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Bush Trip to Switzerland Axed Over Torture Protest Fears
The United Israel Appeal scrapped a plan to showcase President George W. Bush at a Feb. 12 gala in Geneva amid reports that human rights groups were poised to protest and file a torture complaint.
The charity, also known as Keren Hayesod, notified the former president on Friday morning "that the event has been called off," a Bush spokesman, David Sherzer, said Saturday.
"We regret that the speech has been canceled," Sherzer said. "President Bush was looking forward to speaking about freedom and offering reflections from his time in office."
The United Israel Appeal did not respond to an emailed request for an explanation on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. But the Associated Press, citing a Swiss newspaper report, said charity officials were worried protests could turn violent at the speech by the 43rd American president.
It was to be held at the Hotel Wilson, named for the 28th American president, Woodrow Wilson.
Protest organizers told participants to bring an extra shoe, prompting fears that someone might re-enact an Iraqi journalist's 2008 assault on President Bush in Baghdad. The reporter hurled his own footwear as a sign of contempt.
The New York based Center for Constitutional Rights said Saturday that European human rights groups had compiled a 2,500-page Convention Against Torture complaint against Bush, seeking to trigger it once he set foot onto Swiss soil.
CCR, a law firm led by New York civil rights lawyer Michael Ratner, has for years filed a series of mixed-result lawsuits against Bush administration policies, alleging civil liberties and human rights abuses in its detention, rendition and warrantless wiretapping policies.
It systematically sued in U.S. courts on behalf of Guantánamo captives, expanding detainee rights since the Pentagon inaugurated the prison camps opened in southeast Cuba in January 2002.
It also is a party to a complaint in Spain against former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and five other Bush era lawyers that alleges international human-rights abuses in the U.S. treatment of war on terror captives.
That complaint has been stalled for years, and a series of U.S. diplomatic cables posted on the Internet late last year by Wikileaks showed the efforts both the Bush and Obama administrations made to derail it.
Still, a Spanish magistrate has given the United States a March 1 deadline to say whether it was pursuing its own probe of the Bush legal brain trust.
Saturday, Ratner's firm all-but claimed credit for grounding Bush.
"The message from civil society is clear," it said in a statement. "If you're a torturer, be careful in your travel plans. It's a slow process for accountability, but we keep going."
Bush's spokesman countered that the Texan, who scarcely traveled abroad before his time in the White House, has been a frequent flier in retirement.
"President Bush has made several trips outside of the United States, including to South Korea, China, Japan, Brazil, Canada, and the Middle East," Sherzer said. "He gave more than 60 speeches last year, and we expect this year to be similar."
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62 Comments so far
Show AllWhy did they show their cards before Bush arrived?
swiss bankers and their political thugs are firmly on the wrong side of history, right next to bush.
They have been since at least the 1930s. They allowed the Nazis in Germany to store the wealth in anomynous Swiss bank accounts that they stole from the European Jews.
And they refused to return the money later, citing that the Jews had no proper paperwork to make a claim. I wonder how in the world they lost their valuable personal papers.
Swiss neutrality is cold and keeps their banks out of the fray.
Joe
This is not about bankers, neither Swiss nor any others (by the way who are all equally bad), but about a war criminal, whom people in Europe do not want on their soil.
Excellent point.
So much for the "neutral" Swiss.
it's only a matter of time, and by which foreign authority among many who would love to take the political brownie point for arresting and prosecuting the biggest criminal of the day.
Will no one rid us of this meddlesome creep?
If only you were Henry II.
More doors need to be closed for felons world wide.
Love the photo...is he holding his breath until they let him in?
LOL! I too, thought that was a great picture!
LOL also. Great quip. I see you picked up on W's mental age.
or one of his "gut feelings" is about to fart forth.
"President Bush has made several trips....South Korea, China , Japan, Brazil, Canada, and the Middle East." Yeah, but no European countries where the ICC is taken seriously and there's a chance he might be called to account. These Ivy-league sissies only act tough when they are directing the violence from their ivory towers. By the way, CCR Rocks!
"We regret that the speech has been canceled," Sherzer said. "President Bush was looking forward to speaking about freedom and offering reflections from his time in office."
What fucking freedom? He has done more then any other presidential puppet to deny not only OUR freedom with the Patriot Act, but he opened the doors to lock up thousands with no charges and torture them til they gave him the keys to invading Iraq.
Now Obama has taken this even further.
Will no one rid of us of this meddlesome parasite?
"What fucking freedom?"
_________________________________
Why, his own freedom to commit high crimes and misdemeanors with impunity, I suppose.
Being a war criminal used to carry certain risks, and it still does for less fortunate sons.
