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Trump has just named Robert O’Brien as his new National Security Advisor, replacing John Bolton.

[While O’Brien is being touted as having recently been involved with the release of the African American rapper A$AP Rocky from Swedish custody, the journalist Hijo del Cuervo notes on Twitter: “O’Brien was a Rotary scholar at the University of the Free State in South Africa. A whites-only institution since 1904. Desegregated in 1996 — after he was there.” O’Brien’s Linkedin profile states that he speaks two languages: English and Afrikaans.]

CURT MILLS, Cmills1 at gmail.com, @CurtMills
Mills is senior writer for The American Conservative. He has been writing about Bolton’s departure.

Mills stated this morning in a series of tweets that noted hawk “Hugh Hewitt wrote the introduction to National Security Advisor Robert C. O’Brien’s 2016 book, ‘While America Slept,’ a collection of essays that argues that American involvement overseas needs a restoration. …

“O’Brien is ‘Bolton lite,’ a source close to him described earlier in the replacement search. …

“For realists and core supporters of the president who hoped for a turn after the president fired Bolton, this is a deeply disappointing moment. Will O’Brien work to get the U.S. out of Afghanistan? Or will he expand/facilitate war with Iran? Track record suggests latter. …

“This is still a triumph for Pompeo, who gets a State guy in there and a weaker NSA than [with] Bolton. Pompeo is achieving Kissingerian levels of power in national security…”

 

JIM LOBE, jlobe at starpower.net, @LobeLog
Lobe is the founder of LobeLog, which features investigative pieces on foreign policy. He served for some 30 years as the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for Inter Press Service and is best known for his coverage of U.S. foreign policy and the influence of the neoconservative movement.

He said today: “This is a body blow to the Jacksonians in the administration and Congress who, like Dick Cheney under George W. Bush, pushed hard for the aggressive and punishing use of military power as a means of intimidating all potential rivals or other states perceived as hostile or antagonistic to the United States (or Israel) and who believed that multilateral institutions, like the UN, the European Union, and even international treaties signed by the U.S., too often constrain Washington’s power to shape the world to its liking. Which is not to say that such worldview doesn’t continue to hold appeal to Trump and others in the administration, but there was no more bureaucratically savvy and determined operator in its top ranks than Bolton. Of course, Bolton’s departure will naturally increase the influence of Pompeo, a Christian Zionist whose views on Middle East policy, in particular, are very close to hard-line neoconservatives, but hopefully the Pentagon can act as an effective counterweight.”

 

The U.S. and Iranian governments are giving contradictory accounts surrounding the downing of a large U.S. drone over the Strait of Hormuz. A major issue revolves around whether the downed drone was in international waters; see below. The Trump administration is meeting this afternoon with members of Congress, some of whom have argued that the administration already has authorization to attack Iran.

See accuracy.org news release from last week: “Persian Gulf of Tonkin?” — a reference to the U.S. government deceiving its way to the massive escalation of the Vietnam War in 1964. Also last week, the New York Times reported: “One of the tankers that were attacked in the Gulf of Oman was struck by a flying object, the ship’s Japanese operator said on Friday, disputing at least part of the account of United States officials who had blamed Iran for the attack.”

While many pointed out Bush administration falsehoods after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, accuracy.org produced some of the most hard-hitting scrutiny prior to the invasion, including: “U.S. Credibility Problems” and “White House Claims: A Pattern of Deceit.” See from 2013: “Legacy of Iraq War Myths Ten Years Later.” Also. see accuracy.org news release from last month: “Postol: Newly Revealed Documents Show Syrian Chemical ‘Attacks Were Staged‘” regarding the pretext for U.S. attacks on Syria in April of 2018.

FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle at illinois.edu
Professor of international law at the University of Illinois, Boyle’s books include Destroying World Order. He said today: “Iran has not committed an ‘armed attack’ upon the United States that would trigger the right of self-defense set forth in UN Charter Article 51. So under the current circumstances as they stand now, a U.S. military attack upon Iran would constitute a violation of international and domestic law. The 2001 AUMF most certainly does not authorize force in this case as some have claimed.

