Human Rights Group Calls for Criminal Investigations of Rumsfeld, Tenet

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB7F8Y7W7E.html

NEW YORK (AP) - A human rights watchdog group wants a criminal investigation of senior U.S. intelligence and military officials who it says may have condoned or ignored the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and other locations.

The report, being issued Sunday by Human Rights Watch, criticizes Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former CIA Director George Tenet for allegedly trying to pass blame for the abuse to military subordinates and individual soldiers. snip

"This pattern of abuse across several countries did not result from the acts of individual soldiers who broke the rules," Reed Brody, special counsel for the group, said in a statement. "It resulted from decisions made by senior U.S. officials to bend, ignore, or cast rules aside."

The report also calls for investigations of Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the former senior U.S. commander in Iraq, and Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, former commander of the Guantanamo Camp.

more

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Justice for those guys isn't going to ever come via the traditional

legal methods, they and their backers have too much power.

[rodeodance]

3. you may be right-but in the meantime I hope this generates some good

coverage (I can dream).

[fighttotheend]

6. its ashame but true!

[MollyStark]

2. Not gonna happen

No one but the lowliest soldiers will ever be punished.

[rodeodance]

4. most people believe the WH lie (over and over) of a 'few bad apples"

[struggle4progress]

7. Is there any evidence that most people's beliefs are as you describe?

I'm sure the Bushistas want us to believe that most people believe that, and of course the corporate media isn't going to publicize much popular outrage -- but that doesn't convince me that most people can't figure out what's been going on ...

[BeHereNow]

8. Of course they realize what's going on...

Trouble is, they secretly approve.
The "few bad apples" story allows them to hide their
own savage souls.
BHN

[AuntiBush]

13. Where I'm at, Most See Straight Throu the Pile of Crap!

9 out of 10. All ages, religions, races, you name it - only a very few are with Bu$h & coherts!

Corporate Media Whore Talking Heads, opining their way into nowhereville, soon I hope!

[Judi Lynn]

5. Outstanding, considering the Army just gave them both a clean slate!

Here's more from the New York Times:

The report found no indication that Mr. Rumsfeld warned those under his command to halt abusive treatment of detainees and said that he should be investigated for abuses under a doctrine of "command responsibility." Mr. Rumsfeld has said he made it clear to subordinates that he did not condone mistreatment.

The report found that Mr. Tenet had been responsible for policies that sent detainees to countries where they were tortured, which made him potentially liable as an accomplice to torture. Mr. Tenet has not addressed the issue publicly, but C.I.A. officials have long said that Mr. Tenet insisted that agency personnel carefully follow the law.

A special prosecutor was needed to investigate these matters, the report said, because Alberto R. Gonzales, the attorney general, had a conflict of interest because he "was himself deeply involved in the policies leading to these alleged crimes."
(snip)

So far, the government has shown no interest in an independent inquiry. Republicans in Congress have blocked requests by Democrats to examine allegations of detainee abuse. At the same time, the Justice Department has ignored requests to appoint a special prosecutor.
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/international/middleeast/24detain.html?

[AuntiBush]

15. It's everybody involved covering their ASSES!

No, this Repuk bunch of Rethugs running our one-time decent government wouldn't show an interest in any independent inquiry, now would they.

Hell, they want to rid our states of Republican judges, calling them liberals.

Oh, since Bu$hit got in office, "something wicked this way came!"

[NVMojo]

9. the link to this story just came out on Reuters and they have dead links

to the actual report. Bummer ....

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/f6f10dbbee1b711c0edf59c2a6ff4c60.htm

[cal04]

10. Demand for Rumsfeld abuse inquiry

The US should name a special prosecutor to look at Donald Rumsfeld's possible role in the abuse of US military prisoners, a human rights group says. Human Rights Watch says the US defence secretary may bear "command responsibility" for abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere. The organisation says others, like former CIA director George Tenet, should also face investigation.

The Pentagon says Mr Rumsfeld did not authorise or condone any abuse.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) released its report ahead of the first anniversary of the Abu Ghraib scandal, which broke in late April last year. It emerged that US guards at the Baghdad prison had subjected Iraqi detainees to torture and abuse.

