STOCKHOLM, December 8, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Celebrated British playwright and Nobel laureate Harold Pinter has dubbed the US-led occupation of Iraq as "an act of blatant state terrorism, calling for prosecution of US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law," Pinter said in a pre-recorded Nobel prize lecture broadcast by the Swedish Academy, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported Wednesday, December 8.

Pinter, who has just turned 75, said post-World War II history was full of examples of Washington exercising "a clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good".

"The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War."

"I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile," he said.

"The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them."

"You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force of universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis."

Forbidden by doctors from going to Stockholm to receive the 10 million crown ($1.28 million) literature prize, Pinter, who has been battling cancer for years, sent a video recording showing him in a wheelchair with his legs under a red blanket.

His frailty and hoarse voice added to the drama of a speech peppered with the potent silences of his plays like "The Birthday Party" and "The Caretaker", which gave rise to the term "Pinteresque". Behind him in the studio was a photo of the London-born playwright in more robust times.

Pinter said Bush and Blair should be prosecuted for their invasion-turned-occupation of Iraq.

"How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal?" Pinter asked.

"One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice," he added.

"We were told that Iraq had a relationship with Al-Qaeda and shared responsibility for the atrocity in New York of September 11, 2001 ... It was not true," he said.

Pinter, son of a Jewish dressmaker in Hachney, east London, is known for his campaigning against the US-led war in Iraq, calling Bush a "mass murderer" and Blair a "deluded idiot".

Pinter is renowned for his exploration of domination and submission, threat and injustice in the more than 30 plays he has written.

The versatile writer, master of the silent pause, has even given his name to an adjective, Pinteresque, which describes a particular atmosphere and environment in drama.

He began as an actor and made his playwriting debut in 1957, with "The Room".

That play was followed by one of his masterpieces "The Birthday Party" and his conclusive breakthrough came with "The Caretaker" in 1959, followed by "The Homecoming" in 1964.