“Given the manner in which National Security Advisor John Bolton is pressing for war, a member of the House should put in a Bill of Impeachment against him immediately. It may be the best way to avoid a catastrophic war.” Boyle was a lead author of the bill of impeachment put forward by Rep. Henry Gonzalez in 1991 against George H.W. Bush, who later wrote that fear of impeachment prevented him from a full invasion of Iraq.

Regarding the Strait of Hormuz, Boyle said: “This is not an international strait or waterway as defined by the International Court of Justice in the Corfu Channel Case. So U.S. warships and planes and drones need the permission of the territorial sovereign (Oman or Iran) to pass through there including their respective airspaces.” See below for more details.

TRITA PARSI, tparsi at gmail.com, @tparsi
Parsi founded the National Iranian American Council. He just wrote the piece “America’s Confrontation With Iran Goes Deeper Than Trump.” He was on NPR’s “Morning Edition” earlier today.

He tweeted today: “First the U.S. denied that a drone had been shot down. Now it admits that a drone has been shot down, but that it was in international airspace, not Iranian airspace. It is still not established which version is true. Both sides have a history of being untruthful. For instance:

“When the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian passenger plane in 1988, the U.S. first denied they had shot it down. It also denied that the ship had been in Iranian waters. A later investigation revealed the Vincennes actually was deep in Iranian waters when it shot down the plane.

“When the Iranians apprehended British sailors about ten years ago in the Persian Gulf, the UK first denied they had entered Iranian waters. A later investigation by the British Parliament revealed they actually were inside of Iranian waters. They were released within two weeks.”

Regarding the U.S. claim that the drone was in international waters, the U.S. Energy Information Administration states that: “At its narrowest point, the Strait [of Hormuz] is 21 miles wide.” Countries are entitled to a belt of coastal waters extending 12 nautical miles.

United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea maybe relevant, except for the fact that UNCLOSdebate.org notes: “Iran signed the 1982 Convention in [the] same year, but it has not ratified it, primarily due to their opposition to the ‘innocent passage’ provisions of UNCLOS that allow U.S. warships freedom of navigation.” Will Rogers, writing for the Center for a New American Security, has advocated the U.S. ratify the treaty — as a way to gain leverage over Iran: “Ratification will also help the United States deflate Iran’s recent challenges to U.S. freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.”

 

CommonDreams.org summarizes recent developments on Iran in “‘Disturbing’: Trump Reportedly Reviewed Bolton Plan to Threaten Iran by Sending 120,000 Troops to Middle East“: “According to the New York Times, the military plan was crafted by national security adviser John Bolton — who has repeatedly expressed support for bombing Iran, including in the pages of the Times — and presented to the president last Thursday by Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive who Trump nominated last week to serve as permanent Pentagon chief. …

“According to the Times, U.S. officials believe — without citing any evidence — that Iran was involved in reported attacks on UAE and Saudi oil tankers in the Persian Gulf over the weekend.”

GARETH PORTER, porter.gareth50 at gmail.com, @GarethPorter
Available for a limited number of interviews, Porter is a noted independent investigative journalist and author of the book Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare. He recently wrote the piece “Bolton Is Spinning Israeli ‘Intelligence’ to Push for War Against Iran.”

He said today: “We are in grave danger of being sleepwalked into military confrontation with Iran over an incident that is blamed wrongly on Iran. Corporate media have given Bolton and his conniving to achieve such a crisis a free pass, and now Director of National Intelligence has lent the intelligence community’s support to Bolton’s scheme by suggesting Iran is suspected in the oil tanker incidents, in the absence of any evidence.” Earlier this year, Porter wrote the piece “The Right May Finally Get Its War on Iran.”

SIMIN ROYANIAN, ciwhr at yahoo.com
Royanian blogs at CassandraSpeaksBlog.wordpress.com. See her piece “The ‘Iran Nuclear Deal.’” She is co-founder of Women for Peace and Justice in Iran. See her appearance on C-SPAN while the Bush administration was threatening to attack Iran.

PAUL PILLAR, prp8 at georgetown.edu
Pillar was an analyst at the CIA for 28 years. He is now a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University. Recently, LobeLog published his piece “Bolton’s War.”

