Bush Regime Principals took part in policies allowing for wide spread abuse and torture of detainees
Democracy Now Dec. 12
Under the Geneva Conventions ( see below*) a legal case could be brought against Donald Rumsfeld et al at the World Court at La Hague. These people are war criminals. But being American it appears they are untouchable.
The Arrest of Donald rumsfeld-Dec 11
Afshin Rattansi & Ed Spannaus: The Arrest of Donald Rumsfeld
"The Bush Principals" Approved Torture
Dec. 12, 2008
Bush Administration Top Principals pushed for torture. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Tenet, Powell and Rice all involved, ABC reports.
From MWC: Media With Conscience David Swanson argues that legal action should be taken against all those who were involved in the decision to implement policies which led to wide-spread abuse and torture of detainees.But he realizes as do many that this will probably not happen.
Somebody Should Arm the Senate Armed Services Committee
By David Swanson, Dec. 12, 2008
I've never had any use for the Senate Armed Services Committee before, or even for the idea that someone who was armed could provide a service, but the report on U.S. torture policy that the committee released on Thursday is noteworthy.
...There's nothing new in it. I've read similar reports by lawyers and academics and activist groups with none of the resources of the SASC. The report reaches conclusions we've all known for years: torture has not been the rogue practice of "bad apples," but official policy illegally established by the president and top Bush administration officials in the White House, Pentagon, and Justice Department. This gang requested "legal opinions" as cover for illegalities, produced them, and continued to torture, even while receiving multiple notifications that they were violating the law (as if they hadn't known that when they asked for "opinions" to the contrary).
...Most reports of this nature include a section called "Recommendations." This one does not. Had it included such a section, and had I been permitted to write it, it might have looked something like this:
The House of Representatives should impeach George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney, William Haynes, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, Jay Bybee, John Yoo, and Donald Rumsfeld. The Senate should try them, and if they are convicted, bar them from ever again holding federal office of any sort, and deny them any public pensions or benefits. This can and should be done regardless of whether they are currently in office. Witnesses unwilling to appear or to answer questions should be imprisoned by the House or Senate under our inherent contempt power.
The Department of Justice should create an independent prosecutor to prosecute George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney, William Haynes, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, Jay Bybee, John Yoo, Donald Rumsfeld, Ricardo Sanchez, and Geoffrey Miller.
The Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Justice Department should make clear to the president that we will not honor any attempted pardons of crimes that were authorized by the president. To do so would be to effectively eliminate the rule of law.
The International Criminal Court should open its own investigation and pursue the prosecution of the same individuals. The United States should re-sign and the Senate should ratify the treaty establishing said court.
And now for more on Bush as he prepares to leave the Oval Office.
Union Busting & Bush likes White's only Neighborhood
Condoleeza Rice denies Bush Regime broke any laws in their treatment of detainees.
Condoleeza Rice denies the use of torture or any abuse of detainees. Everything was done she says according to the law and the consitution. As a typical conservative Republican she sees nothing wrong with using "Harsh Interrogation Tecniques " on alleged terrorists. Her view is that anyone arrested or detained after 9/11 whether in Afghanistan or Iraq or picked up off the streets of London England or Berlin, or Madrid must be guilty of something and must know all about the operations of Al Qaeda. Otherwise why would America " The Good " and "The Just " arrests such people. We now know thousands of detainees are abused and or tortured and deny their basic rights. The Bush Regime has again and again broken international laws and agreements claiming these laws and agreements are not binding on America in a time of war. If there were justice in America she and her fiends in the Bush Regime would be publicly disgraced or imprisoned. But then Americans would have to show some guts or a real sense of what is right or wrong which is beyond their abilities except when it comes to questioning the policies of foreign countries especially those countries which are Islamic or Arab or to the left.
George Bush Will Be Moving Into A Whites Only Neighborhood!
Keith Olbermann-Dec. 11 -Bushed Ongoing scandals of the Bush Regime
Did Bush Become President So He Could Destroy America?
http://cspanjunkie.org/
December 11, 2008 MSNBC Keith Olbermann
Chernoff hires illegal aliens who were supposedly screened by Homeland Security Officials yet the illegals were not discovered
Top Homeland Security Official Arrested For Hiring Illegals-DEC. 5, CNN
and once again it is necessary to remind Canadians that our government has also been involved with torture . When the Canadian government deports someone to a country which engages in torture it is then responsible for what happens to those deported. Further the handing over of prisoners in Afghanistan for instance to Afghan forces who are known to torture and abuse prisoners then again Canada is culpable in aiding and abeting the torture of those detainees.
