Syrian War Crime Cases Prepped by US Attorney David Crane

World-renowned international lawyer and national security expert David Crane is heading the Syria Accountability Project to hold Syrian governmental and faction leaders accountable for thousands of verified war crimes. He and his group are building war crime cases and trial packages against Syrian government and faction leaders. To date, Crane’s group has verified over 8,000 pages of individual war crimes. Crane is building conflict maps and criminal law matrix to help international, national and local prosecutors in Syria try and convict war criminals. He also has compiled a massive data base and incident index. He even has prepared model indictments against named Syrian leaders. Crane brings a wealth of experience to this effort. He was the lead prosecutor in war crimes trials for the United Nations against Sierra Leone and other leadership in the 1.2 million massacre of its citizens in that 11 year civil war. His work resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia. This was only the second time in history that a former head of state was convicted of war crimes. He also helped create and was the founding director of the Office of Intelligence Review in the Department of Defense. Throughout his illustrious career, Crane has been able to apply the rule of law to chaotic situations whether they are foreign or domestic. Domestically, he is a firm believer that the U.S. Constitution guides everything. He cites that statutes, regulations and policies may come and go but the Constitution is always present with strong guiding principles to follow. Crane is currently a Professor of Practice at the Syracuse University College of Law. He also is a member of the faculty of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism at Syracuse University.