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International News Title: Feds Urged To Detain And Investigate Bush For War Crimes OTTAWA -- Amnesty International is calling on the federal government to detain and investigate George W. Bush for war crimes. In fact, the organization says the government has "an obligation" to do it. The former president will be in Canada later this month. "The government of Canada has an obligation to start an investigation into former U.S. president George W. Bush's alleged involvement in, and responsibility for crimes under international law, including torture, while he is visiting Canada on 20 October," according to a press release from the organization sent out Thursday. According to Amnesty spokesperson John Tackaberry, the organization gave the government the lengthy memorandum in mid-September. A 27-page summary will be released publicly next Wednesday. The submission, "asserts that Canada must investigate the role of the former U.S. president in these crimes and secure his presence in Canada during that investigation," according to the news release. Protests and demonstrations greeted former vice-president Dick Cheney, who was in Canada last week to promote his memoir, In My Time. Last month, Amnesty exchanged acrimonious open letters with Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney over the government's plan to deport suspected war criminals who were in Canada illegally. "When I joined AI (Amnesty International) in high school, it was to defend the rights of political dissidents like Andrei Sakharov and to oppose brutal regimes, including those still doing bloody business in Iran and North Korea," Kenny wrote. "I am disappointed to learn you are now squandering the moral authority accrued in those campaigns on targeting one of the most generous immigration systems in the world, and protesting the actions of Canadian public servants applying rules and laws that far exceed our international obligations." Candice Malcolm, spokeswoman for Kenney, told QMI Agency Thursday, "I note that Amnesty International did not seek a court order barring Fidel Castro, who, according to AI themselves, has led a regime guilty of 'arbitrary arrests, detention and criminal prosecution,' as well as 'unfair sentences, harassment and intimidation of critics,' and use of the death penalty for individuals 'trying to flee the island'; or barring the 1999 visit of late Togolese dictator Gnassingbe Eyadema, who human rights organizations accused of operating a 'state of terror.' Perhaps this helps to explain why Salman Rushdie has said that "it looks very much as if Amnesty's leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy," and why Christopher Hitchens has written about the organization's "degeneration and politicization." Amnesty and the Conservative government have also been at loggerheads over Omar Khadr, a Canadian serving time at Guantanamo Bay for killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2002.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
Yeah . . . THAT's gonna happen. Right after Rosie O'Donnel wins Miss America. Or Michael Moore signs up as Weight Watchers spokesman.
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