Update [2005-1-31 16:21:29 by SusanHu]: Early press reports added at end of diary.
I've been waiting for this all weekend after hearing Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights on Democracy Now!, Jan. 28. Ratner hinted at new critical papers to be filed Monday.
On Friday, I contacted CCR's PR people who told me to check the site Monday morning. I've been refreshing their site all morning! Here it is:
GONZALES ADDED TO WAR CRIMES COMPLAINT IN GERMANY; NEW EVIDENCE SHOWS FAY REPORT ON ABU GHRAIB PROTECTED OFFICIALS
CCR Says Attorney General Designate's Testimony before the Senate Confirms His Role in Abu Ghraib Torture
More below the fold:
Synopsis
CCR filed new documents on January 31, 2005, with the German Federal Prosecutor looking into war crimes charges against high-ranking U.S. officials including Donald Rumsfeld: one includes new evidence that the Fay investigation into Abu Ghraib protected Administration officials - it is a comprehensive and shocking opinion by Scott Horton, ... second is a letter that details how Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee confirms his role as complicit in the torture and abuse of detainees in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq.
About the declaration (it's like an affidavit) filed by Scott Horton, an expert on international law and the Chair of the International Law Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York:
In a declaration filed with the prosecutor in Karlsruhe, Germany, Scott Horton, who was asked to consider whether or not the U.S. would conduct a genuine investigation up the chain of command for war crimes, unequivocally states that "
...no such criminal investigation or prosecution would occur in the near future in the United States for the reason that the criminal investigative and prosecutorial functions are currently controlled by individuals who are involved in the conspiracy to commit war crimes." One of the legal issues before the prosecutor is whether the German investigation should be dismissed or deferred so that the U.S. authorities have a chance to conduct their own investigation. The obvious answer from Horton's affidavit is no. The impossibility of an independent and far-reaching domestic investigation of high-ranking U.S. officials coupled with the United States' refusal to join the International Criminal Court make the German court
a court of last resort.
Horton also reveals that a study he undertook of Major General George R. Fay's investigation of the Abu Ghraib abuses (The Fay Report, spring 2004) was in fact designed to cover up the role of high-ranking officials. He reports that "certain senior officials whose conduct in this affair bears close scrutiny, were explicitly `protected' or `shielded' by withholding information from investigators or by providing security classifications that made such investigation possible...in each case, the fact that these individuals possessed information on Rumsfeld's involvement was essential to the decision to shield them."
Horton cited appeals by leaders of the legal profession in the United States and by the American Bar Association for investigation and action on obvious war crimes, and noted that the Justice Department had failed to act. With the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales now looming, he states "any serious criminal investigation and prosecution would certainly involve Gonzales."
Gonzales and Rumsfeld:
CCR Vice President Peter Weiss said Gonzales's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee "demonstrates his involvement in setting policy where torture and inhumane treatment was authorized at the highest levels of the Bush Administration." Weiss pointed to Gonzales's claim that the prohibition on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment does not protect aliens in U.S. custody overseas, stating "this makes clear that Gonzales and the Bush Administration continue to believe that non-citizens held outside the U.S. can be treated inhumanely."
According to recent news reports, Rumsfeld has threatened to stay away from the annual Munich security conference because of possible investigation and prosecution in Germany. Commenting on this development, CCR President Michael Ratner said, "While we think this is nothing more than a tactic to bully the Germans into dropping the case, we also believe that Donald Rumsfeld cannot escape accountability for his alleged crimes."
CCR's actions:
The German Prosecutor was asked on November 30, 2004, by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) to investigate the role of ten high-ranking U.S. officials, including Donald Rumsfeld, in the abuse of detainees in Iraq. Under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction, which is part of German law, suspected war criminals may be prosecuted irrespective of where they are located. In addition, at least three of the defendants, LTG Ricardo Sanchez, MG Walter Wojdakowski and Colonel Thomas Pappas, are stationed in Germany, providing the Prosecutor with another basis to investigate. Plaintiffs in this case are represented by German attorney Wolfgang Kaleck, and include three Iraqi citizens who were abused at U.S.-run detention facilities in Iraq including Abu Ghraib, and the following organizations who joined the complaint: the Federation Internationale des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH), Lawyers Against the War (LAW) and the International Legal Resources Center (ILRC).