DAN KOVALIK, DKovalik at usw.org, @danielmkovalik
Kovalik is author of the book The Plot to Attack Iran (2018, from Simon & Schuster). He said today: “A war with Iran would be unconscionable. Iran, which helped the U.S. in the fight against terror after 9/11, is no threat to us. The biggest threat to our nation and the world is in fact the warmongers currently running the White House.”

 

Tuesday, CNN reported: “In a written statement, White House National Security Adviser John Bolton said the U.S. was deploying a carrier strike group and bomber task force to the Middle East ‘to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime.'”

Wednesday, Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif tweeted: “On May 8, 2018, U.S. withdrew from #JCPOA [the The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, aka, ‘the Iran nuclear deal’], violated #UNSCR 2231 & pressured others — incl #E3 [Germany, Britain and France] — to do the same. After a year of patience, Iran stops measures that U.S. has made impossible to continue. Our action is within the terms of JCPOA. EU/E3+2 [Russia and China] has a narrowing window to reverse this.”

The following analysts are available for interviews:

GARETH PORTER, porter.gareth50 at gmail.com, @GarethPorter
Porter is a noted independent investigative journalist and author of the book Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare. He said today: “Donald Trump’s key advisers are looking for an excuse for an air attack on Iran, and they have now taken a big step closer to their publicly announced objective. Pompeo and Bolton both threatened war with Iran last September over a few mortar shells landng in the vicinity of … the U.S. Embassy and a consulate in Iraq, blaming Iran-backed militias that are fighting ISIS. Now they have broadened the rationale for war to include any attack on an ally’s interests — after consultations with the Israelis last month.” Earlier this year, Porter wrote the piece “The Right May Finally Get Its War on Iran.”

PAUL PILLAR, prp8 at georgetown.edu
Pillar was an analyst at the CIA for 28 years. He is now a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown. On Tuesday, LobeLog published his piece “Bolton’s War.”

DAN KOVALIK, DKovalik at usw.org, @danielmkovalik
Kovalik is author of the book “The Plot to Attack Iran” (2018, from Simon & Schuster.)

TRITA PARSI, tparsi at gmail.com, @tparsi
Parsi is founder of the National Iranian American Council and author of Losing an Enemy. He sent out a thread on Twitter Wednesday morning: “Tehran’s retaliation against the Trump administration’s violations of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal is making the costs and dangers of Trump’s disastrous Iran policy clear for all to see. …”

 

Simon Kuper writes in the Financial Times piece “Don’t get distracted. John Bolton is a huge threat“:  “A warmonger is about to start work a few steps from Trump in a White House devoid of procedure.”

RAY McGOVERN, rrmcgovern at gmail.com, @raymcgovern
McGovern served as an Army Infantry/Intelligence officer and then as a CIA analyst for a total of 30 years. He helped prepare daily briefings for presidents from John F. Kennedy to George H.W. Bush. He just wrote the piece “Coming Attraction: Lunatic Loose in West Wing,” which states: “John Bolton’s March 22 appointment-by-tweet as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser has given ‘March Madness’ a new and ominous meaning. There is less than a week left to batten down the hatches before Bolton makes U.S. foreign policy worse than it already is.

“During a recent interview with The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill (minutes 35 to 51) I mentioned that Bolton fits seamlessly into a group of take-no-prisoners zealots once widely known in Washington circles as ‘the crazies,’ and now more commonly referred to as ‘neocons.’

“Beginning in the 1970s, ‘the crazies’ sobriquet was applied to Cold Warriors hell bent on bashing Russians, Chinese, Arabs — anyone who challenged U.S. ‘exceptionalism’ (read hegemony). More to the point, I told Scahill that President (and former CIA Director) George H. W. Bush was among those using the term freely, since it seemed so apt. …

“John Bolton was Cheney’s ‘crazy’ at the State Department. Secretary Colin Powell was pretty much window dressing. He could be counted on not to complain loudly — much less quit — even if he strongly suspected he was being had. Powell had gotten to where he was by saluting sharply and doing what superiors told him to do. As secretary of state, Powell was not crazy — just craven. He enjoyed more credibility than the rest of the gang and rather than risk being ostracized like the rest of us, he sacrificed that credibility on the altar of the ‘supreme international crime.’

