Product Description

In United States v. George W. Bush et al., former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega brings her twenty years of experience and her passion for justice to the most important case of her career. The defendants are George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, and Colin Powell. The crime is tricking the nation into war, or, in legal terms, conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Ms. de la Vega has reviewed the evidence, researched the law, drafted an indictment, and in this lively, accessible book, presented it to a grand jury. If the indictment and grand jury are both hypothetical, the facts are tragically real: Over half of all Americans believe the president misled the country into a war that has left over 2,500 American soldiers and countless Iraqis dead. The cost is $350 billion-and counting.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #529034 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
By revisiting public statements, official documents and journalistic reports from the months leading up to the Iraq invasion, de la Vega builds a legal case that President Bush and top members of his administration engaged in a conspiracy to "deceive the American public and Congress into supporting the war." Drawing on her experience as a federal prosecutor, as well as the work of scholars and legal experts, she brings a well-honed legal perspective to the issue. She presents her argument in transcript form as a hypothetical weeklong presentation to a grand jury, including extensive testimony from three fictional investigative agents. Despite her somewhat specialized approach, the author clearly defines the legal terms and issues and avoids jargon. If anything, the book feels casual and straightforward to a fault: awkward asides about room temperature and coffee breaks, meant to humanize de la Vega's hypothetical grand jurors, are contrived; in explaining some of her claims, she relies too much on an analogy to the Enron fraud. Still, whenever she focuses on the issues at hand—most compellingly in her final analysis of the administration's spurious claims about Iraq's nuclear weapons program—de la Vega makes a persuasive case. (Dec. 1)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Elizabeth de la Vega, a former federal prosecutor, was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Minneapolis as well as a member of the Organized Crime Strike Force and Branch Chief in San Jose, California. Since her retirement in 2004, she has been a regular contributor to Tomdispatch. Her articles have also appeared in Nation, LA Times, Salon and Mother Jones.

Customer Reviews

Compelling, absorbing and infuriating reading!
I read Ms. De la Vega's book in two sittings -- hard to put down. She makes a clear, easy to read, convincing case that -- as most American's by now believe -- we were defrauded into the Iraq war by Bush and his administration. I am an avid reader of newspapers, so much of the information was not new to me, but it was startingly to see it all laid out. Account by account falsehoods and misleading representations, day by day, lead up to the infuriating conclusion that this war was truly a war of choice.

I disagree with the reader who stated that one's enjoyment depends on politics. This book should be required reading by every American -- our country was lead into war. We need to hold those responsible accountable. There is nothing partisan or political about the legal analysis.

Only quibble is -- as the Publisher's Review quote notes -- the attempts at humor and conversations with the grand jurors seems forced and cutesy. Stick with the facts of your case -- they are an absorbing read all alone.

This book is fact based not opinion based....
I'm not surprised that there are a few reviewers who call the book "anti-bush". I have a feeling the people who wrote those reviews haven't even read the book. de le Vega lays out the facts that any layman with a brain could understand. The facts are all checkable & indisputable. The book is a quick read and for those of us who KNOW this administration should be prosecuted for high crimes and misdemeanors, a ray of hope that something will eventually be done. Instead of "anti-bush", let's call it "pro-justice".

Praise from a Member of a Recently Expired Grand Jury
Shortly after this book became available, but before I became aware of it, I asked the federal prosecutor (or "AUSA" for Assistant US Attorney) we were working with at the time whether we could indict Bush & Cheney. As I expected, the question was not answered. Another member of the federal Grand Jury sharply and quickly asked me "Who would write the indictment?" Ms. de la Vega points out in the first paragraph of her Introduction that writing an indictment of Bush & Cheney is not a smart move for an AUSA to make if they wish to remain employed. Had I known of retired AUSA de la Vega's book, I might have pushed for our Grand Jury to issue our own indictment without the help of the staff of the local US Attorney's office! There just might have been 11 other jurors besides myself who would have voted in favor of such an action... While Bush's Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez would be unlikely to allow prosecution of his fellow Republicans, the issuance of an indictment by a sitting federal Grand Jury would probably garner some interesting news coverage!

Like reviewer Prall, I found a number of small errors in the text, but the criminal behavior is quite clearly defined and there is plenty of evidence to exceed the "Probable Cause" standard for issuing an indictment. On page 48 de la Vega refers to "all 24 of you". On page 238 the Grand Jury is called a "group of 25 people", which appears to be another error unless the court reporter and AUSA are included in the group! Federal Grand Juries (in my district at least) are populated with exactly 23 members, not 24 or 25. Any action taken requires 12 jurors to vote in favor. The odd number of jurors avoids tie votes. Also, my experience was that the only time all 23 jurors met at the same time was on the day of impanelment; the minimum number of jurors required to be present for any business to occur is a quorum of 16. Somebody always seemed to be absent! On some days the start of the Grand Jury session needed to be postponed until a quorum appeared. It was during these interludes of waiting with the AUSA present that questions like "Can we indict Bush & Cheney" could be entertained.

I have long believed that Bush, Cheney, Rice, Powell, and Rumsfeld are criminals. Elizabeth de la Vega provides the evidence and legal framework clearly meeting the "Probable Cause" standard to indict these people. They appear to have committed serious crimes against the people of the USA, and should be held to account.