Posted on 12/06/2004 3:57:38 PM PST by AMBIVILANCEkilledTHEcat
Alleging responsibility for war crimes and torture at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, a human rights group has filed a criminal complaint in Germany against US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top US officials.
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.
It also makes military or civilian commanders who fail to prevent their subordinates from committing such acts liable.
"No other place to go"
"We filed these cases here because there is simply no other place to go," CCR vice president Peter Weiss said in a statement, adding that the US Congress had "failed" to seriously investigate the abuses. "It is clear that the US government is not willing to open an investigation into these allegations against these officials."
The Center for Constitutional Rights noted that while several US soldiers were facing court 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.
Five victims part of the case
"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 issued in Frankfurt, Germany.
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. Germany's federal prosecutor now has to decide whether the case warrants further investigation.
DW staff/AFP (win)
Do you have the guts to engage in any conversation, or will you be like the rest of the democrats who believe the charges are greater than any actual proof?
I dare you to debate even one of us, coward.
pucker up!!! because the door is about to hit ya where the good Lord split ya!!!
While the poster is certainly a troll, the issue itself is kind of disturbing. The whole "war crimes" is a concept I believe needs to be abolished since it is so easily abused.
Upper class white American males don't say "Cheers all".
"Ambivilance"? Using a lance with both hands? GET OUTTA HERE UNTIL YOU LEARN HOW TO SPELL!!!!!!
I love the " I'm a upper class male " crap....
In reality, your a soon-to-be-zotted-TROLL
And, Trools always get the zotting they deserve!
Go back to the DU cave from which your skank A$$ came from!
CCR can eat me
In before the ZOT.
Substitude "you're" for "your"
Mea maxima culpa
Neither are tumors.
Come get some before he is turned into a puddle of reddish goo!
I like that second poster, it shows the differences very well.
There's got to be a special place in hell for people who send children out to attack troops knowing full well that they have sent that child to his doom.
Welcome to FR. Now where's my midol?
Perhaps it's just me, but after two wars started by a nation in which all many of attrocities were committed, it seems more than a little circumspect to have them try to judge others.
Absurdity knows no limits.
Such a short stay for one so misinformed. Too bad trolls lack the thing called intestinal fortitude to stick around and take the drubbing they so richly deserve.
Welcome to FR.
Do cats make you sneeze?
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