Politics

George W. Bush has cancelled a planned trip to Europe after reports emerged that authorities may have been planning on arresting him.  Bush was due to speak at the United Israel Appeal in Switzerland this week, but the event got cancelled due to several human rights groups calling on Swiss authorities to investigate and arrest the former U.S. president for authorizing torture. Wearechange.org reports: The Swiss group and Bush’s spokesman claim that it was threats of protest, not of legal action, that prompted the cancellation. But facing protests is nothing new for Bush.

Czech President Milos Zeman has called the migrant crisis in Europe “an organised invasion”, saying that young men arriving into Europe from Syria and Iraq should instead fight ISIS.  “I am profoundly convinced that we are facing an organised invasion and not a spontaneous movement of refugees,” Zeman said in a Christmas message on Saturday. Yahoo News reports: He went on to say that compassion was “possible” for refugees who are old or sick and for children, but not for young men who in his view should be back home fighting against jihadists.

One of the most amusing things about Russia’s headlong plunge into Syria’s five-year conflict is the extent to which it effectively represented Moscow calling time on Washington’s strategy of seeking to bring about regime change in the Mid-East by intentionally destabilizing otherwise strong (if not always benign) governments.

A court of appeals in America has finally ruled that members of the Bush administration can be held accountable for war crimes committed in the name of the so called  ‘war on terror.’ True Activist reports: Years ago, the case of Turkmen Vs. Ashcroft set the precedent that the Bush administration could be held accountable for the actions that it took to harm innocent people during the war on terror. However, the case has been in limbo for several years as constant appeals have been filed against the ruling.

Submitted by Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org,