Can't blame the man for being thrilled to have one of the Amerikan power elite's permanent, universal "Get Out of Jail Free" cards!
forget the protests!
arrest the SOB.
Having replenished the old coffers, he looks pissed that he can't now go to inspect them.
Hell, let him go. I won't miss him.
Our tax dollars are paying for his protection 24/7 when they should be paying for his incarceration.
America, home of the cowards, land of the freak.
I'm no coward. I'm no swashbuckling hero either. I have the confidence that comes with knowing I am right, I have the quiet, desperate, courage that comes from having exhausted all reasonable and peaceful redress of wrongs. I am too old to be afraid.
Bush: "I have a ranch in Paraguay South America that is larger than Gaza. 100,000 acres. I will hide out there if the heat gets turned up. They won't extradite war criminals like me there."
"President Bush was looking forward to speaking about freedom ..."
Maybe, now that his gig in Switzerland is canceled, he can give his "speech about freedom" someplace closer, like Guantanamo Bay.
It would indeed be unseemly if United Israel Appeal's little party was marred by protestors tossing shoes at the former Warmonger in Chief. W's flack expressed regret that little Georgie would not make his self-aggrandizing talk (and not collect the thousands of dollars he would have received in lying, er, I mean, speaking fees).
Also, the war-criminal class of AmeriKKKa must be careful where they travel because of those pesky nations that still believe in the quaint notion of the rule of law.
Can't the Spanish put out a EU warrant for Bush's arrest or at least rendering to Spain? Isn't this what has happened with Sweden in their posting against Julian Assange? What would happen if Bush were to enter Sweden? The charges against Bush are far more serious than those against Assange. Would the Swedes honor a request from Spain or from any other country in Europe?
Dear richsmith2:
Oh, I like this!
Let's also add that GW had unprotected sex with the Koch Brothers' money machine, and has infected the entire world with corporate STDs!
Why no protests against Bush in America? Hooray for the Swiss!
Actually there are. So many people threatened to disrupt a fundraising event in Colorado Springs last week hosting George Bush (who after years of invitations was "finally" going to actually visit that mecca of right-wing Christian fundamentalism, much to the town's delight) that they ended up canceling the event. Again, presumably over concerns about his safety.
Of course the rightwingistan news media had a field day with that turn of events -- "threats of violence from the left", "the left is against free speech", etc. All very predictable.
At $25,000 a pop, I'm sure Dubya has a lucrative future ahead of him giving his spin on what transpired while he was president. (Assuming he was paying that much attention in the first place.)
As an aside, the Harper's Index this month lists as one of its statistical factoids: "Number of times George Bush references the fact that he lost the popular vote in the 2000 Election in his recently-published autobiography: 0."
Well, no shit.
Hey, I just want to put it out there that certain narcissistic types are such pathological liars that though they may not be the quality brains such as Enron, they know how to con others like a devil. My father is one of these, so I'm not making any of this up. He may have been a C grade student, but books aren't the only smarts that count experientially. Shrub II is hell on wheels and we're still paying for it. He's probably proud--the jerk.
The Swiss at least take their treaty obligations seriously. We are party to the same treaty but you know us, we never take that kind of stuff very seriously. Never mind that you, George, unleashed forces accounting for a million deaths and 2 million refugees in Iraq. We in the US don't want to look backwards. We are looking forward to even larger wars like the fight we are picking in Pakistan and the chance we have to destroy Iran over weapons of mass destruction which we are so sure they have. Dick Cheney,I'm sure, even knows where they are.
Seems to be holding his breath until he gets his way....like the spoiled little $ hit he is.
Sixty speeches? Who the hell *wants* to see George W. Bush doped up on benzos and struggling to put a dozen words together at a stretch?
The local chamber of commerce.
Bush is scheduled to speak in a municipality near Vancouver, BC in the near future, along with another former president, Carter, I think. I know that our local chapter of Lawyers Against War have issued a citizens' arrest warrant again GB in the past for crimes against humanity; no reason to suspect the same won't happen this time.
Is it Harper or Carter?
Not at all surprised to hear that United Israel wanted to get educated on freedom by Bush. He was the most popular president in Israel even when US was turning its back on him.
FINALLY, the world is beginning to recognize our shameful torture. Bush stained our democracy and we stood by helplessly.
I, Stardust, am being overtaken by my evil twin: ANTIMATTER. I can't help myself!
HA! HA! HA!.
From the best SELLER list to the best KILLER list!
I am so glad that the Universe is blest with such a rich sense of irony, humor, and yes, JUSTICE!
