Rense: War Crimes Act of 1996: Bush, Rumfeld Could Be Indicted For Torture

[Guest guest]

Just another reminder of what an interesting world we live in,

breaking the Geneva Convention banning torture in order to spread

democracy...

 

Misty

http://www..com

 

The War Crimes Act of 1996: Bush, Rumsfeld could be Indicted under US

Law

 

http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2005/10/war-crimes-act-of-1996-

bush-rumsfeld.html

 

The War Crimes Act of 1996, a federal statute set forth at 18 U.S.C.

§ 2441, makes it a federal crime for any U.S. national, whether

military or civilian, to violate the Geneva Convention by engaging in

murder, torture, or inhuman treatment.

 

The statute applies not only to those who carry out the acts, but

also to those who ORDER IT, know about it, or fail to take steps to

stop it. The statute applies to everyone, no matter how high and

mighty.

 

18 U.S.C. § 2441 has no statute of limitations, which means that a

war crimes complaint can be filed at any time.

 

The penalty may be life imprisonment or -- if a single prisoner dies

due to torture -- death. Given that there are numerous, documented

cases of prisoners being tortured to death by U.S. soldiers in both

Iraq and Afghanistan, that means that the death penalty would be

appropriate for anyone found guilty of carrying out, ordering, or

sanctioning such conduct.

 

Here's where it gets interesting. The general in charge of the

notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq stated this week that Secretary

of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other top administration officials

ORDERED that inhuman treatment and torture be conducted as part of a

deliberate strategy.

 

It has also recently come out that, even after the torture at Abu

Ghraib hit the news, torture still continues at that prison and,

indeed, the U.S. is still torturing people worldwide. Even to the

casual observer, it is obvious that the administration has no plans

to stop, but has instead been working tirelessly to make it easier to

carry out torture in the future.

 

Let's recap. We now know that torture in Iraq was ordered by top

officials, and that torture is continuing, notwithstanding the

administration's claims that it was only " a couple of bad apples "

that were responsible for Abu Ghraib. Making a potential prosecutor's

job easier, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wrote a memo in

January 2002 to President Bush saying that America should opt out of

the Geneva Convention because top officials have to worry about

prosecutions under 18 U.S.C. § 2441. By attempting to sidestep the

Geneva Convention, Gonzales created a document trail that can be used

to prove that top administration officials knowingly created a policy

of torturing prisoners, and that such a policy could reasonably have

been expected to result in the death of some prisoners.

 

The U.S. did opt out of the Geneva Convention for the Afghanistan

war, but we never opted out of the Geneva Convention for Iraq.

Indeed, President Bush has repeatedly stated that Geneva applies in

Iraq (although he has since claimed that foreign fighters captured in

Iraq are not covered). Thus, there would be very little room for

fancy footwork by defense lawyers in a prosecution against top

officials concerning torture in Iraq.

 

The Abu Ghraib general's recent statements about torture coming from

the top is an important piece of evidence for convicting Bush,

Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, and a host of other top administration

officials for violation of the War Crimes Act of 1996. Upon

conviction, they could be sentenced to life in prison, or even death.

 

Additionally, violation of the war crimes act almost certainly

constitutes a " high crime or misdemeanor " which would allow

impeachment of such officials.

posted by George Washington at 5:10 PM