Some guards have gone on trial but critics say there has been no full investigation into what senior defence figures knew about or even authorised. "The soldiers at the bottom of the chain are taking the heat for Abu Ghraib and torture around the world while the guys at the top who made the policies are going scot free," said Reed Brody, special counsel for HRW.

'Evidence'
HRW said Mr Rumsfeld could be liable for war crimes under the doctrine of "command responsibility" - the legal principle that holds a superior responsible for his subordinates' actions when he knows, or should know, that crimes are being committed but fails to stop them. Abu Ghraib revelations shocked the world and led to trials It said Mr Rumsfeld approved interrogation techniques - such as the use of guard dogs to frighten prisoners and painful "stress" positions - that violated the Geneva Conventions.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4475133.stm

[kimpossible]

11. DU this story on Yahoo news

Rights group calls for torture probe into role of Rumsfeld
South Asia - AFP

Click here to rate it a '5' for the yahoo news top stories list:
http://tinyurl.com/dodsz

then click "back to article" to read it.

[Roland99]

12. Your link is wrong

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050424/wl_sthasia_afp/usiraqafghanistantorture

[understandinglife]

14. Make It Stick. MNA May 2 2005..............

.......www.missionnotaccomplished.us (The.Day.WE.BEGIN.........

[dxstone]

16. Yeah, but whatever happened to trust?

D X Stone
"I LOVE horror movies, man... I just don't want to LIVE in one."

more at
http://presidentevilonline.com

[sweetheart]

17. As well, they should include Curtis LeMay and Robert MacNamara

There's little point in persecuting the clones, when the originals, whom
they mimic, got away scot free. LeMay firebombed 50-90% of the civlians
to death on over 50 japanese major cities. His command also used the
nuclear weapons as well. He killed millions, and would surely had been
tried and executed for war crimes under any rule of law.

[Jack Rabbit]

18. Press release from Human Rights Watch: Investigate Rumsfeld, Tenet

Press release from Human Rights Watch
Dateline New York, Sunday April 24

U.S.: Investigate Rumsfeld, Tenet for Torture

The United States should name a special prosecutor to investigate the culpability of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and ex-CIA Director George Tenet in cases of detainee torture and abuse, Human Rights Watch said in releasing a new report today.

The report, Getting Away with Torture? Command Responsibility for the U.S. Abuse of Detainees, is issued on the eve of the first anniversary of the publication of the Abu Ghraib photos (April 28). It presents substantial evidence warranting criminal investigations of Rumsfeld and Tenet, as well as Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, formerly the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Gen. Geoffrey Miller the former commander of the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

“The soldiers at the bottom of the chain are taking the heat for Abu Ghraib and torture around the world, while the guys at the top who made the policies are going scot free,” said Reed Brody, special counsel for Human Rights Watch. “That’s simply not right.”

Human Rights Watch said that there was now overwhelming evidence that U.S. mistreatment and torture of Muslim prisoners took place not merely at Abu Ghraib but at facilities throughout Afghanistan and Iraq as well as at Guantánamo and at “secret locations” around the world, in violation of the Geneva Conventions and the laws against torture.

Read more

[Jack Rabbit]

19. Link to HRW Report: Getting Away with Torture?

Report from Human Rights Watch

Getting Away with Torture?
Command Responsibility for the U.S. Abuse of Detainees

Executive Summary

It has now been one year since the appearance of the first pictures of U.S. soldiers humiliating and torturing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Shortly after the photos came out, President George W. Bush vowed that the "wrongdoers will be brought to justice."

In the intervening months, it has become clear that torture and abuse have taken place not solely at Abu Ghraib but rather in dozens of U.S. detention facilities worldwide, that in many cases the abuse resulted in death or severe trauma, and that a good number of the victims were civilians with no connection to al-Qaeda or terrorism. There is also evidence of abuse at U.S.-controlled "secret locations" abroad and of U.S. authorities sending suspects to third-country dungeons around the world where torture was likely to occur.

