United States V. George W. Bush Et Al.

By Elizabeth de la Vega

From TomDispatch.com in association with Seven Stories Press

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.

de la Vega reviewed the evidence, researched the law, drafted an indictment, and in this lively, accessible book, presented it to a grand jury. Though the indictment and grand jury were both hypothetical, the facts were tragically real: Even as the war was taking place, over half of all Americans believed the president misled the country into a war that led to over 100,000 deaths between 2003 and 2010 and cost the nation over $2 trillion--and counting.

Take advantage of this rare opportunity to "sit" with the grand jurors as de la Vega presents a case of prewar fraud that should persuade any fair-minded person.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1583227563
• ISBN13: 9781583227565
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.1"

Customer Reviews

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".

YOU WON'T WANTTO PUT THIS BOOK DOWN

This is a compelling book.The previous reviewer is missing the point of the book when he says "this book will not be helpful to you as it is a book about political opinion", and "your like or dislike for Bush will determine whether this book is for you". This is not a personality contest. In her indictment, Ms de la Vega clearly spells out the Federal Laws Bush has violated. This book lays it out in sequence for all to understand, despite your politics.

Pulling it all together

Let me draw an analogy to Elizabeth Kolbert writing in the New Yorker about chimate change, where she lays out a reporter's travelogue rather than making a global warming argument on principle -- but where, after you have finally been carried through the story, you draw your own conclusions quite easily because of the depth of the reporting. That's what de la Vega does for our national trauma since the saber-rattling started in the summer of 2002. This is a quite serious analysis of why a beyond-Enron-scale fraud was committed by Bush et al in their systematic misleading of Congress and the public. Read it and weep. But she does it with an obvious expertise (as an Assistant US Attorney who specialized in fraud cases), combined with the writer's technique of being a flea on the wall of the grand-jury room as FBI agents present the evidence for an indictment. It's not partisan but a just-the-facts organized so that the pattern becomes obvious. The analogies to the Enron fraud trial are particularly telling.

A Spoon Full Of Sugar

A peek into what would be the most critical grand jury room of our time. To the point dialogue laced with humorous banter, serve to crystallize the meticulously researched and documented facts into an enjoyable read. One of the most dire happenings in our nations history that goes by like a "who dun it." Ms. de la Vega's "just the facts Mam" style is void of the shrill and emotional rhetoric that might allow this subject matter to be dismissed as a partisan witch hunt. Readers waiting for the next protest march to begin as well as those waking up from a six year coma should consider this required reading. The service Ms. de la Vega has done with this work is the stuff of true patriotic heroism. I Thank Her, it remains up to the rest of us to see that this is step one not the end of the story.

The story of the century

Whether you are a casual reader just beginning to explore how we got bogged down in Iraq, or a scholar seeking new insight into one of the most disastrous administrations in our history, "U.S. v. Bush" is not to be missed. Elizabeth de la Vega has produced a tantalizing, highly readable analysis of the run up to the war in Iraq. Through the device of a fictionalized grand jury presentation, she brings the story to life without turning it into a flight of fancy. And de la Vega builds a powerful case for greater accountability and integrity in our nation's highest offices. The facts revealed in "U.S. v. Bush" are ones that, for the sake of our country, we cannot afford to ignore.