INDICTMENT
We call for the indictment of John Bolton for war crimes on the following grounds:
- Bolton’s present role vis-à-vis Venezuela:As National Security Advisor, John Bolton is aiding and abetting the unelected Juan Guido by unlawfully recognizing him as president of Venezuela; Bolton is pressuring the military of another country to break alliance with its government and carry out a coup; Bolton is exacerbating the tensions in an already polarized society to the point where a civil war is a real possibility; Bolton is setting the stage for an unlawful US military intervention in Venezuela. For crime of plotting a coup against a foreign government that poses no threat to the United States, we call for John Bolton’s indictment.
- Bolton on Iraq.During the Bush presidency, when Bolton was Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control, he helped fabricate evidence about weapons of mass destruction that led to the March 2003 invasion. And he is one of the few original advocates for that war who still insist it was justified and has no regrets. The truth is that there was no legitimate legal basis for the invasion of Iraq. The UN Charter forbids the initiation of a war except where a country is attacked and responds in self-defense. Neither of these was the case. Bolton is therefore manifestly guilty of the planning, preparation, initiation and execution of the crime of aggression against Iraq.
- Bolton on Israel:When he was US ambassador at the United Nations, he constantly protected Israel by vetoing all UN resolutions targeting Israel. Bolton praised Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, breaking with decades of international consensus that the disputed city's status must be negotiated between the two sides.
As National Security Adviser, Bolton has supported the Apartheid policies of the far-right extremist government of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu toward the Occupied Palestinians. Apartheid is a crime under the Rome Statute. Bolton also supports the transfer of Israeli citizens into the Occupied West Bank as squatters on Palestinian land, which is the following war crime: “The extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.” Bolton strongly supports and enables a whole range of Israel war crimes against the Palestinian people, including keeping them in a condition of abject statelessness and continually stealing their property
- Bolton on Iran: Bolton promoted the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, a deal that was signed under President Obama’s watch not only by the U.S. and Iran, but also by Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia, and the EU—and ratified unanimously by the UN Security Council. Although the deal was working and even Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said it wa in our national interest, Bolton called the Iran deal a massive strategic blunder.
Bolton is in bed with an Iranian terrorist organization called MEK, a fringe group that was listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States until 2012 and is still considered a terrorist organization inside Iran. Bolton routinely meets with and accepts payments from the group, which has been responsible for the murder of American soldiers, the attempted kidnapping of a U.S. Ambassador, and many violent attacks inside Iran. The MEK is guilty of the following war crimes: “The widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.” John Bolton is guilty of aiding and abetting a terrorist group.
- Bolton hates the United Nations and international law. “There is no such thing as the United Nations, ”he once said, adding, “If the U.N. Secretariat building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a lot of difference.” More than that, he is hostile to the concept of international law, having once declared, “It is a big mistake for us to grant any validity to international law even when it may seem in our short-term interest to do so—because over the long term, the goal of those who think that international law really means anything are those who want to constrain the United States.”
Bolton has long held a grudge against the International Criminal Court. As undersecretary of state during the George W. Bush administration, he signed an official letter saying that the United States would never become a party to the international court. He calls the ICC a “direct assault on the concept of national sovereignty.” Once becoming National Security Advisor to Trump, he used his position to directly attack the ICC, even threatening sanctions and travel bans against those who cooperate with its potential investigations into U.S. war crimes.
It is therefore most fitting that Bolton be indicted by the very institution he so distains: the International Criminal Court.
Take Bolton to the Hague for crimes against humanity!