An Iraqi
single mother has assembled an international team of lawyers who are
now asking the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit to
hear her claim that the Iraq War was illegal under laws set down at the
Nuremberg Trials, which govern when and how a country can go to war.
Sundus Shaker
Saleh, through her pro bono counsel Comar Law, filed papers last
Wednesday, May 27, 2015 urging the Ninth Circuit to review facts and
statements made by high-ranking Bush Administration officials—including
former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Richard Cheney,
and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld—in the run-up to the
Iraq War.
On Tuesday, June
2, 2015, an international group of lawyers—including former U.S.
Attorney General Ramsey Clark—filed an amicus brief in support of her
claims. Amicus briefs allow parties who have strong interest in a
case’s subject matter, but are not directly involved, to advise the
court of further relevant information or additional arguments.
This high-profile
amicus filing marks a turning point in Saleh’s lawsuit, affirming its
potential as a watershed for standards of accountability for political
leaders.
The Planethood
Foundation, a nonprofit established by the last living Nuremberg
prosecutor, Benjamin Ferencz, also filed an amicus brief.
"Ms. Saleh alleges
that the Iraq War constituted aggression as defined by the Nuremberg
Trials in 1946. She is asking the Ninth Circuit to review the holdings
of Nuremberg, which it can do, and to apply that law to the facts
leading up to the war. She is convinced, as am I, that under Nuremberg,
these officials broke domestic and international law in planning and
waging the Iraq War," said Saleh's lawyer, D. Inder Comar.
The
international military tribunal at Nuremberg, convened in large part by
the United States following World War II, declared international
aggression the "supreme international crime" and convicted German
leaders of waging illegal wars.
Saleh’s
case alleges that George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Colin Powell,
Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz committed
aggression in planning and waging the Iraq War. Specifically, the lawsuit claims
that high-ranking Bush officials used the fear of 9/11 to mislead the
American public into supporting a war against Iraq, and that they
knowingly issued false statements that Iraq was in league with Al-Qaeda
and had weapons of mass destruction.
In
December 2014, the Northern District of California dismissed the
lawsuit, claiming that former Bush Administration officials were immune
from a civil suit via the federal Westfall Act. Saleh is also
requesting that the Ninth Circuit overturn the federal district court's
finding of immunity.
"Nuremberg
held that domestic immunity was not a defense to allegations of
international aggression. Everything the Germans did was legal under
their law. We are asking the Ninth Circuit to reject the application of
domestic immunity in this case, in line with the holdings of
Nuremberg," Comar said.
BC Guest Commentator Inder Comar, JD is a practicing attorney with Comar Law. U.S. Labor Against the War
is an organized voice within the labor movement for peace and new
priorities working to secure human needs and to demilitarize U.S.
foreign policy. USLAW also brings labor's voice and strength into wider
movements for peace and new priorities in the United States and builds
solidarity with labor movements around the world
