Berkeley City Council considers role in Rumsfeld war crimes case

[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.

[pinniped]

1. All members of the cabal are complicit.

.

[Freddie Stubbs]

2. Does that include member of Congress who voted to authorize the war?

:shrug:

[pinniped]

5. For starters, take the main cabal members.

Sure, those congrass dummies voted for war, but the cabal was directly involved in torture and war crimes.

[Show_Me _The_Truth]

3. Sorry can't be a co-plantiff

Methinks the Constitution has something to say about local government approaching foreign governments. Only the Federal government has the right to be involved with foreign governments in such a way.

If they have a problem with the Federal government, there is only one place they can go to address it. Anyone wanna guess where that is?

By the way, the Berkley City Council is NOT a US government entity, which implies it is an arm of the US government.

Don't they have potholes to fix?

[sabra]

4. k & r

[Telly Savalas]

6. If a city council isn't being kept busy enough

dealing with issues pertaining to public transportation, roads, law enforcement, parks and rec facilities, waste collection/recycling, health codes, building codes, parking, zoning, property and sales taxes, and education, then it's overstaffed.

[LeftyMom]

7. It's Berkeley.

It's famous for anti-war activism and Cal, in that order. This is absolutely part of the job description there.