CNN Asks If Bush Officials Should Be Tried for War Crimes

NewsBusters.org ^ | March 19, 2013 | Matt Hadro

[Kaslin]

A CNN headline during Tuesday's 11 a.m. hour of Newsroom asked, "Should Bush officials be tried for war crimes?" CNN legal analyst Lisa Bloom argued that the U.S. should submit to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court for the mass murder of Iraqis that far exceeded the 9/11 atrocities.

Bloom downplayed the 9/11 terror attacks in the face of the Iraq War. When anchor Ashleigh Banfield noted that America responded to 9/11 with force and not in a "sanguine" manner, Bloom compared it to the Iraqi casualty count: "And that was 4,000, not 100,000, not 10 years." [Video below the break. Audio here.]

CNN Asks If Bush Officials Should Be Tried for War Crimes

Bloom added this gem about Bush being held accountable for "murdering" Iraqis: "if someone invaded our country based on false premises and murdered 100,000 to a million of our people, as we are accused of doing in Iraq, depending on whose estimate you believe, would we be so sanguine? Would we be so forgiving? Or would we demand some accountability?"

Anchor Ashleigh Banfield lended to Bloom's cause: "And we didn't go to court, we want to war. We didn't go to court," she remarked.

Yet Bloom was so far out in left field, the liberal Banfield sounded rational giving the argument for not tangling with the ICC. Bloom responded, "But isn't that interesting, because if we want others to be held accountable for war crimes, why shouldn't we accept jurisdiction of the same court?"

Only at the very end of the segment did Banfield nix the prospect of a trial: "I think it's also critical to say to our audience that the International Criminal Court can prosecute for genocide, for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, but this incursion, this action in Iraq is actually qualified as a crime of aggression, and that that doesn't come – that's not covered."

Bloom has jumped off the deep end before, once implying that supporters of Proposition 8 were "lunatic-fringe bigots" and in a 2008 CBS report on police brutality, comparing police officers to murder convicts and suspects.

During Tuesday's segment, she also compared the deaths in Iraq to U.S. atrocities in Vietnam:

"In Vietnam, there is an American war crimes museum, where you can look at all of the terrible things that the United States did, like dropping Agent Orange in Vietnam. There are many countries in the world where we are not welcomed. We are not seen as this wonderful, wonderful force. And I want to emphasize Americans are welcomed in Vietnam, but what we did there is remembered and it's acknowledged. And I think the same thing is going to happen in Iraq."

A transcript of the segment, which aired on CNN Newsroom on March 19 at 11:36 a.m. EDT, is as follows:

[11:36]

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD: The Bush administration went to war in Iraq 10 years ago today for two main reasons.

[HEADLINE: "Legacy of Iraq War: Should Bush officials be tried for war crimes?"]

BANFIELD: They claimed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and could possibly use them against the United States, and that Saddam Hussein was involved with al Qaeda prior to the 9/11 attacks. Well, today, we know both of those claims proved to be false. Since the war, there have been demands that Mr. Bush and members of his administration, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and former CIA director George Tenet, be tried for war crimes. But can they be or should they be? There is one very famous man who says yes. Bishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and the Anglican Church Archbishop of South Africa says they should, they should be tried. Our legal analyst Lisa Bloom, here in New York with me, is an expert on the International Criminal Court. There are so many issues, Lisa, when it comes to this kind of a thing. It is a sticky issue, it is a difficult issue, but a lot of people think why hasn't there been any litigation?

LISA BLOOM, CNN legal analyst: And when you think about it more broadly, there have been a number of world leaders who have been prosecuted in international criminal courts. In South Africa, which of course had the Apartheid regime for many, many years, a brutal regime responsible for the deaths of many of its own people, no one was prosecuted, ironically. In fact, they had the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which encouraged everybody, essentially, to talk to each other in commissions, acknowledge responsibility, and forgive. And yet Bishop Tutu, as you say, a very respected world leader, is now calling on President Bush to be prosecuted.

BANFIELD: So we are not signatories here in the United States of the International Criminal Court, and for good reason, Americans don't want to be prosecuted in criminal court.

(Crosstalk)

BANFIELD: We don't want our soldiers hauled off of battlefields and thrown into international criminal courts.

BLOOM: But isn't that interesting, because if we want others to be held accountable for war crimes, why shouldn't we accept jurisdiction of the same court?

BANFIELD: Let me ask you this, too. Isn't it a fair defense to say, it was a mistake? It was not intentional, it was not reckless. It was not -- aren't these fair defenses, if this were, in fact, the case?

BLOOM: Think of it this way, if someone invaded our country based on false premises and murdered 100,000 to a million of our people, as we are accused of doing in Iraq, depending on whose estimate you believe, would we be so sanguine? Would we be so forgiving? Or would we demand some accountability –

BANFIELD: Well, someone did come to our country and murder 4,000 people on September 11, and we weren't sanguine about it. We were very offended by it.

