RSS
Home
Activists demand that Bush be arrested
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Activist David Swanson
Over the past four or five years, peace activists in the Washington, DC, area have called on Congress to impeach President George W. Bush.
Now they want Bush arrested.
An estimated 100 to 150 people held up "Arrest Bush" signs outside the FBI building at 10th and E Streets, NW, on inauguration day as Bush's motorcade drove by shortly after Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation's 44th president.
In addition, a group called AfterDowningStreet.org, which was organized by journalist and local activist David Swanson, is circulating an online petition calling on Attorney General-designate Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute members of the Bush administration involved in torture, warrantless spying, perpetrating an "illegal war," and other possible crimes.
"The Arrest Bush movement is a broad movement," said Jose Rodriguez, who organized the Arrest Bush rally on Jan. 20. "We want to let folks know that crimes were committed and we want people to be held responsible. It's important that a precedent be set by the arrest of the [former] chief executive so that future chief executives know they can't break the law."
Swanson said in an e-mail interview with Examiner.com that Holder "will be hard pressed not to prosecute Bush, Cheney, and their co-conspirators" after telling the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing that waterboarding is illegal and warrantless surveillance is beyond the authority of the president.
Swanson, who wrote the introduction to U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich's book The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush, also said activists have "a moral obligation" to seek a Bush/Cheney prosecution "regardless of the chances of success in order to provide a measure of deterrence .. to future presidents." (See full interview here.)
"We are pursuing local, state, civil, foreign, and international strategies, and we are urging the incoming attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor at the federal level," Swanson said.
Swanson said other events are being planned, including an anti-war demonstration in Washington on the anniversary of the Iraq invasion and another rally in New York on April 4.
Rodriguez said it could take years before anyone from the Bush administration is actually arrested, but he said he was confident that pressure for action will mount as new information surfaces from government documents and books written by former Bush loyalists.
The Arrest Bush 2009 rally held on inauguration day was one step in the movement's goal of educating the public about why Bush and Cheney should be prosecuted. About 30 activists from such groups as CodePink , AfterDowningStreet, and Veterans for Peace set up the demonstration outside the FBI building at about 3:30 a.m.
Ann Wilcox, a Washington attorney affiliated with the National Lawyers Guild who helped organize the rally, said that another 75 to 125 people joined the rally at about the time that Bush's motorcade passed later that morning.
"We're sure they [George and Laura Bush] saw us," Wilcox said. "Everyone held up their signs. I saw Bush turn his head. A lot of people said they saw Bush turn his head. The shouting was really loud. We're fairly sure he saw it."
Wilcox said that Barack and Michelle Obama also walked by the rally and looked toward the demonstrators.
