Rights groups file war crimes suit against Rumsfeld

[rodeodance]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L14378286.htm

Rights groups file war crimes suit against Rumsfeld

14 Nov 2006 15:10:12 GMT
Source: Reuters


(Updates with lawyers, former Abu Ghraib chief, details)

By Louis Charbonneau

BERLIN, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Civil rights groups filed a suit with German prosecutors on Tuesday seeking war crimes charges against outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for alleged abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons.

Lawyers for the groups said they did not expect that Rumsfeld, who resigned after Democrats wrested power from the Republicans in last week's midterm elections, partly due to dismay over the Iraq war, will be locked up in a German jail.

"I don't expect he'll go to jail. I think he should go to jail," Peter Weiss of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) told a public presentation of the suit.

"As far as I'm concerned -- and my colleagues agree -- I would be satisfied if he spent the rest of his life in shame."

The New York-based CCR is one of several groups which filed over 300 of pages of documents with the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe, which confirmed receipt of the complaint.

[wtmusic]

1. Why don't they file in the US?

:shrug:

[jwirr]

2. I would like to know if they can file in the US?

[rodeodance]

3. i really have no idea.

[Bassic]

4. Good luck.

They're still trying to sue Kissinger.

[rodeodance]

5. says Germany can prosecute foreign violations of internation law. I do not

know if the US has a similar law.



......A spokesman for the Pentagon said he had not seen the complaint but he nevertheless dismissed it.

"Based on what I know from press accounts, it certainly sounds frivolous to me," spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters at a regular Pentagon news briefing. He said anyone involved in mistreatment of detainees had already been punished.

In addition to Rumsfeld, who ran the U.S. defense department for nearly six years, the suit names 13 other U.S. officials including Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, former CIA director George Tenet and high-ranking military officers.

The groups' lawyers said their case model was former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who has been arrested five times since 1998 due to human rights cases against him.

They filed the suit in Karlsruhe because Germany can prosecute foreign violations of international law under its 2002 universal jurisdiction law.

[colonel odis]

6. if the u.s. were charging someone with war crimes, they'd just go grab them.

then bring them back here. that's how the u.s. operates.

[classysassy]

7. " I vas only following the orders of mein leader"

try that one Rummy,da leader will pardon you.Oh he can't pardon him because of the world court,well shrub is the leader of the world,no problem.