Tuesday, November 07, 2006
War Criminals Loophole, the Military Commissions Act
The current issue of The Nation has in the comments section a very enlightening article. On Nov 14, a group of lawyers and experts, will ask the German Federal Prosecutor to open a criminal investigation targeting Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, and other key Bush administration figures for war crimes.
Two years ago a similar action was asked for in Germany naming Rumsfeld, brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) a network of 141 national human rights organizations founded in 1922. When Rumsfeld refused to go to a security conference in Munich unless these charges were dropped (since he could have been served, or even arrested) the prosecutor dismissed the case saying that there was "no reason to believe that the accused would not be prosecuted in the United States."
It is apparent that Bush promoting and signing into law the Military Commission Act that it is the intent of the Bush administration to immunize itself from prosecution in the United States.
There was a conference in October in New York about universal jurisdiction, the doctrine of which allows the prosecution for international crimes by domestic courts, regardless of where the crime was committed, the nationality of the perpetrator or the victim.
This new case will draw on the argument that the Military Commission Act of 2006, which the President promoted and signed into law, provides retroactive immunity for civilians who violated the War Crimes Act, including officials of the Bush Administration. According to Scott Horton, chair of the International Law Committee of NY City Bar Association,an effort to block prosecution is in itself evidence of crime.(When Yugoslavia sought to immunize senior government officials, the US declared the act itself to be evidence of such a conspiracy.)
The new complaint will present new evidence showing responsibility for torture and prisoner abuse at the highest levels of the chain of command. There have been few convictions based on universal jurisdiction, but it is believed that such cases might serve as a deterrent to government officials contemplation of torture.
It is apparent to the world that the U.S. is led by terrorists and war criminals.
Two years ago a similar action was asked for in Germany naming Rumsfeld, brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) a network of 141 national human rights organizations founded in 1922. When Rumsfeld refused to go to a security conference in Munich unless these charges were dropped (since he could have been served, or even arrested) the prosecutor dismissed the case saying that there was "no reason to believe that the accused would not be prosecuted in the United States."
It is apparent that Bush promoting and signing into law the Military Commission Act that it is the intent of the Bush administration to immunize itself from prosecution in the United States.
There was a conference in October in New York about universal jurisdiction, the doctrine of which allows the prosecution for international crimes by domestic courts, regardless of where the crime was committed, the nationality of the perpetrator or the victim.
This new case will draw on the argument that the Military Commission Act of 2006, which the President promoted and signed into law, provides retroactive immunity for civilians who violated the War Crimes Act, including officials of the Bush Administration. According to Scott Horton, chair of the International Law Committee of NY City Bar Association,an effort to block prosecution is in itself evidence of crime.(When Yugoslavia sought to immunize senior government officials, the US declared the act itself to be evidence of such a conspiracy.)
The new complaint will present new evidence showing responsibility for torture and prisoner abuse at the highest levels of the chain of command. There have been few convictions based on universal jurisdiction, but it is believed that such cases might serve as a deterrent to government officials contemplation of torture.
It is apparent to the world that the U.S. is led by terrorists and war criminals.
