Did former President George W. Bush undergo a second day of appearing before a military tribunal? No, that's not true: The Department of Defense told Lead Stories that Bush has not appeared before a tribunal. This claim is one in a series of Bush tribunal stories published by a website known for its fake news stories and satire.
The claim originated in an article published by Real Raw News on December 13, 2021, titled "George W. Bush Military Tribunal: Day 2" (archived here) which opened:
Friday, December 10
George W. Bush had been president less than a year when thoughts of wealth, power, and influence consumed his malleable mind and set him on a one-way path to evil. Influenced by a vice president whose moral turpitude eclipsed his own, Bush converted the Oval Office into a den of depravity, a sinister sanctum where he and his cancerous cabal plotted to kill three birds with one stone, as a modified version of the saying goes. Find a way to legitimize seizing foreign oil while also capturing, and profiting from, the expansive opium fields covering the vast landscape of Afghanistan. He also, of course, wanted to finish what his father had started in Iraq--deposing or assassinating Saddam Hussein. Moreover, Bush felt Americans had too many freedoms, and he desperately sought to curtail the rights and freedoms Americans hold dear.
That was Rear Adm. Darse E. Crandall's opening message, as George W. Bush's tribunal resumed Friday morning at Guantanamo Bay.
Users on social media saw this title, description and thumbnail:
George W. Bush Military Tribunal: Day 2 - Real Raw News
Friday, December 10 George W. Bush had been president less than a year when thoughts of wealth, power, and influence consumed his malleable mind and set him on a one-way path to evil. Influenced by a vice president whose moral turpitude eclipsed his own, Bush converted the Oval Office into a den of depravity, a [...]
Lead Stories has published several fact checks of similar claims about Bush from Real Raw News, including that he was arrested and that he was denied an extension in the fictitious military tribunal. We also debunked an article from Real Raw News detailing the purported first day of the supposed Bush tribunal.
Lead Stories reached out to the Department of Defense via email on December 13, 2021, for information about whether Bush was involved in any kind of military tribunal. The department responded:
We are unaware of any military tribunals with George W Bush.
The article making the claim about Bush's second day appearing before the tribunal contains a number of obvious falsehoods, including a hyperlink to another untrue Real Raw News story that stated that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld committed suicide at a separate military tribunal. The Lead Stories debunk of the Rumsfeld tribunal article is here.
Real Raw News has a long history of publishing false claims in mock news stories, many of them about convictions and executions of various public figures at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. For example, the site reported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was hanged (she wasn't); former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta was executed (he wasn't); and that "the military" convicted former Attorney General William Barr on charges of treason (it didn't).
The website for Real Raw News includes a disclaimer that warns readers not to take its content too seriously. Specifically, it says:
Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. This website contains humor, parody, and satire. We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice on legal counsel.
(Source: RealRawNews.com screenshot taken Tue Aug 3 16:39:48 UTC 2021)
Lead Stories has covered claims published by Real Raw News in the past. Previous Lead Stories debunks of Real Raw News items is collected here.