“In those days Bolton did not hesitate to run circles around — and bully — the secretary of state and many others. This must be considered a harbinger of things to come, starting on Monday, when the bully comes to the china shop in the West Wing. While longevity in office is not the hallmark of the Trump administration, even if Bolton’s tenure turns out to be short-lived, the crucial months immediately ahead will provide Bolton with ample opportunity to wreak the kind of havoc that ‘the crazies’ continue to see as enhancing U.S. — and not incidentally — Israeli influence in the Middle East. Bear in mind, Bolton still says the attack on Iraq was a good idea.”

McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. In January 2003, he co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) and still serves on its Steering Group.

MARJORIE COHN, marjorielegal at gmail.com, @marjoriecohn
Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and just wrote the piece “Trump Finds Fellow Bully in Bolton,” which states: “Nothing Donald Trump has done since his inauguration 14 months ago is more dangerous — to the United States, and indeed, to the world — than his selection of John Bolton for National Security Adviser. It is not surprising the president would feel most comfortable receiving advice from a fellow bully. …

“Bolton was such a lightning rod that in 2005, even the GOP-controlled Senate refused to confirm him as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. To avoid the need for Senate confirmation, George W. Bush named Bolton to the post in a recess appointment.

“But Bolton doesn’t just bully individuals. He pushed for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, advocates military attacks on North Korea and Iran, favors Israel’s annexation of the Palestinian West Bank, and falsely claimed that Cuba had biological weapons.

“As undersecretary of state for Arms Control and International Security in the Bush administration, Bolton was instrumental in withdrawing the United States from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which heightened the risk of nuclear war with Russia.

“Anthony J. Blinken, deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, wrote in The New York Times, ‘Mr. Bolton had a habit of twisting intelligence to back his bellicosity and sought to remove anyone who objected.'”

 

ELI CLIFTON, [in NYC] eliclifton at gmail.com, @EliClifton
JIM LOBE, jlobe at starpower.net, @LobeLog
Clifton and Lobe just wrote the piece “Trump’s Choice of Bolton Satisfies His Biggest Donor,” which states: “Last August, shortly after John Kelly replaced Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff and Steve Bannon was fired as the president’s chief strategist, John Bolton complained that he could no longer get a meeting with Donald Trump.”Just three months later, however, on the eve of Trump’s belligerent address to the United Nations, Bolton was once again in direct contact with the president. How did this turnabout take place? The reconnection was reportedly arranged by none other than Sheldon Adelson, the Trump campaign’s biggest donor.

“Politico reported that the most threatening line in Trump’s UN speech — that he would cancel Washington’s participation in the Iran nuclear deal if Congress and U.S. allies did not bend to his efforts to effectively renegotiate it — came directly from Bolton and wasn’t in the original … prepared by Trump’s staff. ‘The line was added to Trump’s speech after Bolton, despite Kelly’s recent edict [restricting Bolton’s access to Trump], reached the president by phone on Thursday afternoon from Las Vegas, where Bolton was visiting with Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson. Bolton urged Trump to include a line in his remarks noting that he reserved the right to scrap the agreement entirely, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.’

“Some analysts have suggested that Bolton, an anti-Iran uber-hawk, has the visit to Washington of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to thank for his imminent elevation. But Adelson, a huge supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, likely played a critical role in Bolton’s ascendancy.”

Lobe served for some 30 years as the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for Inter Press Service and is best known for his coverage of U.S. foreign policy and the influence of the neoconservative movement. Clifton reports on money in politics and U.S. foreign policy. He previously reported for the American Independent News Network, ThinkProgress, and Inter Press Service.

 

Juan Cole writes: “Let’s Call Bolton What He Is: A War Criminal with Terrorist Ties, Not Just ‘Hawkish.’”

Trump tweeted in 2013: “All former Bush administration officials should have zero standing on Syria. Iraq was a waste of blood & treasure.”

In an Institute for Public Accuracy news release earlier this year — “‘Fire and Fury’ — New Reports Thicken Trump-Israel Plot,” Ali Abunimah noted that author Michael Wolff “recounts an early January 2017 dinner in New York where Bannon and disgraced former Fox News boss Roger Ailes discussed cabinet picks.

