You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Home Front: WoT
HRW demands yet another Rumsfled inquiry
2005-04-24
The US should name a special prosecutor to look at Donald Rumsfeld's possible role in the abuse of US military prisoners, a human rights group says. Human Rights Watch says the US defence secretary may bear "command responsibility" for abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere. The organisation says others, like former CIA director George Tenet, should also face investigation.
They want pretty much everyone investigated except Saddam.
The Pentagon says Mr Rumsfeld did not authorise or condone any abuse.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released its report ahead of the first anniversary of the Abu Ghraib scandal, which broke in late April last year. Some guards have gone on trial but critics say there has been no full investigation into what senior defence figures knew about or even authorised. "The soldiers at the bottom of the chain are taking the heat for Abu Ghraib and torture around the world while the guys at the top who made the policies are going scot free," said Reed Brody, special counsel for HRW.
Ever consider the idea that the guys at the top didn't know?
HRW said Mr Rumsfeld could be liable for war crimes under the doctrine of "command responsibility" - the legal principle that holds a superior responsible for his subordinates' actions when he knows, or should know, that crimes are being committed but fails to stop them.

It said Mr Rumsfeld approved interrogation techniques - such as the use of guard dogs to frighten prisoners and painful "stress" positions - that they claim violated the Geneva Conventions. It said the investigation should not be carried out by justice department officials because Attorney General Alberto Gonzales himself had a role in approving interrogation techniques.

It called on Congress and the president to establish a special commission and appoint a special prosecutor.
Except that we no longer have a law to permit a special prosecutor.
HRW says it has "substantial evidence warranting criminal investigations" into Mr Rumsfeld, Mr Tenet, Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, the former senior commander in Iraq, and Gen Geoffrey Miller, former commander of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.
Which for some reason can't stand the light of day.
Mr Rumsfeld is already being sued by two civil liberties groups on behalf of eight men who claim to have been abused by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. A Pentagon spokesman said HRW's allegations were "kookie, but nothing we haven't heard before" "frivolous and unsubstantiated".

Lt Cdr Flex Plexico said US policy requires that all detainees be treated humanely and that any credible allegations of illegal conduct are investigated. "There is nothing in the detention or interrogation policies established by Secretary Rumsfeld or the defence department that even remotely qualifies as torture," he told the BBC News website. "Secretary Rumsfeld has repeatedly condemned any abuse or mistreatment of detainees."
Posted by:Steve White

#3  SPoD - totally agree with you. I can't *stand* the shite that comes out of the BBC, their latest stunt is to plant activists in a conservative rally and chant anti-Tory and pro-Labour slogans - in a General Election campaign. Outrageous!

As for HRW, it seems that some humans are more equal than others (ie the poor sods that died in the thousands under Saddams rule are as nothing compared to the few that were 'brutally mistreated' by the US). Bastards.
Posted by: Tony (UK)   2005-04-24 12:42:12 PM  

#2  painful "stress" positions

Sounds like the 'Green Bench' and other assorted fun I had pledging my fraternity back in the day. Sod off, HRW swampies...
Posted by: Raj   2005-04-24 11:43:28 AM  

#1  ...he told the BBC News website...

That's all you need to know more of the typical anti-US socialist crap passed of as news from the UK. Stuff it you pansies, I am totally sick of your "our shit doesn't stink" act.

HRW are enemies of human kind. Treat them as such.
If it was up to HRW and the BBC Saddam would still be filling graves.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom   2005-04-24 1:10:46 AM  

00:00