodding countries to shield Americans from the fledgling International Criminal Court in The Hague, which was intended to be the first permanent tribunal for prosecuting crimes like genocide.

The United States has since cut aid to some two dozen nations that refused to sign immunity agreements that American officials say are intended to protect American soldiers and policy makers from politically motivated prosecutions.

To the Bush administration, the aid cuts are the price paid for refusing to offer support in an area where it views the United States, with its military might stretched across the globe, as being uniquely vulnerable.

But particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, home to 12 nations that have been penalized, the cuts are generating strong resentment at what many see as heavy-handed diplomacy, officials and diplomats in seven countries said
http://www.mindfully.org/WTO/2005/Bush-Cuts-Aid-ICC19aug05.htm

==========
Dutch court refuses to throw President Bush in jail

THE HAGUE: A court in The Hague turned down a demand by a dozen plaintiffs who wanted to force the Dutch government to arrest US President George W Bush when he visits the Netherlands on Saturday, the judgement made public Wednesday said.

http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-124469.html
========
Iraqi civilians are preparing a complaint to present in court in Belgium accusing allied commander Gen. Tommy Franks and other U.S. military officials of war crimes in Iraq, according to the attorney representing the plaintiffs.

The complaint will state that coalition forces are responsible for the indiscriminate killing of Iraqi civilians, the bombing of a marketplace in Baghdad, the shooting of an ambulance, and failure to prevent the mass looting of hospitals, said Jan Fermon, a Brussels-based lawyer. He is representing about 10 Iraqis who say they were victims of or eyewitnesses to atrocities committed during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0428-06.htm

[Window]

8. K/R. Let it all hang out!!

:kick:

[cosmicone]

9. Cheney in shackles in the "Milosevich" cell .......

such a wonderful visual!

[democrank]

10. "No stone should be left unturned."

Not there and not here.

[jeff30997]

11. Just imagine...

Mmmm...What a wet-dream!

[underpants]

13. Call a bike messenger and send that over to the Hague

[malaise]

14. K & R

All war criminals must be locked up.

[LynnTheDem]

18. There is no doubt whatsoever; invading Iraq was in fact illegal.

Invading Iraq was in fact and law illegal.

Period.

[pleah]

19. K&R Eight years late, but interesting. n/t

[Zhade]

20. And yet I keep hearing the phrase "IF crimes were committed"...

The world is watching, Obama.

[blm]

22. How much evidence has to accumulate to get past the 'If' wall they've set up?

.

[ooglymoogly]

21. The Dutch nor anyone else will be able to keep their finger in this dyke

The whole debacle from the moment the presidency was just a gleam in his eye will be dissected and the good folks will not want to be associated with what has gone down, so they will now cry their hearts out, hanging all the bloody, filthy laundry in the town square.

I hereby pronounce this curse on the slimy bastard...

May every time you try to put on your shoes they fly off and hit you square in the flowery nose into eternity.