BBC and Supreme International Crime

Dear Helen Boaden, director of BBC news
Dear Pete Clifton, BBC news online editor
Dear Mark Thompson, BBC director general
Dear Michael Grade, BBC chairman

I would like to thank you for the BBC News website article “Germany marks Nuremberg tribunals” (Sunday, 20 November 2005)

The article reads:

“BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says the Nuremberg trials set an important legal precedent, which laid the ground for subsequent international war crimes prosecutions and the International Criminal Court. (...) The defendants were charged with the then-new offences that have since become fixed in international law, including waging a war of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity. (...) The Nuremburg cases were also the first time government leaders were held personally responsible for their actions during war. They mostly claimed that they had not known, or were not responsible for what happened.”

On Thursday, 16 September, 2004, BBC News website published the article “Iraq war illegal, says Annan”. The article reads:

“The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has told the BBC the US-led invasion of Iraq was an illegal act that contravened the UN charter.”

The “US-led invasion of Iraq was an illegal act that contravened the UN charter” is exactly the “waging a war of aggression” the BBC News writes in today’s article “Germany marks Nuremberg tribunals” (Sunday, 20 November 2005)

Since both articles are published by the BBC, BBC journalists won’t be able to claim “that they had not known, or were not responsible for what happened.”

Kind regards,
Gabriele Zamparini