The new letter to the prosecutor also cites the recent documents unearthed by CCR and the ACLU under the Freedom of Information Act, a report of the International Committee of the Red Cross, a confidential report by Colonel Stuart A. Herrington of the U.S. Army and numerous other reports that confirm the widespread character of the abuses and the knowledge of high-ranking U.S. officials.
See also:
Take these two critical steps asked of us by CCR (the Center for Constitutional Rights):
- Send letters opposing the Gonzales nomination (unless your senator has blocked your e-mail address for spamming him/her on Gonzales!)
- Send letters calling on the German Federal Prosecutor to investigate Donald Rumsfeld
And here's what piqued my interest -- and had me stalking the CCR Web site all weekend -- in Amy Goodman's interview with CCR president Michael Ratner on
Democracy Now! on Jan. 28:
MICHAEL RATNER: There is actually a lot going on here in Germany right now. There was an article in the Washington Post today that said that the Pentagon denies that he isn't going because of the lawsuit. What I think is really happened here is floated a - it's not a rumor, it may be true he's not going - but floated it as a way of putting pressure on the German government to say: "Get rid of this lawsuit." This is serious business, we're considering not sending Rumsfeld there. But on the high -- on the level of calling them, "No, no, no, this isn't what this is about." And I think what the conferences February 11 and 12, it is the major security conference for Europe, the Secretary of Defense has been going for 40-some years.
My view is we're reaching a point in this lawsuit in Germany where something is going to give. We're filing major new papers, actually, today [they waited until today] and Monday.
One of them, of course, names Alberto Gonzales now as an additional defendant in the case. His testimony is one that really they could have put into a war crimes trial in Germany and said, "You're convicted."
Someone told me this incredible story about Germany and what happened with torture. One of the key people, Keitel, who got a death sentence in Germany was the man who scrawled on a memo to the high command about Russian soldiers that said, "Geneva Conventions? Obsolete rubbish." Remember the word that Gonzales used to describe Geneva, "obsolete". And when they sentenced Keitel to death, what they said was one of the reasons we're giving you the death penalty is for basically saying the Geneva Conventions are obsolete. So this is a very serious issue in Germany.
We hope to have some really big news about this case in terms of our filing next week. But one of the things we've done is add Alberto Gonzales. Again, this is crunch time. I mean, if there's listeners out there who want to support this case or oppose Gonzales, go to the center website, it's http://www.ccr-ny.org. Send a letter to the German prosecutor, send a letter to your Senator about Gonzales.
It's just critical. I mean, we should not be implicated, as Americans, in what our government is doing right now.
Early Press Reports:
CBS News: "
New Woes For AG Nominee?
FRANKFURT, Germany, Jan. 31, 2005
(AP) A group of American human rights lawyers asked German prosecutors Monday to investigate U.S. Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales on allegations of war crimes as part of a requested probe of U.S. officials' actions in Iraq, the group said. ...
"It's as strong a case as you can get," attorney Michael Rattner said in a telephone interview from New York.
The German Federal Prosecutors' office in Karlsruhe did not return phone calls for comment.
German prosecutors have yet to open an official investigation into the original complaint and it was not clear if they would.
Yet Rattner said prosecutors had requested supporting documents for the original filing much quicker than expected.
"That means to me there is pressure from somewhere," he said.
Such an investigation would further strain U.S.-German relations, which suffered gravely over Germany's outspoken criticism of the war in Iraq.
...
Common Dreams
...
From the au contrare side:
Judgment at Karlsruhe at Powerblog
Like the National Lawyers Guild, the Center for Constitutional Rights has made a seamless transition from an alliance with Communism to an alliance with Islamofascism in the name of the United States Constitution. ...
There is much here to chew over, but let us note that today's Deutsche Welle reports "Legal action vs Rumsfeld unlikely." See also Bradley Graham's Washington Post story "Rumsfeld attendance at security conference uncertain."
One question: Whose Constitution do you suppose the Center for Constitutional Rights is devoted to promoting?