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.
I will do it in protest, but I really really don't want to!
Yes, but the German government could squelch it, which I'm sure Condi is on the line discussing with them.
That's right! Whether it's this German thing or any other trumped-up leftist "charges" against Rummy, foreign or domestic, we cannot sit passively by discussing the news. This is a situation where the power of the conservative internet could be harnassed and heard around the world. Rallies at embassies, UN building, marches, mail-in campaigns, boycotts, stop at nothing to get the message across:
"Keep your f.... hands off our Rummy!"
The German government has nothing to do with this. It's a bunch of looney America-hating lefty Americans who have filed these case. No judge has even ruled on its merits or lack of yet. Literally anyone can file a case on anything. I could file a legal case on you tomorrow accusing you of removing the mechanism that causes the earth to rotate. Until heard by a judge it would have just as much meaning as this one.
He's not an official once he leaves office. That's why they're doing it now, no doubt have had the papers drawn up for months just awaiting his possible resignation.
Usually a pardon is for a crime that has been committed, which is certainly not the case with Secretary Rumsfeld.
Treason is clearly being committed in the media, hollywood, mosques, CAIR, ACLU, etc. I don't mean euphemistically, but real Americans are literally performing treasonous acts.
Why is not the Attorney General prosecuting them left and right? We sent some 19-year old kid to prison after 9/11 and that was it. Is Bush afraid to anger the left, afraid of their counter-attack? Think how much treason trials (legitimate ones) would bring to the average MSM-duped American what is going on here.
Can someone explain, I'm serious, why we are not prosecuting people like Michael Moore, Michael Ratner, etc for treason?
3000 people, many non-Americans, including Germans, English, other Europeans, etc. What about honoring their own dead?
Very well put, lol. My feelings exactly. Mitchell at the UN, an egotistical pencil-pushing bureaucrat as Sec Def, and Nancy and Hillary "really love America". Bush has lost his perspective.
'I have always wondered why families of the murdered never sue the dictators who killed their relatives in World Court.'
That was successful once, against Libya for hijacked flight.
Evidently the humbling effects of an old fashioned ass whippin' only last about 60 years...I say you want him come and get some....again
I got question this is Country that got tick off with Rummy call them OLD Europe REMEMBERRRRR
OMG that so funny ROFL
Rummy stay away from Col Hogan he is one kinky dude he is original Paris Hilton LOLOL!
Hehehe I take it you saw "Auto Focus."
OH YEAH everybody know Col Hogan fav pasttime now I understnd why he want secret photos of German war effort he just learning how do X rated video LOLOL!
Yes...I think it was...
Heck, they don't want to be called OLD Europe because that has bad connotations.
They don't want to be called NEW Europe because that implies no religion, no marriage, living as wards of the sate, unlimited immigration from countries that want to see Europe disappear, caving to terrorism, dhimmiism and requiring men to sit on toilets when they urinate.
We need to find a description EVERYONE can be happy with! Using names can be SOO divisive...:)
OH please Germany is still OLd Europe to me LOL!
I just cannot tell anymore...I have not been over there since 1978, so I am not the best firsthand judge. My specialty is being a SECONDHAND judge...:)
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