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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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November 15th,
2006 - Germany Urged to Prosecute Rumsfeld for War Crimes |
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Germany Urged to Prosecute
Rumsfeld for War Crimes By Tony Paterson in Berlin The Independent Published: 15 November 2006 Human rights activists are
trying to persuade German prosecutors to open a war crimes investigation
against the outgoing US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over his alleged
role in abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. In a 220-page document
lodged with Germany's federal prosecutor's office, the US-based Centre for
Constitutional Rights (CCR) alleges that Mr Rumsfeld and 11 other
high-ranking US intelligence and military figures either ordered, aided or
failed to prevent war crimes at both places. The plaintiffs, acting on
behalf of 12 alleged torture victims, were making use of a German law which allows
the pursuit of war crimes cases anywhere in the world, although a similar
attempt to bring charges against Mr Rumsfeld in 2004 was rejected by German
prosecutors. Michael Ratner, the
president of the CCR, said he believed the case had a better chance now
because Mr Rumsfeld was leaving office and could no longer claim immunity or
exert any "political pressure". "One of our goals has
been to say a torturer is someone who cannot be given a safe haven," he
said. "It sends a strong message that this is not acceptable." The evidence against Mr
Rumsfeld and the others is based on statements by 11 Iraqis held at Abu
Ghraib and Mohamad al-Qahtani, a Saudi national held at Guantanamo Bay who
the US claims to have identified as a would-be participant in the September
11 attacks. Mr Rumsfeld is accused of personally approving the abuse of Mr
Qahtani after he failed to crack under routine interrogation. The Pentagon
has insisted that he was not tortured. Ten US soldiers have been
found guilty of abuses at Abu Ghraib. The Bush administration maintains that
they were acting without official sanction. The former US Army brigadier
Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of US prisons in Iraq when several
prisoners were abused at Abu Ghraib, has agreed to appear as a witness for
the plaintiffs. External link:
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1984452.ece |