“Bannon observed that they did not have a ‘deep bench,’ but both men agreed the extremely pro-Israel neocon John Bolton would be a good pick for national security adviser. ‘He’s a bomb thrower,’ Ailes said of Bolton, ‘and a strange little fucker. But you need him. Who else is good on Israel?’

“‘Day one we’re moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Netanyahu’s all in,’ Bannon said, adding that anti-Palestinian casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson was on board too.

“‘Let Jordan take the West Bank, let Egypt take Gaza. Let them deal with it. Or sink trying,’ Bannon proposed. ‘The Saudis are on the brink, Egyptians are on brink, all scared to death of Persia.’

“Asked by Ailes, ‘Does Donald know’ the plan, Bannon reportedly just smiled.

“Bannon’s idea reflected ‘the new Trump thinking’ about the Middle East: ‘There are basically four players,’ writes Wolff, ‘Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The first three can be united against the fourth.’ Egypt and Saudi Arabia would be ‘given what they want’ in respect to Iran, and in return would ‘pressure the Palestinians to make a deal.'”

PHYLLIS BENNIS, pbennis at ips-dc.org
Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. She noted that Bolton’s explicit derision for international law goes back decades, saying [in a debate with Bennis] in 1994: “There is no United Nations. … When the United States leads, the United Nations will follow. When it suits our interest to do so, we will do so. When it does not suit our interests we will not.”

See “War criminals must fear punishment. That’s why I went for John Bolton.” by George Monbiot: “The Nuremberg principles, which arose from the prosecution of Nazi war criminals, define as an international crime the ‘planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances.’ Bolton appears to have ‘participated in a common plan’ to prepare for the war (also defined by the principles as a crime) by inserting the false claim that Iraq was seeking to procure uranium from Niger into a state department factsheet. He also organised the sacking of José Bustani, the head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, accusing him of bad management. Bustani had tried to broker a peaceful resolution of the dispute over Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.”

Greg Thielmann, a 25-year veteran of the Foreign Service, serving two tours in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, writes in “Bolton: A Prime Mover Of The Iraq WMD Fiasco,” that: “I was a firsthand witness to the negative consequences of Bolton’s style and substantive approach while serving as director of the office in the State Department’s intelligence bureau (INR/SPM) responsible for monitoring Iraqi WMD issues. As my office delivered to him the heavy volume of sensitive information provided by the intelligence community, he demonstrated a penchant for quickly dismissing inconvenient facts and rejecting any analysis that did not serve his policy preferences.”

Investigative reporter Gareth Porter writes in The American Conservative, in the piece “The Untold Story of John Bolton’s Campaign for War With Iran,” that: “Bolton’s high-profile advocacy of war with Iran is well known. What is not at all well known is that, when he was under secretary of state for arms control and international security, he executed a complex and devious strategy aimed at creating the justification for a U.S. attack on Iran. Bolton sought to convict the Islamic Republic in the court of international public opinion of having a covert nuclear weapons program using a combination of diplomatic pressure, crude propaganda, and fabricated evidence.”

MITCHELL PLITNICK, plitnickm at gmail.com
Plitnick wrote the piece “John Bolton: The Essential Profile,” which states: “Bolton served as UN ambassador from August 2005 — when President Bush gave him a recess appointment after the Senate blocked his nomination — to January 2007. His resignation, announced in December 2006, came at the end of a controversial tenure marked by severe criticism from U.S. senators and international diplomats. His resignation also came less than three weeks after President Bush resubmitted Bolton’s nomination for Senate confirmation — the second time in six months.