Canadian Officials Directly Responsibile For Torture! Again!
http://cspanjunkie.org/
October 21, 2008 CBC
Maybe if Rumsfeld and Condoleeza Rice & Dick Cheney et al had come clean about the abuse and then put a stop to further abuse they might have a defence but instead first they denied such a policy existed then amended that to that it was only being used in a few special cases but here we are it is now a given that torture and abuse of detainees under the Bush Administration was not a matter of a "few bad apples" but a stated & implementd policies against a larger number of detainees.
The problem with charging these people with a crime is not what Americans will allow because of the notion that whatever a president does is done in America's best interest from torture to extraordinary renditions to invading a country under false pretenses and doing so without a exit strategy while making one blunder after another.Experts around the world have claimed that the invasion & occupation of Iraq combined with detainee abuse and the disregard for the safety of Iraqi civilians has led to a growth in anti-Americanism and has acted as an incentive to terrorists recruitment. But those are just facts and Americans in general prefer to beleve in the myths they have been told about their country that it represents the best in the world and can do no wrong.
Rumsfeld: Torture claims false/26/06/2005 WorldNews24.com
Washington - US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld on Sunday rejected allegations of widespread prisoner abuse at US-run overseas detention facilities.
"The idea that there's any policy of abuse or policy of torture is false - flat false," he told the Fox News Sunday television program.
"People have been instructed to treat people humanely," Rumsfeld said.
The defence secretary pointed out that in instances where they have been prisoner abuse has been substantiated "people have been punished and convicted in a court martial."
Rumsfeld rejected calls from some US lawmakers, civil libertarians and others that terror suspects be prosecuted in the general civilian criminal justice system.
"I'm not a lawyer, but the president and the attorney general decided after 9/11 that putting terrorists into the ... criminal justice system as though they were car thieves or bank robbers or something like that .... wasn't the way to do it," Rumsfeld said.
The US detention facility in Guantanamo has become the focus of passionate debate in recent weeks, following allegations that US forces abused those held in an overzealous effort to prevent potential attacks against the United States like those of September 11, 2001.
Some US lawmakers want the site closed, and others have called for an independent commission to investigate abuses, which US President George W Bush has rejected.
If there was enough of an international outcry there is a possiblity that outside pressure could be put on the Obama Administration to bring these criminals to justice. Failing that if the international community had any real power or desire for justice they would put pressure on the United Nationa and the World Court to bring these criminals to justice.
Here are some relevant passages from The Geneva Conventions for more go to website:
specifically refer to Article 3 of Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War:
Adopted on 12 August 1949 by the Diplomatic Conference for the Establishment of International Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War, held in Geneva from 21 April to 12 August, 1949
entry into force 21 October 1950
Article 3
In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:
1. Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.
To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
(b) Taking of hostages;
(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;
(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.
2. The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.
An impartial humanitarian body, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, may offer its services to the Parties to the conflict.
The Parties to the conflict should further endeavour to bring into force, by means of special agreements, all or part of the other provisions of the present Convention.
The application of the preceding provisions shall not affect the legal status of the Parties to the conflict
and further for instance article 12 makes it illegal to hand over prisoners to any state or authority which will not honor the conventions:
Article 12
Prisoners of war are in the hands of the enemy Power, but not of the individuals or military units who have captured them. Irrespective of the individual responsibilities that may exist, the Detaining Power is responsible for the treatment given them.
Prisoners of war may only be transferred by the Detaining Power to a Power which is a party to the Convention and after the Detaining Power has satisfied itself of the willingness and ability of such transferee Power to apply the Convention. When prisoners of war are transferred under such circumstances, responsibility for the application of the Convention rests on the Power accepting them while they are in its custody.
Nevertheless if that Power fails to carry out the provisions of the Convention in any important respect, the Power by whom the prisoners of war were transferred shall, upon being notified by the Protecting Power, take effective measures to correct the situation or shall request the return of the prisoners of war. Such requests must be complied with.
Article 13
Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention. In particular, no prisoner of war may be subjected to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind which are not justified by the medical, dental or hospital treatment of the prisoner concerned and carried out in his interest.
Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.
Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited.
and so it goes,
GORD.
No comments:
Post a Comment