Campaigner Fails to Arrest Ex-bush Official Over 'war Crimes'

The environmental campaigner, George Monbiot, last night failed in his attempt to make a citizen's arrest on the senior ex-Bush administration official John Bolton over "war crimes" committed by the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

As Bolton, a former US ambassador to the UN, ended his hour-long discussion at the Hay festival, Monbiot, who had earlier challenged him for alleged breaches of the post-war Nuremburg Principles, moved towards the stage waving a charge sheet.

But security staff, alerted by pre-publicity, intervened and bundled Monbiot out of the tent as 20 supporters chanted "war criminal" and waved placards. The comedian, Marcus Brigstocke, who tried to pursue Bolton as he left the other side of the tent, was also blocked by security staff.

When challenged by Mobiot during the debate to say why - in planning, preparing and waging war against Saddam Hussein - he was no different from "Nazi war criminals" condemned at Nuremburg, Bolton cited Iraqi defiance of the UN resolutions 687 and 678 which underpinned the 1991 Iraq war and ceasefire.

That defiance released other parties from the obligation to the ceasefire, he told Monbiot. "You are wrong as a matter of law and a matter of fact," he said.

In his earlier discussion Bolton defended the right of the US to launch pre-emptive nuclear attacks and to promote regime change or - if necessary - a military attack against Iran in order to prevent it acquiring nuclear weapons.

He also told questioners that, as a lawyer, he was not prepared to offer a view on either extreme rendition or torture of suspects because he had not studied the issues - a claim which provoked dismay.

Monbiot whose second attempt to catch Bolton behind the tent was also prevented, left the scene. Brigstocke told reporters it had been "absolutely pathetic." Bolton should have been willing to test his claims in court.