NJ Civil Rights Defense Committee

May 2, 2005

For Immediate Release

Contact: Eric Lerner

973-736-0522

Civil Rights Group Announces Indictment of George Bush and others for

Torture, Illegal Detention and Murder

The New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee announced that it had indicted President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, former President William J. Clinton and other high government officials for violations of Federal and State laws ranging from Deprivation of Civil Rights to War Crimes, Torture and Murder. “We are making this indictment and we are demanding that these individuals be officially indicted by a Grand Jury for these crimes, and stand trial for them.” said Eric Lerner, a member of NJCRDC. “We have demonstrated that there is more than enough evidence to show the ‘probable cause’ needed for these indictments. The justice system must begin to bring these powerful criminals to justice.”

The indictments are in connection with the mass detention without charge of tens of thousands of immigrants within the United States, and of tens of thousands of other detainees, and the torture of at least many hundreds, all held with charge or trial in Iraq, Afghanistan, at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. The laws violated cited in the indictments, which the NJCRDC released today, include Deprivation of Rights under Color of Law (18 USC 242), Conspiracy against Rights (18 USC 241), Criminal Restraint (NJ 2C:13-2), War Crimes (18 USC 2441), Torture (18 USC 2340), and Murder (18 USC 1111). Those indicted are Pres. George W. Bush, Vice Pres. Dick Cheney, former President William J. Clinton, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former CIA Director George Tenet, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Vice Presidential Counsel David Addington, Gen. Geoffrey Miller, Gen. Ricardo Sanchez and Sheriff Jerry Speziale.

The indictments were decided at a meeting April 30 at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, sponsored by NJCRDC, the Graduate Student Association, NJ Workers Democracy Network, Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War, and NJ Anarcha-Feminists. At the meeting, NJCRDC members presented evidence to participants acting as a Grand Jury. “We could discuss only small fraction of the documentary evidence, “ said Stan Organek, another NJCRDC member,” but it was much more than sufficient to show that torture and murder are not the work of a few bad apples, but are policies decided at the top levels of government.“ The evidence demonstrate that the detentions without trial and torture both of immigrants in the US and others held as “enemy combatants” abroad are gross violations of the Constitutional rights guaranteed to all, citizen and non-citizen, by the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the Bill Of Rights, as well as violations of the Geneva Conventions and of the Convention against Torture.

The violations of these rights by government official are crimes under US laws including the law prohibiting the Deprivation of Rights under Color of Law, which prohibit the violation of any constitutionally-protected rights and the War Crimes Act, which prohibits US officials from violating any provisions of the Geneva Conventions. The officials accused have discussed the possibility of their being prosecuted under such laws, notably in a now-infamous August, 2002 memorandum justifying the use of torture.

NJCRDC plans to document on its website (http://www.nj-civilrights.org) over the coming weeks the most important documentary evidence supporting the indictments, some of which has already been compiled by the Center for Constitutional Rights in its indictments of Donald Rumsfeld and others in a German court. The group plans, together with other organizations, to hold a People’s Court Trial of George W. Bush and the other defendants in the fall.

PO Box 353, Piscataway, NJ 08854 http://www.nj-civilrights.org