I was inspired to write this by a similar initiative in Brattleboro, Vt, which passed.  I started trying to get it on the San Francisco ballot for the 2008 election, but then dropped the project because the ballot was too crowded (22 initiatives in SF!).  In the process, I did a lot of research and talked to some lawyers who thought there was a basis for a city having jurisdiction to prosecute war criminals.  I’m considering putting it on the 2009 city ballot.

“To initiate a war of aggression is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”   Nuremberg Tribunal

SAN FRANCISCO WAR CRIMINALS INITIATIVE

WHEREAS the United States Constitution proclaims that all international treaties ratified by the United States are the supreme law of the land, to be enforced at the federal, state and local levels,

And

WHEREAS the United States has ratified the Geneva Conventions, the U.N. Convention Against Torture, and the Charter of the Nuremburg Tribunal, which authorize the arrest of war criminals who violate such treaties when found in the jurisdiction of a signatory nation,

And

WHEREAS George W. Bush, Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, knowing that there was no immediate threat from Iraq, led the United States Military Forces to invade that country in 2003, which is a Crime against Peace under the Charter of the Nuremburg Tribunal,

And

WHEREAS in the course of that invasion and the subsequent occupation of Iraq, George W. Bush, Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld ordered the United States Military Forces to kill countless innocent civilians, which is a War Crime according to the Geneva Conventions,

And

WHEREAS Officers of the United States Army, under George W. Bush as Commander in Chief, and Vice President  Richard Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, ordered the torture of Iraqi prisoners, which is a War Crime under the Geneva Conventions, the United Nations Convention Against Torture, and 18 U.S. Code Section 2441,

And

WHEREAS these afore-mentioned war crimes have been admitted by many high U.S. Government officials and are so well documented as to be common knowledge,

And

WHEREAS, despite the fact that the Secretary General of the United Nations declared the 2003 invasion illegal, no international body has taken steps to hold George W. Bush, Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld accountable for their heinous crimes,

THEREFORE the People of San Francisco, who long for peace and love justice, direct the District Attorney to draft indictments against George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld for War Crimes, to publish said indictments for consideration by other jurisdictions, and to direct the San Francisco Police, pursuant to these indictments, to arrest and detain George W. Bush, Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld in San Francisco and to prosecute them or extradite them to other jurisdictions to be prosecuted.