To date, however, the only wrongdoers being brought to justice are those at the bottom of the chain-of-command. The evidence demands more. Yet a wall of impunity surrounds the architects of the policies responsible for the larger pattern of abuses.

As this report shows, evidence is mounting that high-ranking U.S. civilian and military leaders — including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former CIA Director George Tenet, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, formerly the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Major General Geoffrey Miller, the former commander of the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba — made decisions and issued policies that facilitated serious and widespread violations of the law. The circumstances strongly suggest that they either knew or should have known that such violations took place as a result of their actions. There is also mounting data that, when presented with evidence that abuse was in fact taking place, they failed to act to stem the abuse . . . .

Unless those who designed or authorized the illegal policies are held to account, all the protestations of "disgust" at the Abu Ghraib photos by President George W. Bush1 and others will be meaningless. If there is no real accountability for these crimes, for years to come the perpetrators of atrocities around the world will point to the U.S.’s treatment of prisoners to deflect criticism of their own conduct . . . .

This report provides a new look at the evidence made public to date about the role played by senior leaders most responsible for setting U.S. interrogation policies, including Secretary Rumsfeld, CIA Director Tenet, Gen. Sanchez, and Gen. Miller . . . .

Recommendations

Recommendation to the U.S. Attorney General

Appoint a special counsel to investigate any U.S. officials — no matter their rank or position — who participated in, ordered, or had command responsibility for war crimes or torture, or other prohibited ill-treatment against detainees in U.S. custody . . . .

Recommendation to the U.S. Congress

Create a special commission, along the lines of the 9/11 commission, to investigate the issue of prisoner abuse . . . .


Read more.

We have to be pessimistic about implementing HRW's recommendations. Any investigation by the AG would lead to Mr. Gonzales himself, since it is he who, as White House council, wrote much of the legal documentation that supported the use of torture. And Congress can't even investigate the Republican leader's ethics violations, although they are in plain sight of everyone to see. As long as Congress is under contol of Bush's allies, any Congressional investigation will be a whitewash.

[Jack Rabbit]

20. This goes to the top; it's too important to drop to page two

http://www.dw-world.de/dwelle/allgemein/bilder_show/0,3772,109149_7,00.jpg

AP photo from the website of Deutsche Welle

[Wizard777]

21. Our Criminal and Chief

Won't allow Criminal Investigations of himself or anyone in his cabinet. Not even if the Investigations are required by law. Like the NTSB investigation of 9/11. In the event an investigation is forced upon him. He then sets the scope of the investigation to not include him or his cabinet or to allow for a determination on their leadership. The only real way to hold Bush and his cabinet accountable for their crimes is that we will have to load the Government with Democrats with democrats hell bent on bringing Bush to justice or wait it out 10 or more years until people are over their fascination with him. There are no statute of limitations on War crimes or human rights abuses. They can be prosecuted at any time in their life.

[NNN0LHI]

22. kick

[Disturbed]

23. Justice denied.

Rumsfailed Admitted to Violating Geneva Convention

Rumsfailed admitted in public on TV that when CIA Director Tenet requested that an Iraqi prisoner be sent to a secret Afghan/US Prison that Rumsfailed did so. After four months a DOD Attorney stated that this was an illegal act. Rumsfailed then ordered that this prisoner be sent back to Abu Graihib but the prisoner was purposefully not listed at that location, also an illegal act. Rumsfeld also admitted to signing orders for tougher interogation methods which violated the Geneva Conventions.

Rumfailed has commited at least three violations of the Geneva Convention thereby also violations of The Constitution of the USA. Recently it has been found out that even more detainees were "ghost detainees". The fact that Rumsfailed and Tenet have not been charged speaks volumes. If Congress wishes to garner any respect they should move forward with Rep. Rangle's Impeachment Declaration of Rumsfailed and also proscecute Ex. CIA Tenet.



Does the US, Govt., Congress, and the Justice Dept no longer abide by the Geneva Convention or the Constitution of the USA?

[Jack Rabbit]

24. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200

The Palace of Peace
The Hague
Home of the International Criminal Court

http://photos.eatscookies.ca/hague.html

[chlamor]

25. To the Hague Dr. Strangefeld