Opinion

Back Page Crimes

By DOUGLAS LUMMIS

Feb. 12, 1999: I was driving across the San Francisco Bay Bridge with my sister. On the car radio was the live broadcast of the vote in the U.S. Senate on the impeachment of President Clinton. The second article was defeated about the time we were halfway across the bridge. I wondered if drivers would honk their horns, but none did.

When the impeachment proceedings began, I sent a letter to Senate Republican leader Trent Lott. The letter said, "I will support the impeachment if you add to the charges: misuse of the state's war powers, violation of international law and war crimes."

War crimes?

Example: Last August 20 (just when the Monica Lewinsky tapes were released to the press) U.S. forces bombed a site in Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden, the alleged terrorist, was allegedly staying. It also bombed a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan that was allegedly manufacturing chemical weapons compounds. What legal authority did the United States have to carry out these attacks? Were they acts of war? But the it neither declared war on, nor gave prior warning to, the governments of these countries. So if this was war, it was aggressive war, and a surprise attack, like Pearl Harbor.

Were they police actions, based on the state's right to punish criminals? But it is not legal to punish criminals unless they are tried in a court of law and found guilty. It is not legal to bomb suspects, especially in other countries.

Recently the plant in Sudan was inspected by a team headed by the chairman of the chemistry department of Boston University. The team reported that it could find no trace of Empta, the dangerous chemical the plant was accused of manufacturing. This crucial information was on page 9 of the newspaper in which I read it (San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 9).

Example: Last December (the day before the U.S. Congress was to vote on whether to impeach President Clinton) the United States (and, sad to say, Great Britain) bombed Iraq. The reason given was that the Iraqi government would not allow the U.N. inspection team there to search wherever it wanted. The Iraqi government said this was because the U.N. inspection team included U.S. spies. The U.S. government denied this at first, but later admitted that the U.N. team did, in fact, include U.S. spies.

Since then the U.S. military has been regularly attacking Iraq with bombs and missiles. On Jan. 25 we learned that a residential neighborhood had been bombed, killing 11 people and wounding 59 according to Cable News. (A mistake, U.S. military spokesmen said.)

At first, many thought the true purpose of these attacks was to divert attention from the impeachment. But the real effect has been the reverse. While the impeachment has occupied the front pages of the newspapers for months, William Jefferson Clinton's real crimes — war crimes — have been buried in the back pages.

Shukan ST: March 5, 1999

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