Exclusive to Time Magazine:
ADAM ZAGORIN
Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse
A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the outgoing Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and GitmoBay.
We may not be fond of foreign governments prosecuting American officials but in the case of the extremely illegal prosecution of this war it seems fully justifiable to me. Beyond that I think the newly elected Democratic Congress has a mandate to hold hearings, investigate and hold accountable all officials in the Bush administration , including, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush who violated the U.S. Constitution, federal law and international treaties. We must send a strong message to anyone in the future who holds the Ofiice of President of the United States that they are not above the law. George W. Bush should be Impeached, removed from office and prosecuted for his crimes.
"The utter and complete failure of U.S. authorities to take any action to investigate high-level involvement in the torture program could not be clearer," says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a U.S.-based non-profit helping to bring the legal action in Germany. He also notes that the Military Commissions Act, a law passed by Congress earlier this year, effectively blocks prosecution in the U.S. of those involved in detention and interrogation abuses of foreigners held abroad in American custody going to back to Sept. 11, 2001. As a result, Ratner contends, the legal arguments underlying the German prosecutor's previous inaction no longer hold up.
Whatever the legal merits of the case, it is the latest example of efforts in Western Europe by critics of U.S. tactics in the war on terror to call those involved to account in court. In Germany, investigations are under way in parliament concerning cooperation between the CIA and German intelligence on rendition — the kidnapping of suspected terrorists and their removal to third countries for interrogation. Other legal inquiries involving rendition are under way in both Italy and Spain.
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