It is encouraging that the Spaniards have set a time (March 1st)by which the US must state if they plan to prosecute Bush. It should have been extremely embarrassing for them to have Wikileaks tell the world how our State Department had put pressure on them to halt any prosecution efforts by Judge Garzon. It's sort of interesting that the original Spanish efforts wern't against Bush/Cheney and approx 15 others for planning the attack against Iraq (war crimes). It was against five men for involvement in the torture memos. Yoo, Bybee, Addington, Gonzales, and Haynes. It would be interesting to get a list of the groups that sponsored Bush's speeches and we would find a group of real neo-cons and military industrial complex scoundrels. "War is Good" is their mantra, just so someone elses family does the fighting and getting killed.
"bring 'em on"... you little SHIT.
contrary to popular belief... our little lord fauntelroy turned rhinestone cowboy... really DOES care... what people think of him...
no don't expect to see anything in public... but the little basterd's inards will slowly eat him alive the next 30 some years he gets to stroll this planet... mindful of course outside the bible belt he might get drawn and quartered...
go play golf you dope.
the swiss bankers are thinking that bush's accounts are theirs to keep for the foreseeable future.
these swiss bankers always get the best of both worlds.
Not that I am defending bankers, but this is a ridiculous comment. Again, it is NOT about bankers it is about a war criminal.
President Bush:
The Constitution's "just a goddam piece of paper."
So was the illegal execution order for Saddam Hussein.
So, too, is a dollar bill.
-30-
Now now let's be FAIR...
They had to destroy saddam
he could have turned against
the rumsfeld/cheney complex in
one of those old fashioned
courts of law...Alas those are
gone forever. Now we just have
conservative TRIBUNALs with the
trappings of theatrical law. The
us of a has become a parody of
itself, unrecognized by the
propagandized masses.
So, I assume then that they can arrest Obama as well if he visits Switzerland since he is only continuing Bush's torture policies.
Hopefully.
If Obama continues to torture, and hold people without representation, and assainate people anywhere in the world that he chooses , then perhaps he too is a War criminal. He is doing this, he doesn't have to follow in Bush's footsteps, but he seems to want to. I think he is a Bushy anyway, he went to Harvard, and hung out with the same people that took us into this New America of Tyrants. Perhaps he was an implant formed years ago for this very day. He damn sure doesn't act like a Democrat ! Every promise he made to us he has given the left only a tiny bite, and given the right everything they asked for.
He works for Big Oil ,that was obvious during the B.P. Haliburton, disaster, He works for the Banks that is why they have even bigger bonusess than they got two yrs. ago. He works for Haliburton and the War machine, that is why we have Soldiers all over the planet, and we produce tons of weapons to sell to countries that we instigate war, so we can sell more weapons. Obama is a lie, and he too will one day stand before the International Community answering questions about his actions.
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy :-)))))
Maybe other states could threaten same treatment....and keep him in Texas - they deserve each other
Wow,
How surprising it is to discover that the grandson of an avid Nazi supporter committed the same type war crimes as his grandfather did.
Prescott Sheldon Bush: A senator previously sanctioned for trading with the enemy. He built up the Nazi war machine with his steel and banking concerns and associations. It was claimed that Slave Labor was used to build up the bush family fortune by holicaust survivors. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power
Rumours of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with the Enemy Act are still being felt by today's president
Ben Aris in Berlin and Duncan Campbell in Washington
The Guardian, Saturday 25 September 2004 23.59 BST
Article history
George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
And before that on Oct 10, 2003 in the oldest newspaper in the USA the New Hamshire Gazette: http://www.nhgazette.com/the-bushnazi-stories/bushnazi-link-confirmed/
WASHINGTON – After 60 years of inattention and even denial by the U.S. media, newly-uncovered government documents in The National Archives and Library of Congress reveal that Prescott Bush, the grandfather of President George W. Bush, served as a business partner of and U.S. banking operative for the financial architect of the Nazi war machine from 1926 until 1942, when Congress took aggressive action against Bush and his “enemy national” partners.
The documents also show that Bush and his colleagues, according to reports from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and FBI, tried to conceal their financial alliance with German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, a steel and coal baron who, beginning in the mid-1920s, personally funded Adolf Hitler’s rise to power by the subversion of democratic principle and German law.
Furthermore, the declassified records demonstrate that Bush and his associates, who included E. Roland Harriman, younger brother of American icon W. Averell Harriman, and George Herbert Walker, President Bush’s maternal great-grandfather, continued their dealings with the German industrial baron for nearly eight months after the U.S. entered the war.
Torture, Treason, Genocide: Shrub family traditions.
Just my humble opinions only.
TJ
Thank You.........