Franks - War Criminal?

[Supercharts]

"U.S. Commander Faces War Crimes Complaint
By PAUL AMES, Associated Press Writer

BRUSSELS, Belgium - A left-wing candidate in Belgium's parliamentary elections lodged a war crimes complaint Wednesday against U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of American forces in Iraq (news - web sites).

Lawyer Jan Fermon presented the complaint against Franks and a Marine officer he identified as Col. Brian P. McCoy to Belgium's federal prosecutors' office despite recent changes in the country's war crimes law to prevent such charges against Americans."

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=535&u=/ap/20030514/ap_on_re_eu/war_crimes_franks&printer=1

This is rather stupid IMO. Franks was following orders from the CIC - Bush.
Why don't they try indicting Bush? Then it would be totally stupid.

[renata]

Does anyone know more about this law? I remember hearing they got suits against Castro, Arafat, Sharon, Powell, Bush (1), etc. It seems like anyone with a grudge can sue. I think the idea behind the law was good- I believe it was enacted to prosecute perpetrators of Rwandan massacres who fled to Belgium.

Cleopatra, you are a lawyer in Europe- what do you think?

[aerocontrols]

Originally posted by Supercharts
This is rather stupid IMO. Franks was following orders from the CIC - Bush.
Why don't they try indicting Bush? Then it would be totally stupid.


Because they can't. In a recent attempt to indict Sharon, (I think it was Sharon - it might have been Arafat) they (one Belgian court to another, apparently) found that this court cannot indict current heads of state and high officials.

Franks is apparently the "highest ranking" non-high official they can find to prosecute.

Something tells me he isn't too worried.

[Tony]

Here (http://host.randi.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18378&highlight=ruler+of+the+world) is a similar thread dealing with this issue.

[Supercharts]

Why am I suddenly thinking of Freedom Waffles?
:p