and i didn't think i'd be needing these anymore... 
Posted on 11/10/2006 11:04:55 AM PST by Tatze
Exclusive: Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse
A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the former Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo
By ADAM ZAGORIN
Just days after his resignation, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The plaintiffs in the case include 11 Iraqis who were prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as well as Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo, whom the U.S. has identified as the so-called "20th hijacker" and a would-be participant in the 9/11 hijackings. As TIME first reported in June 2005, Qahtani underwent a "special interrogation plan," personally approved by Rumsfeld, which the U.S. says produced valuable intelligence. But to obtain it, according to the log of his interrogation and government reports, Qahtani was subjected to forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation and other controversial interrogation techniques.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses who will testify on their behalf is former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq. Karpinski — who the lawyers say will be in Germany next week to publicly address her accusations in the case — has issued a written statement to accompany the legal filing, which says, in part: "It was clear the knowledge and responsibility [for what happened at Abu Ghraib] goes all the way to the top of the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ."
A spokesperson for the Pentagon told TIME there would be no comment since the case has not yet been filed.
Along with Rumsfeld, Gonzales and Tenet, the other defendants in the case are Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone; former assistant attorney general Jay Bybee; former deputy assisant attorney general John Yoo; General Counsel for the Department of Defense William James Haynes II; and David S. Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. Senior military officers named in the filing are General Ricardo Sanchez, the former top Army official in Iraq; Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former commander of Guantanamo; senior Iraq commander, Major General Walter Wojdakowski; and Col. Thomas Pappas, the one-time head of military intelligence at Abu Ghraib.
Germany was chosen for the court filing because German law provides "universal jurisdiction" allowing for the prosecution of war crimes and related offenses that take place anywhere in the world. Indeed, a similar, but narrower, legal action was brought in Germany in 2004, which also sought the prosecution of Rumsfeld. The case provoked an angry response from Pentagon, and Rumsfeld himself was reportedly upset. Rumsfeld's spokesman at the time, Lawrence DiRita, called the case a "a big, big problem." U.S. officials made clear the case could adversely impact U.S.-Germany relations, and Rumsfeld indicated he would not attend a major security conference in Munich, where he was scheduled to be the keynote speaker, unless Germany disposed of the case. The day before the conference, a German prosecutor announced he would not pursue the matter, saying there was no indication that U.S. authorities and courts would not deal with allegations in the complaint.
In bringing the new case, however, the plaintiffs argue that circumstances have changed in two important ways. Rumsfeld's resignation, they say, means that the former Defense Secretary will lose the legal immunity usually accorded high government officials. Moreover, the plaintiffs argue that the German prosecutor's reasoning for rejecting the previous case — that U.S. authorities were dealing with the issue — has been proven wrong.
"The utter and complete failure of U.S. authorities to take any action to investigate high-level involvement in the torture program could not be clearer," says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a U.S.-based non-profit helping to bring the legal action in Germany. He also notes that the Military Commissions Act, a law passed by Congress earlier this year, effectively blocks prosecution in the U.S. of those involved in detention and interrogation abuses of foreigners held abroad in American custody going to back to Sept. 11, 2001. As a result, Ratner contends, the legal arguments underlying the German prosecutor's previous inaction no longer hold up.
Whatever the legal merits of the case, it is the latest example of efforts in Western Europe by critics of U.S. tactics in the war on terror to call those involved to account in court. In Germany, investigations are under way in parliament concerning cooperation between the CIA and German intelligence on rendition — the kidnapping of suspected terrorists and their removal to third countries for interrogation. Other legal inquiries involving rendition are under way in both Italy and Spain.
U.S. officials have long feared that legal proceedings against "war criminals" could be used to settle political scores. In 1998, for example, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet — whose military coup was supported by the Nixon administration — was arrested in the U.K. and held for 16 months in an extradition battle led by a Spanish magistrate seeking to charge him with war crimes. He was ultimately released and returned to Chile. More recently, a Belgian court tried to bring charges against then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for alleged crimes against Palestinians.
For its part, the Bush Administration has rejected adherence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on grounds that it could be used to unjustly prosecute U.S. officials. The ICC is the first permanent tribunal established to prosecute war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity.
"We are in dangerous times....some dark days are ahead."
Indeed we are.
"We are really in for a battle, my friend. The prez is considering George Mitchell as UN ambassador."
WHAT?!?! Are you serious? Where was this reported?
