Clinton charged with war crimes

Charges of war crimes have been levied by a U.S.-based private
criminal justice organization against President Clinton and Defense
Secretary William Cohen for their part in initiating the NATO military
action against Yugoslavia.

The indictment is to be electronically filed Monday with the
International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) in The Hague after the
Connecticut-based International Ethical Alliance (IEA)
determined that both men had violated many of
the same justice standards used by the ICT to indict Yugoslavian
President Slobodan Milosevic.

In a press release, the IEA said other NATO officials would probably
be included in more charges to be filed later for their part in the
conflict. IEA officials said it also advocates the prosecution of
Milosevic, but said both U.S. and NATO officials must be held
accountable.

IEA General Counsel Jerome Zeifman, who writes for WorldNetDaily and
served as counsel to the House impeachment committee in 1973, said the
charges were filed “against defendants Clinton and Cohen [for]
non-defensive aggressive military attacks on former Yugoslavia, which
have not been necessary to defend the national security of the United
States.” He added that the charges “are defined and proscribed in the
Charters of the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, Aug. 8,
1945, and the 1947 Charter of the United Nations.”

Zeifman also said the charges rely, in part, on the testimony of
witnesses and experts, and in his filing he suggested the ICT contact
them for possible depositions to the court. Those witnesses include, but
are not limited to: former U.S. President Jimmy Carter; former Nuremberg
prosecutor for the United States, Walter Rockler; Bishop Artemious of
Kosovo; journalist Alexander Cockburn; and playwright Harold Pinter.”

Once such charges are filed, Zeifman said, by the Tribunal’s own
regulations, prosecutors are obliged to investigate. He cited Article
18.1 from The Hague’s court procedures, which said, in part, that the
ICT must investigate “information obtained from any source, particularly
… organizations.”

Zeifman has also called for the dismissal of ICT prosecutor Louise
Arbour, claiming she has practiced misconduct and is subsequently
unqualified for this case.

Specifically, he said, Arbour allegedly has engaged “in selective
prosecution by intentionally failing to consider and act on evidence
which incriminates defendants Clinton and Cohen, and other as yet
unindicted officials of NATO countries; conflicts of interest, or the
appearance thereof, in receiving compensation from funds contributed to
the Tribunal in whole or in part by governments of NATO; and bias in
favor of the attacks by NATO on former Yugoslavia.”

In her place, IEA is advocating the appointment of an independent
prosecutor not from any NATO country, who “is compensated only from
funds specifically contributed by non-NATO countries; and has an
independent staff that is not compensated directly or indirectly from
funds contributed by NATO countries.”

The IEA is also calling for the “recusal of five justices currently
representing NATO countries, including chief justice Gabrielle Kirk
McDonald of the United States.”

IEA officials also said the NATO action was “contrary to the United
Nations charter [since] NATO was bombing a fellow U.N. member, without
U.N. authority.”

Zeifman said he had not spoken with ICT officials and had no
indication whether the indictment would be acted on by the World Court.
But he added that it was important to get the matter on record.

The indictment also contains quotations from prominent world figures
as further evidence of the alleged illegality of U.S. and NATO military
action against Yugoslavia.

For instance, former President Jimmy Carter is quoted from a May 27,
1999, New York Times article as saying, “The decision to attack
Yugoslavia was counterproductive, and our destruction of civilian life
was senseless and excessively brutal.” And Bishop Artemious of Kosovo, a
leader of a resistance movement against the Milosevic regime, charged,
“The greatest victim of your bombing is Democracy! Before your bombs
democratic forces existed here, however embryonic. Destroying those
forces is the greatest crime of your bombs.”

Though other nations are planning similar actions, Zeifman told
WorldNetDaily that the IEA indictment “was more severe.” Non-affiliated
groups in Britain, Greece and Norway are planning to file similar
actions against leaders and officials in their respective countries.