CCR (ECCHR) Joins Criminal Complaint in Germany Against Bush-Era Architects of Torture

[Mira]

Germany's Chief Federal Prosecutor must investigate former CIA boss Tenet, former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and others - and should not wait until they are on German soil.

[e-mail]

December 17, 2014, Berlin – The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin has today lodged criminal complaints against former CIA head George Tenet, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other members of the administration of former US President George W. Bush. The ECCHR is accusing Tenet, Rumsfeld and a series of other persons of the war crime of torture under paragraph 8 section 1(3) of the German Code of Crimes against International Law (Völkerstrafgesetzbuch). The constituent elements of the crime of torture were most recently established in the case by the US Senate in its report on CIA interrogation methods. “The architects of the torture system - politicians, officials, secret service agents, lawyers and senior army officials – should be brought before the courts,” says ECCHR General Secretary Wolfgang Kaleck, who is appearing today in connection with the issue in front of the German Parliamentary Committee on legal affairs. “By investigating members of the Bush administration, Germany can help to ensure that those responsible for abduction, abuse and illegal detention do not go unpunished.”




Read more, and I for one weep that we are not on top of this ourselves, the way we need to be after all the revelations:

http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/ccr-joins-criminal-complaint-germany-against-bush-era-architects-of-torture

[countryjake]

1. I feel the same but at least these cases might finally go somewhere, now.

Even if the USA only ends up being charged with reparations for El Masri, that could open the door for all of the many other victims and cost Americans quite a pretty penny. If Macedonia was charged and fined for just that one rendition, imagine how much the USA may eventually have to pay out, if Afghans and Iraqis and all of the others we've tortured come forward. And all those who were (and still are) tortured down in Guantánamo

I'll never grasp why the rest of the World hesitates to extradite the torturing criminals who led our nation into the depths of depravity for so long, when illegal secret renditions were our modus operandi (and possibly still could be happening).

Is there no country left with enough moral fortitude to take the US on or are all of their dirty secrets just as filthy?

I'm dreaming of a Frogmarch Xmas. Every year now for more than a decade.

[Mira]

2. I THANK YOU for this response.

Unfortunately, I am emotionally too wrung out on this subject to do anything but sob in my head.

I wish so much I were really really smart, really rich, really young, and just as mad and sad as I am now without other obligations.
I'd love to set this issue on it's ear and make it hurt.

I see in your post you have twice indicated that some of these atrocities are possibly still ongoing, I worry about that as well.
I am also dreaming of a frog march Christmas, have for as long as you have, and thank you for the phrase.
It's a present.