Berkeley City Council considers role in Rumsfeld war crimes case [View All]

[Newsjock]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/14/RUMSFELD.TMP

The Berkeley City Council was in the spotlight Tuesday night as it grappled with whether to become the first U.S. government entity to support the prosecution of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials for war crimes.

If the council approves the resolution, Berkeley would become a co-plaintiff if Germany files a criminal complaint against Rumsfeld, former CIA Director George Tenet, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other U.S. officials for their alleged involvement with torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.

... Berkeley would join two Nobel Peace Prize winners and about three-dozen human rights groups around the world as co-plaintiffs in the suit, which was filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York and calls on German federal prosecutors to file charges.

Germany has a universal jurisdiction law, adopted after World War II, for prosecuting war criminals.

Councilwoman Dona Spring said she thought the chances were 50-50 that the council would pass the resolution.