“During his first confirmation hearings, Bolton’s record as undersecretary of state came under intense criticism, particularly regarding his contacts with Israel. According to The Forward and other news sources, Bolton had met with officials of Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, without first seeking ‘country clearance’ from the State Department. …

“Speaking before an audience at the Heritage Foundation in May 2002, Bolton argued that Cuba should also be included among the ‘axis of evil’ countries because of its alleged development of bio-warfare capacity. Cuba is world-renowned for its biomedical industry, but Bolton claimed that the industry was concealing a WMD project. Providing no evidence, he insisted that Cuba was involved in the sales of illicit bio-warfare technology to boost its cash-short economy. Other administration officials declined to support Bolton’s accusations. A congressional investigation of Cuba’s alleged WMD program found no evidence supporting Bolton’s assertions. …

“As an assistant attorney general under Edwin Meese, Bolton thwarted the Kerry Commission’s efforts to obtain documentation, including Bolton’s personal notes, about the Iran-Contra affair and alleged Contra drug smuggling. Working with congressional Republicans, Bolton also stonewalled congressional demands to interview Meese’s deputies regarding their role in the affair.” Mitchell Plitnick is former vice president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.

 

The Washington Post has on its front page a piece headlined “Ex-Press Aide Writes That Bush Misled U.S. on Iraq.”

The British newspaper The Telegraph features a piece today: “John Bolton To Be Target of Citizen’s Arrest at Hay Festival: John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, faces a citizen’s arrest when he addresses an audience at the Hay Festival in Wales this evening.” The piece begins: “George Monbiot, the journalist and activist, is planning the action because he believes Mr. Bolton is a ‘war criminal.'”

RICHARD FALK
Falk is professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and distinguished visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of more than 20 books including The Costs of War: International Law, the UN, and World Order after Iraq.

He said today: “As we see from today’s news, even former White House spokesperson McClellan is admitting that the administration orchestrated events and information to push for the invasion of Iraq in defiance of the UN Charter. This amounts to an aggressive war. Attempts by citizens like George Monbiot to hold officials accountable stem from the fact that the governmental institutions have failed in their duty to hold such individuals accountable for violations of international law. The Center for Constitutional Rights formally urged the prosecution of Rumsfeld in Germany and France, but those cases were dismissed for political reasons. There were attempts to do citizen arrests against [then-Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger and other U.S. officials during the Vietnam War. Having structures to ensure accountability of government officials for international crimes of state are an elementary facet of a real democracy in our globalized world.”
More Information

GEORGE MONBIOT
Monbiot is author of numerous books including The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order. His office released a statement today: “Bolton was one of the key initiators of the war against Iraq. …

“This appears to be the first time that a citizen’s arrest of one of the architects of the Iraq war has been attempted. … John Bolton was instrumental in preparing and initiating the Iraq war, by disseminating false claims through the State Department and by orchestrating the sacking of an official who tried to provide a negotiated settlement.

“The Nuremberg Principles, which form the basis of customary international law concerning armed action, state that the following action is a crime punishable under international law: ‘participation in a common plan’ for the ‘preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances.’

“The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg ruled that ‘to initiate a war of aggression … is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime.’

“The 2003 war with Iraq launched by the United States and the United Kingdom qualifies under international law both as a war of aggression … and as a war in violation of international treaties (primarily the UN Charter).

“In the Guardian Tuesday, Mr. Bolton denies that he is a war criminal.

“Many people accept that the launching of the Iraq war was an international crime, but no one has yet been prepared to act on it by arresting one of the perpetrators. Monbiot intends to arrest John Bolton as he comes off the stage after speaking at the festival and to hand him over to the police.”

Monbiot just posted “Arresting John Bolton: The Charge Sheet” on his web page.
More Information

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

 

JOHN GERSHMAN
Gershman is director of the Global Affairs Program at the International Relations Center. The Center features in-depth material on Bolton available online: . Gershman said today: “President Bush’s recess appointment of John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations places a Bush administration loyalist opposed to the United Nations and international law in a position that demands a skilled diplomat. … He worked to suppress dissenting intelligence on Iraq to support the Bush administration’s plan to invade Iraq, and led the Bush administration’s opposition to the International Criminal Court.”
In-depth material on Bolton available online

AS’AD ABUKHALIL
AbuKhalil is author of the book The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism, and Global Power, professor in the Department of Politics at California State University, Stanislaus, and visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Today he wrote the piece “King Fahd is Dead: And the Oppressive Kingdom Lives on… with Western Support.” AbuKhalil is just back from the Mideast.
More Information

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167