Posted on 12/05/2004 4:24:42 PM PST by NCjim
Germany's federal prosecutors have been asked to launch investigative proceedings against members of the U.S. cabinet.
A U.S. human rights group filed war crime charges against U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior U.S. officials and military officers early this week, saying they were responsible for the torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib.
Even though both the plaintiffs and the suspects are American, the complaint was filed on Tuesday with federal prosecutors at the Bundesgerichtshof in Karlsruhe. The human rights organization, Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), led by its president Michael Ratter, said the case could be tried in Germany based on a law passed in 2002. It stipulates that human rights violations and war crimes can be prosecuted in Germany regardless of where they took place and where the perpetrators are from.
The Abu Ghraib scandal emerged last spring when photos showing U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi inmates were made public. To date, only low-level members of the U.S. military have been charged with abuse.
”In a way, I am here with a very heavy heart. … I would have preferred that our own courts would have taken what happened seriously. … But that is not the case in the United States at the moment,” Rattner said at a news conference in Berlin on Tuesday.
Rattner maintains that senior officials in Abu Ghraib had authorized inhumane treatment and torture and should stand trial. Rattner said that the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush did not recognize international law or conventions.
The organization and its attorneys said that U.S. courts remained idle. The case could not be taken to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, since the United States was not a member of the institution. This was why they took the case to Germany, they said. ”German law in this area is leading the world,” Peter Weiss, vice president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, told Frankfurter Rundschau daily newspaper on Tuesday. The ”world principle” allows war crimes and human rights violations to be prosecuted across national borders.
The claim filed by the CCR also lists former CIA Director George Tenet, the former commander in Iraq, Ricardo Sanchez, and seven other military leaders.
The plaintiffs said it was hard to say whether the claim stood a chance of being accepted by the court. A spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutors' office refused to comment on the likelihood that the case would be heard. German attorney Wolfgang Kaleck, who helped file the complaint, said that it could be a long time before a decision was made. ”That could take years,” he is quoted as saying.
And we would win.
30mm rounds - I have never saw this belt where I work. The 20mm is a sight to see. Thanks for the pix.
>Time to start pulling ALL of our assets out of Germany and demand payment of the war reparations they never paid.<
AMEN and AMEN!!!!!
This idea is based on a JAG episode of a few weeks back, I think... no points for originality ;-)
Is there a law against interfering with the conduct of our armed forces in time of war by attacking our Defense Secretary in a foreign land? If not, we should make it a crime. You want to stop a war, win an election. While the war is in progress, shut the hell up. Our own laws prevent us from violating the law of war, and we will police our own.
Ummm . . . did you read the rest of the article?
Actually the German military treated American and other western POWs pretty much "correctly". Not so their Russian and other eastern POWs though. Now the Japanese are another matter entirely. They were about as far from "correct" as is possible.
The Jews were not POWs. I'm sure there are still a few former inmates of the concentration camps, since some were children at the time, still around to sue their heinies though.
Who pays the court costs? Germany, I hope. Let’s send all our nuts over to Germany and bankrupt the Krauts. What a stupid law. They deserve to get all the fruitcakes in the world.
The F-16 is the Falcon (aka Viper, aka "Electric Jet", but Viper is most popular). The F-15 is the Eagle Only the F-15E variant drops bombs. (in USAF service, other countries have similar variants, Israelis have F-15I, Saudis the F-15S, the Koreans the F-15K, all are essentially F-15Es, with some differences in avionics.)
Well there is this. It's not a regular law, but it is the law.:
Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason,
Art. III, Section. 3, Constitution for the United States of America.
The Punishment that Congress has declared is death. (although lessor Punishments are possible as well)
RATtner. Appropriate name.
I like the way the Germans spelled his name...more appropriate, don'tcha think?
And IIRC, he's the husband of Ellen RATner, who appears from time to time on Fox News.
Mark
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Come 'n get'im, krauts!!!
This ought to be fun to watch.
(Do I see a similar suit being filed against Der Faserland for . . . . . oh, say, World War II?)
Crikeys!!! The world is full of morons and Germany is at the head of the pack!!
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