Despite Media Blackout, Bugliosi's Book On Trying Bush For Murder Is Bestseller

Bugliosi piercingly requires that we not turn away: "Are there no consequences for committing a crime of colossal proportions?"

I went to see Vincent Bugliosi speak before a crowd stuffed to the sweltering brim of a church fellowship hall in Venice, California, last night. I couldn't help but cry with communal relief, standing at the back of the hall amid the bicyclists and babies. Coming home, I slept better than I have in years. The reason: hope. Not the kind of quasi-soundbite hope of Obama "I'll cave on FISA, I'll cave on Iran" speak, but the real and actual action-based hope that we will be able to yank our country out of the hands of criminals.

Bugliosi's book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, is more important than all of Obama's speeches put together. But we haven't heard Bugliosi interviewed on any mainstream media. Why?

Fear.

Bugliosi explained last night the difficulty in getting a publisher for this book. Normally, publishers open their arms to the famed inimitable prosecutor. This time, he had to fly to New York for one-on-one meetings. Despite the fact that this book would sell, publishers were afraid -- of what? of whom? Bugliosi had to get the BBC to record the audio book -- no company in the U.S. would agree to do it.

Intimidation of free speech comes in many forms, not only in censorship, not only via a Salman Rushdie-esque fatwa.

What is "too-hot" is the truth, the plain truth we must face, absorb and stomach without convulsing. Once faced, the truth leads to its own required action, and its own consequence.

Bugliosi's book lays out the case and establishes jurisdiction for prosecuting George W. Bush not simply for fraud and conspiracy, but in a criminal court for murder. The evidentiary investigation can begin today. The trial can begin the day Bush leaves office.

Bush's bringing the country to war on fraud, on false pretenses is provable. Bush knew that the evidence he presented to the people and to Congress was a lie. He knew that taking the country to war would result in casualties -- at bare minimum more than 100,000 people have died a horrible violent death. Our dead soldiers, most killed by roadside bombs, come back in caskets in pieces. The families are warned not to open the caskets as the contents are "unviewable." By some counts, more than a million people have been killed.

George W. Bush is clearly, undeniably responsible for these deaths -- by the same joint-responsibility rule of conspiracy that convicted Charles Manson. To me, Bush exudes numbing cold-bloodedness every time he opens his mouth. War is not a game. As Bugliosi piercingly requires us to answer, "Are there no consequences for committing a crime of colossal proportions?"

The potential defense argument of self defense won't wash under scrutiny. Bush knew without a shadow of a doubt that Saddam Hussein was no imminent threat. He is recorded in a meeting asking how they could "provoke a confrontation" with Hussein. No human worried for the welfare of his country due to a direct imminent threat would want to provoke said imminent threat into a conflict. George W. Bush asked how to do just that. As Bugliosi says, "Bush was calculating to create a war, not prevent one."

The consequences follow from the law if Bush is convicted: life in prison or the death penalty. Since Bush so proudly exhibits his "tough on crime" swagger -- in his two terms as Texas governor, as Bugliosi points out, he signed death warrants for an unfathomable 152 out of 153 executions against convicted murderers, most of whom killed only one single person -- I would think Bush should be the last one to argue for leniency.

And yes, the whole cabal could be tried, if they were found to be participants with criminal intent. The whole lot.

Bugliosi said the least he could do was to plant forever in Bush's mind this fact: that from this moment forward, Bush will know that one day, perhaps soon -- perhaps when he's playing golf -- an aide may tap on his shoulder and say "Mr. President, you're on trial for murder in Fargo, North Dakota, on Monday and we fly out tomorrow."

On that notion rests the glorious hope that we will hold accountable the people who have wantonly killed over 100,000 people, decimated an entire country, abused our soldiers and scuttled our economy.

The real political story here is the powerful grassroots stamina and determination to see this through. As Arianna Huffington has said, positions that a few years ago were considered the left fringe are now the mainstream sentiments of the American people. Here again, the people are ahead of the media, ahead of the Congress. We are snapping up this book all over the country by word of mouth alone. With the exception of the valiant Democracy Now and C-Span, which covered last night's event, there is a desert of coverage about a meticulously researched case that surely ranks at the very top of the scale for "change." Bugliosi said last night that he'd been told it was now #12 on the NY Times Bestsellers List.

Hear this, mainstream media: we are ready to put the people in jail who have committed these high crimes. Hear this, Congress: this may mean you. We are ready to reassert the laws whose spirit has been absorbed into our consciousness. We are ready to follow through. The primary idea that no human is above the law has grown strong enough roots that this tree won't come down. The many chainsaws hacking away at it will fail.

Winston Churchill once said, "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." We've been a nation agape, hurrying off. No more. We stare it in the bald face. The truth now leads to action. There must be consequence.

Comments

[SACVET]

Hey this business of an insidious type ot censorship promulgated at the behest of corporate interests should come as no surprise. As for really knowing what's going on you can't rely on the corporate media. That establishment wants to treat us like mushrooms, i.e., keep us in the dark and feed us a lot of manure. Vincent Bugliosi says what I've been saying on the sign I hold up at a weekly peace vigil - George Bush is a war criminal. His entire administration is culpable too. Why hasn't the darling of the libertarians, Ron Paul, called Bush this? If he had it would have given his candidacy more credibility. Paul just nipped at the heels of the Bush administration. He didn't have the courage to call Bush what he deserves to be called. Why? Bottom line Paul's as much a politician as the rest of them and wouldn't want to lose votes by doing what Buglioisi is doing.

