Bush administration official: Former president commited war crimes, precedent exists to have him charged

WASHINGTON, May 29 (UPI) -- Richard Clarke, the top counterterrorism official for the Bush administration, said he believes the former president, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld committed war crimes in the course of the Iraq war.

"I think things that they authorized probably fall within the area of war crimes. Whether that would be productive or not, I think, is a discussion we could all have," Clarke told Democracy Now! in an interview that will air next week.

"But we have established procedures now with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where people who take actions as serving presidents or prime ministers of countries have been indicted and have been tried. So the precedent is there to do that sort of thing. And I think we need to ask ourselves whether or not it would be useful to do that in the case of members of the Bush administration."

Clarke is not the first member of the Bush administration to accuse the former president of war crimes. In 2011 Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, said he'd be willing to testify against the former president, saying, "I'd be willing to testify, and I'd be willing to take any punishment I'm due."