Bush should issue Rummy a full pardon.
They make me sick. The country of Apolph Hitler, they can f^ck off! How dare THEY talk about prison abuse, with the genocide against the Jews on there history.
This program can work both ways.
What does it take to bring charges against Bill, et. al.?
A little taste of their own medicine should serve to stop that line of thinking.
When will they start prosecutions of Mogtada-Al Sadr? At least then they'd have someone in charge of real torture chambers, death, rape, and who knows what else by his band of jihadis!
I believe we don't recognize their juridiction.
Gassing, ovens, systematic genocide, plastic shredders, rape rooms, chopping off of dissidents' hands, airplanes full of people into buildings
= underpants on the head
right.
The Germans are rude. No more military subsidies for them.
Maybe they need a little taste of what happened to the french when they crossed us. No big fan of oreilly but he could start calling for a boycott like he did with the french.
IOW he had to go through what our military puts every new recruit through in boot camp. Poor baby.
and i didn't think i'd be needing these anymore...
F'n A
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGU5ZGEyYTYyMTE4MDE1ZWJiYjRlZjQ3M2NhYWUzNDQ=
Who's Going After Rummy? [Andy McCarthy]
Michael Ratner, that's who. Al Qaeda's chief counsel in the United States. Ratner runs the Center for Constitutional Rights. Read about them here. This is an American — yes, an American — ultra-Leftist organization begun by Bill Kunstler and Arthur Kinoy which is suing our government in wartime for fighting the enemy.
CCR has gone to Germany to sue the American Secretary of Defense, in wartime, for purported war crimes. That's what we've come to. Don't think this is al Qaeda's law firm in America? Here (quoted by Senator Lindsey Graham in the Senate debate over how to deal with detainees), is Ratner talking (to Mother Jones, of course) about what he's trying to accomplish for the al Qaeda captives in Gitmo:
The litigation is brutal [for the United States]. We have over one hundred lawyers now from big and small firms working to represent these detainees. Every time an attorney goes down there, it makes it that much harder [for the U.S. military] to do what they’re doing. You can’t run an interrogation … with attorneys. What are they going to do now that we’re getting court orders to get more lawyers down there?
This is the enemy. I don't give a s*** that they say they are defending the U.S. Constitution. Their purpose in life is to undermine the Constitution and American national security ... on behalf of the barbarous murderers of thousands of innocent Americans.
A law license is not a treason license.
Good idea but the writing was awful. Looks like they just stringed together random words. I guess some people have a low threshold for humour.
"A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the former Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses"
I guess they think the incidences rank up there in Buchenwald and Aushwitz. Give me a break. Trying to assuage a little left over guilt and become part of the new world order. Have they apologized yet for starting two world wars and tens of million dead? Yeah, they have the legitimacy of calling for trial of Rummy. Puhleeeeeez.
The gutless Germans would be speaking Russian today if it wasn`t for the US. Now, the cowards decide that they can decide who commits crimes, no, they have not earned the right to even open their mouths.
Geez Germany, it might be more effective if you had first indicted OBL, after all, he did plan, finance, was responsible for, and did take credit for the deaths of 3,000 Americans on 9/11.
The Left tastes blood in the water and is going to attack full-force. Bush should tell the Germans to piss off, and pull ALL of our forces from Germany. While we're at it, let's pull all of our forces from Europe as well. Let them slaughter each other next time while we watch from the sidelines and eat popcorn. If anybody hits us, we cut loose with the Boomers. F*ck these bastards.
Before you go ballistic on Germany
By Michelle Malkin · November 10, 2006 02:33 PM
Yes, yes, I know, there's a big siren up at Drudge over Time magazine's exclusive on a lawsuit being filed against Don Rumsfeld over "prison abuse."
The German government isn't filing the lawsuit. It's 11 Iraqis and a Saudi who went court-shopping and filed in Germany because the country "provides 'universal jurisdiction' allowing for the prosecution of war crimes and related offenses that take place anywhere in the world." A previous lawsuit was filed on similar grounds and was dismissed. Yes, Germany has its share of weasels. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel isn't one of them and outrage at the country is premature. Calls to close our bases in Germany over this hyped news story are, with all due respect, silly.
The lawsuit hasn't even been filed yet. The Time blurb is a Friday afternoon freebie press release for the left-wing Center for Constitutional Rights--milking Rumsfeld's resignation for all the publicity they can get.
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/006342.htm
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