Ex Post Facto War Crimes Act

© by Stephen Neitzke, 2006

Now the War-Criminal-In-Chief, Empire Prince of the Blood, and Wannabe Dictator Bush is flashing his fascist arrogance in ANOTHER direct contradiction and violation of the Constitution. He wants his 2-party, fascist-thug, Criminal Congress to pass amendments to the War Crimes Act of 1996 that EX POST FACTO exonerate him and all his little goosesteppers for the war crimes that they've been blatantly committing for the past four years, in violation of the War Crimes Act of 1996.

Needless to say, Empire Pettifogger General Alberto Nogeneva Gulag, over at Injustice, has been leading the charge for this straightforwardly unconstitutional denial of the Constitution's Ex Post Facto provision: "No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed".

Congressional Republican leadership, and their co-fascist Democrats, all suddenly pretend that they've never read the Constitution. They're stumping all over the country, demanding that passing this ex post facto law is the only righteous thing to do under the circumstances.

Just look at all the things that are wrong with that stupid War Crimes Act. See, we just pass this one little statute and it does what's best for everyone. Sure, some will say that you are kissing the rule of law goodby, but, pooh-pooh, they're just a bunch of radical liberals who don't know what they're talking about. Bush the Usurper has the vision, and he will lead.

They don't really mean it, of course. They can't really mean it, can they? Passing ex post facto law is unconstitutional. It's against the law. Heaven knows that this glorious 2-party, 3-branch, fascist despotism would never do anything unconstiutional. Right?

They're just floating another trial balloon. Bush the Usurper is just testing how much Constitutional stupidity and ignorance the traffic will bear. He'll only complete this Constitutional demolition if he can get away with it cleanly. Right?

Any resistance at all -- any few citizens jumping up and down, quoting the Constitution's Article 1, section 9, paragraph 3 -- and the whole 3-branch despotism will just drop this unconstitutional, felonious, and treasonous attempt like a hot potato. Right?

Oh, shit. Some of them have already read the Constitution's Article 1, section 9, paragraph 3? How did they find that? My lawyers just told me about it this morning. And a whole bunch of the contemptible liberal fanatics already know that we can't pass ex post facto law?. Oh, shit. That means we'll have to find some other unconstitutional, felonious, and treasonous trick to get our guilty asses off the hook. OK, get that war in Syria and Iran cranked up asap. Perpetual war is the only way out now.

Just kidding! I'm the commander-in-chief here. I am the law. The Constitution is just a goddamned piece of paper. You morons get that ex post facto War Crimes re-wite on my desk by next Wednesday or my buddies at Diebold will see to it that you never work in this town again. Let Leiberman be a lesson to all of you. Diebold does what I say.

Wikipedia -- "An ex post facto law (from the Latin, 'from something done afterward') or retroactive law, is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of acts committed or the legal status of facts and relationships that existed prior to the enactment of the law. In reference to criminal law, it may criminalize actions that were legal when committed .... Conversely, an ex post facto law may decriminalize certain acts or alleviate possible punishments ... retroactively."

See especially --

• "The New Gonzales Standard For Torture", by Col. Dan Smith, Counterpunch, 04 August 2006.
  
• "Retroactive War Crime Protection Proposed", by Pete Yost, Forbes, 09 August 2006.
  
• "Criminal, Immunize Thyself", by John Sifton, Slate, 11 August 2006.

The law as it stands now -- War Crimes Act of 1996 -- 18 USC 2441. Passed as Public Law 104-192, 21 August 1996. Includes the circumstances of, as well as the penalties for, felony murder of detainees. There is no statute of limitations on felony murder.

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Update: Sunday, 13 August 2006 --

Pettifogger General Gonzales, over at Injustice -- and a bunch of fascist thugs masquerading as congressmen and senators -- have now mounted many vacuous arguments, convoluted polemics, and outright lies to seemingly make Bush look as innocent as new-fallen snow. The tangled descriptions and distortions of reality have been horrendous. Clarity required. I posted this last night on the Capital Hill Blue blog --

Bush can't escape the parallels with Hitler Germany because Bush is a fascist. But this fascist parallel is a corker.

The Nazi torture and murder of Jews and minorities during WW2 was done by ordinary people indoctrinated by the Nazi regime. That indoctrination, as with Bush's torture orders to his military and intel minions, told the ordinary people going into Nazi formations that the Jews and other "criminal" minorities had NO RIGHTS. That every torture and murder was lawful because the Fuhrer had ordered it.

Hitler and his policy chiefs tried to make RIGHTS politically relative to the regime's orders. Sounded good to millions of Germans at the time. Just as Bush's orders must have sounded good to millions of Americans.

And then the shooting war ended. And the Nuremberg Trials began.

Surprise. Rights that the Nazis had declared irrelevant and unlawful were still in place, and, in fact, had never ceased to exist. Those rights were there at every torture, at every murder, no matter the teachings of the Nazi regime.

Bush and his goosesteppers will learn this one the hard way. Rights are not what politicians say they are. Rights are not politically relativistic.

Rights are humanly absolute. Once a right is established, it lives forever. As long as the right is remembered or rediscovered by any one human being, it is still alive and can be made whole again. No retroactivity. It never ceased to exist. It lives on a higher plane than any political decree that denies it.

The rights established by the Geneva Conventions have never ceased to exist. Bush's orders to his nazis did not kill those rights.

The War Crimes Act of 1996 clarified the rights in US statute law that had already been granted by the Geneva Conventions in US constitutional law. (Confirmed treaties are a part of the Constitution's "fundamental law of the land".) The War Crimes Act locked US statute law into sync with US Constitutional law.

Bush and his regime have violated Constitution and statute from the first of their systematic tortures and murders of detainees. The ordinary people following Bush's orders created murderous guilt for Bush and his regime.

And then SCOTUS ruled in Hamden v. Rumsfeld, making it crystal clear that Bush and his goosesteppers had in legal fact violated Constitution and statute.

Now the Bush Rush is on. The crisis management team is all over the map, trying to convince everyone that an ex post facto re-write of the War Crimes Act will get the little ordinary people off the legal hook for torture.

But that is not what is going on here. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc., etc., are not one bit concerned about getting soldiers and CIA operators off the torture hook. They are concerned about getting themselves off the felony murder hook.

From Bush down, a long way down, they are on the hook for conspiracy leading to the documented felony murders of many detainees. Those felony murders are defined by 18 USC 2441, the War Crimes Act of 1996. And there is no statute of limitations for felony murder. Punishments, per 18 USC 2441, include life imprisonment or death.

As with Hitler, Bush made his fatal mistake when he tried to make rights politically relative to his orders.

Rights are humanly absolute.

Stephen Neitzke
Direct Democracy League
DD Revival -- The Blog
http://ddrevival.blogspot.com

(Modified, Sunday, 13 August 2006, at 2:40pm CDT.)