U.S. Lacks Evidence against Taliban
by Christopher Bollyn
October 24, 2001
International legal experts say that the Bush administration has yet to present
evidence to substantiate its claim that the events of Sept. 11 constituted and
act of war rather than a crime against humanity.
"Even if the Bush administration were to publicly provide clear and convincing
evidence that Mr. Bin Laden and his organization were somehow behind the
terrorist bombing in New York and Washington, the U.S. government would still
have no valid justification or excuse for committing acts of war against
Afghanistan," says Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the
University of Illinois. International law requires a court hearing to determine
the guilt or innocence of an individual accused of terrorist acts, such as Osama
Bin Laden, Boyle says.
Boyle criticized Congress for not creating a panel with subpoena powers to fully
investigate the Sept. 11 attacks. "We are not going to get that investigation,"
he said. "Yet we are waging a war on Afghanistan based on evidence that
secretary of State Colin Powell said was not even circumstantial.
"Even the British government admitted the case against Bin Laden and Al Qaeda
would not stand up in court and as a matter of fact it was routinely derided in
the British press. There was nothing there," Boyle says. "Now I don't know
myself who was behind the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. And it appears we are
never going to find out. "Why? Because Congress in its wisdom has decided not
to empanel a joint committee in Congress with subpoena power giving them access
to whatever documents they want throughout any agency of the United states
government including FBI, CIA, NSA, DAS. And to put these people under oath and
testify as to what happened under penalty of perjury," he says.
Boyle, who helped resolve the dispute between the United States, the UK and
Libya over the handling of the Libyan suspects in the Lockerbie bombing case,
says that the 1971 Montreal Sabotage Convention is directly relevant in the
current crisis. This convention, he says, "provides a comprehensive framework
for dealing with the current dispute between Afghanistan and the United States.
The Bush administration decided to ignore the fact that the hijacking of
civilian aircraft is dealt with under international treaties that deal with
terrorism. "They rejected the entire approach and called it an act of war,"
Boyle said. "They invoked the rhetoric deliberately of Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7,
1941. There was "a conscious decision to escalate the states," Boyle said. "An
act of war has a formal meaning. It means an attack by one state against another
state. Which, of course, is what happened on Dec. 7, 1941; but not on Sept. 11,
2001.
The military assault against Afghanistan was not prompted by the terrorist
attacks against the United States on Sept. 11 according to Boyle. Muslim and
non-Muslim countries around the world are condemning U.S. military actions
because they are not justified under international law, Boyle said.
As I reported previously, the major impetus behind the military strikes against
Afghanistan is to obtain extended access to oil and natural gas deposits in
Central Asia. "The actions of the United States in Afghanistan constitute armed
aggression and are illegal," Boyle said. "Clearly, what is going on in
Afghanistan is not self-defense."
Boyle appeared on the Fox News Channel with Bill O'Reilly on Sept. 13 and argued
for presentation of evidence, authorization from the Security Council, and
adherence to the rule of law. Since the O'Reilly show, Boyle has not been
invited to speak on any prime-time news programs. He said that attacks by the
United States against Afghanistan will result in a "human catastrophe" and
predicted that tens of thousands of people will die unless American citizens
demand that the war end.
Statements by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz discussing the option of
"ending states" is a form of genocidal hate-speech, Boyle said. "I could take
that statement of the World Court and file it and prove it as genocidal intent
by the United States government," he says. "So the longer we let this go on the
more we are going to see our own civil rights and civil liberties taken away
from us."