Google News Alert
Lawsuit Charges Rumseld as War
Criminal
Sat Dec 2, 2006 18:30
Google News Alert for: Military Commissions Act of 2006
Lawsuit Charges Rumseld as War Criminal
Aztlan Electronic News - Los Angeles,CA,USA
... The passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 provides plaintiffs the evidence they needed to prove that the US was unwilling to prosecute Americans for ...
http://www.aztlanelectronicnews.net/content/view/59/2/
Written by Amaury Nora
Saturday, 02 December 2006
On November 13, a coalition of human rights groups filed a criminal complaint in Germany alleging that high-ranking U.S. civilian and military officials committed war crimes in Iraq and in the U.S.-controlled Guantánamo Bay prison camp. The lawsuit will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and thirteen other high-ranking U.S. officials for their roles in authorizing torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. The complaint is brought on behalf of 12 torture victims – 11 Iraqi citizens who were held at Abu Ghraib prison and one Guantánamo detainee and is being filed by U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the French-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Germany's Republican Attorneys' Association (RAV) and others, all represented by Berlin Attorney Wolfgang Kaleck.
The complaint was filed in Germany because under Germany's Code of Crimes against International Law (CCIL), German prosecutors are granted under “universal jurisdiction” to prosecute war criminals irrespective of the location of the defendant or plaintiff, the place where the crime was carried out, or the nationality of the persons involved. The German Code of Crimes Against International Law was enacted in compliance with the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002, which Germany ratified. The idea behind the CCIL was to fill the gaps left by the Statute of the International Criminal Court in dealing with countries that had not subscribed to the ICC. The ICC is the permanent tribunal established to prosecute war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity.
According to CCR, the complaint is similar to their previous complaint filed in November 2004 that was later dismissed by German prosecutors on the grounds that the United States was already pursuing its own investigations into these abuses. In bringing the new complaint, the plaintiffs argue that the new case provides new evidence, along with new circumstances following the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.
The passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 provides plaintiffs the evidence they needed to prove that the US was unwilling to prosecute Americans for war crimes. The Military Commissions Act that was signed by President George Bush on October 17, 2006, attempts to grant immunity to US officials and military personnel by narrowing the grounds of criminal liability under the War Crimes Act; and by retroactively extending a defense for criminal prosecutions related to detentions and interrogations back to September 11, 2001. When Rumsfeld resigned on November 8, he virtually lost all legal immunity from international prosecution for war crimes because the Act only applies during the individual’s term of office.
Along with Rumsfeld, the new complaint also charges that former White House Counsel (and current Attorney General) Alberto Gonzalez, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers are the legal architects of the Bush Administration’s practice of torture. Moreover, now that the "torture memos" have become known over the past two years, there is more than enough evidence to show that the responsibility for abusive treatment at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and the other U.S. facilities did reach all the way to the top.
For more information on the case, visit HTTP://www.ccr-ny.org
======
Masters of War
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/masters_of_war.htm
UPDATE: THE CASE AGAINST RUMSFELD, GONZALES AND OTHERS
— FILED IN GERMANY ON NOVEMBER 14, 2006, Mon Nov 13 00:31
http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/other_pdf/Background_Brief_on_German_Case.html
Lawsuit Charges Rumseld as War Criminal
Aztlan Electronic News - Los Angeles,CA,USA
... The passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 provides plaintiffs the evidence they needed to prove that the US was unwilling to prosecute Americans for ...
http://www.aztlanelectronicnews.net/content/view/59/2/
Written by Amaury Nora
Saturday, 02 December 2006
On November 13, a coalition of human rights groups filed a criminal complaint in Germany alleging that high-ranking U.S. civilian and military officials committed war crimes in Iraq and in the U.S.-controlled Guantánamo Bay prison camp. The lawsuit will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and thirteen other high-ranking U.S. officials for their roles in authorizing torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. The complaint is brought on behalf of 12 torture victims – 11 Iraqi citizens who were held at Abu Ghraib prison and one Guantánamo detainee and is being filed by U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the French-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Germany's Republican Attorneys' Association (RAV) and others, all represented by Berlin Attorney Wolfgang Kaleck.
The complaint was filed in Germany because under Germany's Code of Crimes against International Law (CCIL), German prosecutors are granted under “universal jurisdiction” to prosecute war criminals irrespective of the location of the defendant or plaintiff, the place where the crime was carried out, or the nationality of the persons involved. The German Code of Crimes Against International Law was enacted in compliance with the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002, which Germany ratified. The idea behind the CCIL was to fill the gaps left by the Statute of the International Criminal Court in dealing with countries that had not subscribed to the ICC. The ICC is the permanent tribunal established to prosecute war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity.
According to CCR, the complaint is similar to their previous complaint filed in November 2004 that was later dismissed by German prosecutors on the grounds that the United States was already pursuing its own investigations into these abuses. In bringing the new complaint, the plaintiffs argue that the new case provides new evidence, along with new circumstances following the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.
The passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 provides plaintiffs the evidence they needed to prove that the US was unwilling to prosecute Americans for war crimes. The Military Commissions Act that was signed by President George Bush on October 17, 2006, attempts to grant immunity to US officials and military personnel by narrowing the grounds of criminal liability under the War Crimes Act; and by retroactively extending a defense for criminal prosecutions related to detentions and interrogations back to September 11, 2001. When Rumsfeld resigned on November 8, he virtually lost all legal immunity from international prosecution for war crimes because the Act only applies during the individual’s term of office.
Along with Rumsfeld, the new complaint also charges that former White House Counsel (and current Attorney General) Alberto Gonzalez, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers are the legal architects of the Bush Administration’s practice of torture. Moreover, now that the "torture memos" have become known over the past two years, there is more than enough evidence to show that the responsibility for abusive treatment at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and the other U.S. facilities did reach all the way to the top.
For more information on the case, visit HTTP://www.ccr-ny.org
======
Masters of War
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/masters_of_war.htm
UPDATE: THE CASE AGAINST RUMSFELD, GONZALES AND OTHERS
— FILED IN GERMANY ON NOVEMBER 14, 2006, Mon Nov 13 00:31
http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/other_pdf/Background_Brief_on_German_Case.html
- Article Audio: Skull and Bones — APFN, Sat Dec 2 17:41
- Lawsuit Charges Rumseld as War Criminal — Google News Alert, Sat Dec 2 18:30
- AUDIO: THE CASE AGAINST RUMSFELD, GONZALES AND OTHERS — APFN, Sat Dec 2 20:13
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