These days, Donald Rumsfeld must feel like the world is closing in around him. It’s certainly getting smaller – the aggregate number of countries around the world that he can visit without risking arrest, that is.
Various human rights groups, including the European Court of Human Rights, (who've also charged Bush) and the plaintiff of these particular lawsuits "The Society of Victims of the U.S. Occupation in Iraq" (based in Jordan) have followed the lead of human rights groups in Italy, France and Germany in a judicial attempt to take Mr. Rumsfeld to task for his approval (tacit or otherwise) of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ -- techniques deemed torture -- by the ICC, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and anyone on Planet Earth endowed with a conscience.
The head of the SVUSOI group in Jordan, Ali Qeisi, filed the lawsuits at the U.S. Federal Court System in the states of Virginia, Michigan and Maryland. According to Qeisi, around 30 of the lawsuits have been accepted so far. Let's hope for more.
RAW STORY has the article originating in the Agence France-Presse (AFP)
The torture was systemic, and those responsible for it should be punished and the victims should be compensated he said.
Qeisi said he himself was tortured by US troops in Iraq during a six-month detention, though he refused to elaborate.
Last year, French, US and German rights groups filed suits for torture against Rumsfeld, who was accused by a US bipartisan Senate report last Thursday of being to blame for abuse of detainees in US custody.
Rumsfeld's authorization of aggressive interrogation techniques for use at Guantanamo Bay was a direct cause of detainee abuse there and influenced and contributed to the use of abusive techniques... in Afghanistan and Iraq, the report concluded.
I may be too much of an optimist but I'm still hoping for a prosecutor here in the U.S. brave enough to file charges (either war crimes or 4,2009 cases of murder) against the whole Bush cabal. Because the only miscarriage of justice regarding Donald Rumsfeld being tried for war crimes, in my mind, would be George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzalez and others (Addington, Yoo, Tenet, etc.) not being tried right alongside him.
Peace
Sources:
The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder
Rumsfeld Flees France, Fearing Arrest
Welcome to Italy, Mr. Rumsfeld. You are Hereby Under Arrest for War Crimes
Germany Weighs War Crimes Case Against Rumsfeld
Past Sins Might Keep Rumsfeld From Roaming World