Posted on 11/30/2004 9:04:54 AM PST by OSHA
Berlin - An international legal team filed a criminal complaint in Germany on Tuesday against US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top US officials over the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq.
The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Berlin's Republican Lawyers' Association said they and five Iraqi citizens mistreated by US soldiers were seeking a probe by German federal prosecutors of leading US policymakers.
They said they had chosen Germany because of its Code of Crimes Against International Law, introduced in 2002, which grants German courts universal jurisdiction in cases involving war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Civilian leaders liable
It also makes military or civilian commanders who fail to prevent their subordinates from committing such acts liable.
"We filed these cases here because there is simply no other place to go," CCR vice president Peter Weiss said in a statement.
"It is clear that the US government is not willing to open an investigation into these allegations against these officials," he said, adding that the US Congress had "failed" to seriously investigate the abuses.
The Center for Constitutional Rights noted that while several US soldiers were facing courts martial for the abuse and sexual humiliation of prisoners at the US-run Abu Ghraib detention center in Iraq, their superiors looked set to escape discipline.
The complaint names Rumsfeld, former CIA director George Tenet, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Steven Cambone, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, Brigadier General Janis L. Karpinski and other military officers who served in Iraq.
Donald Rumsfeld on down
"From Donald Rumsfeld on down, the political and military leaders in charge of Iraq policy must be investigated and held accountable," CCR president Michael Ratner said in a statement.
The CCR said that the five Iraqis it was representing had been victims of mistreatment including electric shock, severe beatings, sleep and food deprivation and sexual abuse.
It noted that Sanchez and other officers involved in the case were based in Germany.
es macht nicht
So, how many divisions do they command?
Michael Ratner (brother to the charming and scintillating Ellen) is president of CCR and in the two other articles I've read on this subject today, it is he who is quoted on this filing. Read some of his background here:
http://www.humanrightsnow.org/columbia_law_school.htm
See my link down thread. Michael Ratner has been involved in stirring the pot over the years and has caused much mischief as a result.
Indeed it is.
I linked one background piece on him down a bit. But here is another. Just look at the issues he's been involved in:
http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?aid=2356
Germany granted itself "universal jurisdiction"?
As did Belgium?
Do they have the divisions to back up any decision?
The world should accept the moral and legal authority of the biggest butchers of the 20th Century?
What's up with that?
A lot of men would pay good money to be TORTURED that way...lol
I hereby charge and find those individuals guilty of mass stupidity and sentence them to life in the sewers of baghdad. No food or water to be provided, all sustenance is to gather from the sewers. Anyone found assisting these individuals will receive the same sentence. Sentence to be impossed immeidately with no appeal.
Pull ALL the troops out of Germany, and move up the schedule, "F" em
Agreed..."F" 'em all.
but they apparently had no problem with the mass murder and butchery of one Osama bin Laden...
Surely you jest. The Center for Constitutional Rights is a Saddam fan club, just like the Lawyers Guild, the International Action Center, and International ANSWER.
That's the answer! LOL
Exactly why we haven't joined the ICC.
Amazing how the Euros and some neo-comms (neo-communists) in America still are so amazed that we haven't signed up.
Wonder if we can nuke Germany?
I second that.
Who would miss it?
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