[Joeyjackal]

How did the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz put it? These things must be handled very delicately. How does one avoid getting tasered like the maladroit journalism student at the Kerry symposium in Florida during question time whose questions were somewhat derived from Greg Palast's book, Armed Madhouse. The student held the largely yellow & red book aloft even as he was being subdued and still the Washington Post in its report characterized it as a "mysterious, yellow book". Never mind identifying the book or the author, just concentrate on the tasing. It sickens me the degree to which the mainstream media distorts the news. I find myself resorting to foreign sources in order to have a broader picture of what really ought to be the news domestically. That's why the Internet is becoming more vital each day. Beware of encroachments and restrictions of Net neutrality because they'll be done in the name of protecting the children. Even that's only partial. I've seen lectures by Noam Chomsky and Ron Paul that I have obtained online that have clearly been excerpted or altered in some kind of auditory fashion in order to conceal or de-emphasize or outright censor content. Here's my question! How does one as an individual encourage truthtelling and discourage misrepresentations by the corporate media? It's challenging to keep your chin up feeling hoodwinked and ineffectual at the same time.

[Sportswoman]

Thanks for posting this story--I wish I had heard about it, for I'd have surely been there. Darn.

I saw VB speak on his last book tour about OJ and had a chance to speak with him. He's terrific and is th Patrick Henry of our day in speaking out for justice as well as in reminding us of our duty to make sure our leaders abide by the Constitution.

I told Sen. Reid when he was at UCLA that I thought Bush should be impeached and lauded Rep. Conyers' job on the runaway Justice Dept. Ofcourse Reid and Pelosi don't want to waste time with impeachment at this late date, but in the words of Dr. King, "The time is always right to do what is right."

There may well be a way to take care of these crooks after the election. While I personally would love to see it happen now, lateris better than not at all. Oh, and. John Conyers--you and Vincent Bugliosi both rock...

[jneems]

"On that notion rests the glorious hope that we will hold accountable the people who have wantonly killed over 100,000 people, decimated an entire country, abused our soldiers and scuttled our economy."

Are we talking about Iraq here, because I thought it was now over 1 million dead, not 100,000.

I don't know if I could read this book. I know Bush is a mass murderer already & don't need any further convincing. It would only serve to really, really irritate me to have to re-visit his crimes.

[Titonwan]

I'm so sorry Ms. O'keefe that I haven't bought this book already. I've been so busy fighting this criminal FISA bill (and many Obama apologists), that I almost forgot about Mr. Bugliosi's article here on the Huffington Post. Thanks to a commentor (kellygrrrl), I hurried right over here and read your very real and courageous take on this. I rank you right up there with Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd as a true patriot (and hero!) of mine. I can't believe this last eight years happened. Like a nightmare with no end. I sincerely thank you for reminding me of his book. America wlll too, once they're awakened from their slumber. Superb.

[kellygrrrl]

Hear this NeoThugs:

we will fight for Justice!!!!!

[RTIII]

First step, January 20, 2009; Take his passport.

[pattio66]

Please let it be so

[TuFu]

Internal exile for those who have acted so abhorrent ly to the rights of free American citizens in the pursuit of war and in the willful and knowing burning of the Constitution in the pursuit of permanent Republican majority rule. Can we make a citizens arrest if an indictment is issued? If so, literally, he could go nowhere in the United States and not be arrested, except for the Secret Service protection. But never let up, ever until the war criminals and authorizers of torture(along with Cheney, Addington, Yoo, Gonzalez) are brought to justice or before a Nuremburg trial that fits the American situation and the American crime. IT HAS HAPPENED HERE and we lived through it. Who are the GOOD AMERICANS!!!!!!!!!! Like the Good Germans who knew nothing of what Hitler did, what was done in their name, and the monstrosity of the concentration camps. Just be thankful, it never got that far but the neoconservative Bush/Cheney ideology of destruction by intimidation, silencing, and stonewalling has laid the foundation for the execution of our us, our freedom, and planted the seeds of permanent tyranny, embedded in the membrane of the supporters of the President, just because he is President. Just like Hitler was Hitler, only another leader.

[outoforwellia]

Well Said!
And my thanks to Suzanne O'Keeffe for having the guts to stand up for Truth and Bugliosi and his Truth. Now, if just ONE red-blooded Prosecuting Attorney in America will stand with Bugliosi and bring this to some Court it would be a hands-down win!

This trial needs to happen, not only to brand and punish those guilty of all the crimes of this war, but also to establish loud and clear that the same awaits any future president and cohorts who ever try this CON JOB on America (and the world) again.

[ScroogeandMarleyLLC]

George W. Bush is (was) our chosen leader (crybabies notwithstanding), twice. We do not criminalize our leader over the vagaries of war.
Ever.
Period.

[Joedlh]

"We do not criminalize our leader over the vagaries of war. "

Is that so?

If by "we" you mean the United States community, then there is still international jurisdiction to consider. Launching an illegal war and other war crimes may be tried in other countries. There is precedent. The criminals running the U.S. Executive branch have been advised to be careful about where they travel outside of the United States. As I recall, Donald Rumsfeld had to leave Belgium in a hurry some months ago when he was informed that he could be detained and tried for war crimes.

All it takes is some few individuals with the same dogged sense of justice manifested by the Nazi hunters to track down the perps and bring them to justice. There is no statute of limitations.

[RTIII]

Too bad they didn't catch ole Rummy...

[RTIII]

He didn't get there legally, twice. Period.

[outoforwellia]

You are right, RTIII, and anybody that has done their homework knows it. I mean their own homework, not words copied from other non-readers.

[BlackbirdHighway]

Well, yes, but that word, vagaries means unpredictable. We're not talking about some unpredictable turn of war here.

We're talking about deliberately lying to the American public, the Congress of the United States, and the people of the world, to start a war of aggression and imperialism to take control of oil resources of another sovereign nation.

There was nothing unpredictable, no vagaries in the outcome of what has unfolded since the invasion of Iraq.