Thursday 20 March 2008

We Name The Guilty Men

On this fifth anniversary, Mick Hall writes:

G. W. Bush is still US President, although mercifully his period in office ends at the end of the year. He will then draw a handsome pension which will be toped up by handouts from the multinational corporations whose coffers he helped fill and whose hands are as blood-stained as GW Bush’s, the worst US President in living memory if not ever.

Dick Cheney is still in the Vice-President's office, but much diminished by events in Iraq and by battles with other branches of government. At the end of his term in office, he will in all probability return to work in a multinational corporation.

Donald Rumsfeld - forced out of office as Defense Secretary in November 2006 after a Republican drubbing in mid-term elections; now a fellow at conservative think tank, the Hoover Institution, at Stanford University.

Paul Wolfowitz - Rumsfeld's number two was made president of World Bank only to be ousted after scandal involving promotion of his partner. Now at neo-conservative hub, the American Enterprise Institute.

Tony Blair - left Downing Street and became Middle East envoy to Quartet group; will lead international team to tackle climate change, and is to teach religion and politics at Yale. Paid up to £5m for memoirs.

Jose Maria Aznar - stood down as Spanish PM in 2004. Has been teaching at thinktanks and universities in Spain and US, and is on board of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

John Howard - Australian PM ejected in spectacular style last November. Now on international speaker circuit.

Ahmed Chalabi - blamed as conduit of false intelligence about WMD. Failed to win seat in Iraqi parliament. Now adviser to Iraqi government.

Osama bin Laden -despite rumours of death, still likely to be in tribal regions of northern Pakistan. Most recent recorded tape produced in December.

We can but hope the day will come when all of these men will be in the dock of the International Criminal Court.

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