BLOOM: And that was 4,000, not 100,000, not 10 years, and not –

(Crosstalk)

BANFIELD: And we didn't go to court, we want to war. We didn't go to court.

BLOOM: That's right. And not under the aegis of a foreign government. So I just returned from a trip to Vietnam. In Vietnam, there is an American war crimes museum, where you can look at all of the terrible things that the United States did, like dropping Agent Orange in Vietnam. There are many countries in the world where we are not welcomed. We are not seen as this wonderful, wonderful force. And I want to emphasize Americans are welcomed in Vietnam, but what we did there is remembered and it's acknowledged. And I think the same thing is going to happen in Iraq.

BANFIELD: I think it's also critical to say to our audience that the International Criminal Court can prosecute for genocide, for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, but this incursion, this action in Iraq is actually qualified as a crime of aggression, and that that doesn't come – that's not covered. So unfortunately, it just can't be. I have to leave it there, but it is such a somber occasion. And I'm glad you were here to mark it on the legal side of it all. Lisa Bloom, thank you.

[BwanaNdege]

Disgusting!

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Now we KNOW Middle Eastern money is subverting our media. It's obvious. Media run and staffed by Americans would never ask such a treasonous question.

[Route395]

If anybody should be tried for crimes It’s Obama!!!

[cripplecreek]

Desperation to distract from Obama’s little adventures all over the world.

[Kaslin]

Lisa Bloom is the daughter of Gloria Allred

nuff said

[SkyDancer]

No more than Obama with his Afghanistan policy.

[DLfromthedesert]

I wouldn’t expect anything less from Gloria Allred’s obnoxious daughter.

[2banana]

"if someone invaded our country based on false premises and murdered 100,000 to a million of our people, as we are accused of doing in Iraq, depending on whose estimate you believe, would we be so sanguine? Would we be so forgiving? Or would we demand some accountability?"

Life sucks when:

You are a third rate country

You support wacko dictators

You invade your neighbors

You gas your own citizens

You harbor terrorists

You support and aid other countries who harbor terrorists

You develop weapons of mass destruction and threaten to use them

You piss off the country with the best military in the world

[muawiyah]

CNN legal analyst Lisa Bloom is just another AlQaida apologists ~ most likely she's been messing around with several of them ~ but we digress.

When the leftwingtards go after the body counts they miss something huge ~ AlQaida intended to kill an awful lot more than the few thousand they succeeded in killing. They wanted to wipe out a good 50,000 people on and near Capitol Hill, another 25,000 at the Pentagon, a good 90,000 to 100,000 people in or near the World Trade Center towers.

Then, their anthrax attack ~ that was proposed to infest much of DC, much of New York and South Florida ~ yielding MILLIONS OF DEATHS.

There are still people in Iraq and throughout the MIddle East ~ going by planned death-tolls alone, reciprocity would have turned the whole place into a glass parking lot.

[Seaplaner]

A CNN headline during Tuesday's 11 a.m. hour of Newsroom asked, "Should Bush officials be tried for war crimes?"

CNN?

CNN?

One suspects most strongly that this emanated from the WH, and CNN is merely the willing accomplice. (No insider knowledge, just a strong suspicion.)

.

[muir_redwoods]

So I gather she would favor extraditing Eric Holder to Mexico to face charges in connection with Fast and Futious.

[Norm Lenhart]

Funny how many imaginary WMDs/nuclear materials/Barrels filled with binary that people serving there actually handled and helped ship back to America though.

Perhaps she should talk to some vets who did it instead of reading her own press.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I wonder if the CNN clowns could be tried for spewing treasonous commie propaganda.

[ThePatriotsFlag]

So sad, my low info voter liberal across the street only listens to CNN ...no wonder.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Kaslin.

CNN legal analyst Lisa Bloom argued that the U.S. should submit to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court for the mass murder of Iraqis that far exceeded the 9/11 atrocities.

Partisan Media Shill ping.

[Rca2000]

What is this diversion about, this time?? I am sure it is to protect the almighty one—something must be ‘getting a bit hot” for him??

[blueunicorn6]

Seems to be a lot of stories coming from the left stream media about Bush and Iraq. It’s almost like they are apologizing in advance for something coming out about Obama and the Democrats. It looks like pre-emptive journalism to make a story about Obama and the Democrats and Benghazi not look so bad.
Dear Fox News: If you have a big story about Obama and the Middle East coming out, one of your fair and balanced liberals tattled it to the liberal media.

[jimpick]

Life also sucks when you violate a cease fire agreement after illegally invading another country.

Or how about trying to kill Former president Gearge Bush senior.

These idiots don’t even remember the Tomahawks Clinton shot at Iraq for that attempt.

[deweyfrank]

I ask if CNN officials should be tried for subverting the facts. They should also be tried for treason for subverting the USA.