[quote=“games”][quote]Nov. 14 — Emboldened by the resignation last week of Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, lawyers today asked a German prosecutor to investigate Mr. Rumsfeld on allegations of war crimes, stemming from the treatment of prisoners held in military jails in Iraq and at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The 220-page lawsuit, filed with the German federal prosecutor in Karlsruhe, names 11 other current and former American officials, including Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whom it alleges either ordered the torture of prisoners or drafted laws that legitimated its use.[/quote]
Sorry, but I deny any involvement with this prosecution/investigation and am neither too keen to see them carried out in and by Germany.
I mean … didn’t we do our due back in 2003? Told pretty clear that we did not deem the Iraq adventure all too well conceived. I don’t mean just the elected schmucks, there had also been the peace demonstrators whom one can explain only in part to have been mere “Anti-American Hippies”.
I’d seriously prefer this all to be handled by U.S. courts. Why does Germany now have to get involved in any clean up?
On the other hand I am pretty convinced not much will come around anyways, so I am probably just ranting here.
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[url=http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/09/1444246]Would Rumsfeld stepping down leave him open to prosecution? In 2004, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a criminal complaint in Germany on behalf of several Iraqi citizens who alleged that a group of U.S. officials committed war crimes in Iraq. Rumsfeld was among the officials named in the complaint. The Iraqis claimed they were victims of electric shock, severe beatings, sleep and food deprivation and sexual abuse.
Germany’s laws on torture and war crimes permits the prosecution of suspected war criminals wherever they may be found. Now, the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner, is returning to Germany to file a new complaint.
. . . …
Well, we went to Germany before. Germany dismissed the earlier case on Rumsfeld, partly for political reasons, obviously. Rumsfeld said, “I’m not going back to Germany as long as this case is pending in Germany.” He had to go to the Munich Security Conference. They dismissed the case two days before. What they said when they dismissed it, what they said was, we think the United States is still looking into going up the chain of command, essentially, and looking into what the conduct of our officials are.
In fact, now, two years later, look where we are. One, he has resigned, so any kind of immunity he might have as a vice president [sic] from prosecution is out the window. Secondly, of course, as, you know, a little gift package to these guys, you know, our congress with the President has now given immunity to US officials for war crimes. They basically said you can’t be prosecuted for war crimes. That’s in the Military Commission Act. Now, that immunity, like the immunities in Argentina and Chile during the Dirty Wars, does not apply overseas.
So, now you have Germany sitting there with – there’s no longer an argument the US can possibly prosecute him, because within the US, he’s out. So you have Germany sitting there with a former Secretary of Defense and basically in an immunity situation in the United States. So the chances in Germany have been raised tremendously, I think, and the stakes for Rumsfeld, not only in Germany, but anywhere that guy travels, he is going to be like the Henry Kissinger of the next period.
. . . . .
We’re re-filing it in German courts under their law, which is universal jurisdiction, which basically says a torturer is essentially an enemy of all humankind and can be brought to justice wherever they’re found. So we are going to Germany to try and get them to begin an investigation of Rumsfeld for really a left-out part of this picture, which is the United States has essentially been on the page of torture now for five years.
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My understanding is that Germany has a really good law for trying international war criminals wherever they may be in the world. The U.S. Congress passed a law, Military Commissions Act, which retroactively absolves any U.S. personnel of war crimes committed - i.e., the new torture/interrogation techniques perfected at Bagram in Afghanistan, and Gitmo, and then taken over to Abu Ghraib. I hope the Germans prosecute and CONVICT Rumsfeld and everyone else responsible for the crimes committed against innocent people. War criminals should have no sanctuary.
Bodo
