Chief Prosecutor For International Criminal Court Suggests That Bush And Blair Could Potentially Face War Criminal Charges

In an interview, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who is the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court in the Hague, suggested that it is a "possibilty" that both George Bush and Tony blair could potentially face war criminal charges in the international court. Although this remains only a remote possibility, it is still the U.S. use of torture and other strongarm tactics that violate international standards and law that could lead to such charges as well as other factors that run contrary to the rule of law.

Whether charges are ever brought really depends on pressure and membership of the MidEast nations in the world court system and whether they would want to push for such charges. This would mark a rare incident in which a Western world nation would be charged with violations of international law.

Certainly controlling deadly terrorism is an important goal. Preventing the loss of life of any innocent civilians by extremists is an important goal. But all of this must be done within the legal contexts of international law where a defendant has the right to an attorney and cannot be tortured. Terrorism represents criminality of the very worst variety and a complete disregard for life. But all nations must only work within acceptable legal limitations, and any person who may be wrongly accused needs to be able to defend themselves.