Former DC appeals court judge suggests Bush detention policies amount to war crimes.
Former DC appeals court judge suggests Bush detention policies amount to war crimes.
According to a new Human Rights Center/Center for Constitutional Rights report, former prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay and released without charge went home with “psychological and emotional problems” and found themselves “stigmatized and shunned” and viewed either as terrorists or U.S. spies. In a forward to the report, former DC appeals court judge Patricia Wald compared the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody to the treatment Bosnian Muslims received at the hands of their Serbian captors:
The officials and guards in charge of those prison camps and the civilian leaders who sanctioned their establishment were prosecuted — often by former U.S. government and military lawyers serving with the tribunal — for war crimes, crimes against humanity and, in extreme cases, genocide.
Last June, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba (ret.), the Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, also accused the Bush administration of committing “war crimes” and called for those responsible to be held to account.
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21 Responses to “Former DC appeals court judge suggests Bush detention policies amount to war crimes.”
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No kidding...
November 13th, 2008 at 4:38 pmThis is one issue Obama won't touch. It would require spending enourmous political capital, and his agenda would be stymied.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:38 pmthis may be one of those things where Obama has to say that under the previous administration, such heinous acts were condoned, but they won't be tolerated under his administration...
and let the world court of public opinion draw its own conclusions...
November 13th, 2008 at 4:41 pmpersonally, i think bush et.al should be "rendered" as soon as they try to step foot on a plane attempting to leave the country.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:42 pmFiguring that our justice system will do nothing leads to the question: Is there any possibility they could be investigated by other means ?
November 13th, 2008 at 4:42 pmAs these issues work their way through the system, they will wind up in the courts.....bush's cushion.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:44 pmRender the Bushies - to the Hague.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:45 pmAnd those aren't the only war crimes by Bushco. How about attacking another country based on lies? Does that count?
November 13th, 2008 at 4:51 pmYes, indeedy. Even in Paraguay, fearmonger leader can be renditioned to Den Hague...
November 13th, 2008 at 4:57 pmraynman Says:
this may be one of those things where Obama has to say that under the previous administration, such heinous acts were condoned, but they won’t be tolerated under his administration…
and let the world court of public opinion draw its own conclusions…
People who commit crimes have to face the penalties for their actions, or Rule of Law in this country is done and we become a rogue nation.
I would rather see this country enforce the Law rather than continue the slide into the dark side.
Obama cannot ignore laws being broken by the previous administration any more than a DA can ignore and not prosecute a mass murder.
For him to have any credibility in the US or internationally, real investigations must be done and if crimes were committed, then those responsible must be prosecuted.
Anything less and it is just more of the same we have had for the last 8 years and Rule of Law is nothing more than a bad myth.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:58 pmI agree warcrimes. If the Nuremberg laws were applied they would be hanged. I say send them to the Hague and Obama should tell his justice dept to look into it. Let justice be done though the heavens fall.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:58 pmW will look good in orange.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:02 pmOne doesn't need to be a DC judge to know this, just a conscience.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:07 pmIt says a LOT about the politics of this country that someone, even the President, can commit war crimes against humanity and NOT be prosecuted for those crimes.
We need to hang our heads in shame.
The irony of part of this is that Bush's supporters cite the inhuman actions of Saddam Hussein against his own people for one of the justifications of going into Iraq. Yet Bush turns around and apparently does the same thing.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:31 pmYou look at somebody chained up behind barbed wire for years without any form of due process, hear about them being "agressively interrogated" and you know, that's exactly the same stuff that we convicted people for at Nuremburg. It's the same stuff we've decried in Cambodia, the Soviet Union and elsewhere. There's no discernable difference.
November 13th, 2008 at 6:03 pmDUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 13th, 2008 at 6:10 pm.
And yet...
... Silence in the streets.
Impeachment off the table.
Accountability forgotten.
Consequences rendered, none.
Sherwood Ross: Name Members To Committee To Seek Prosecution of Bush For War Crimes
Published on Oct 14, 2008 - 6:25:40 AM
By: Sherwood Ross
If the United States Congress refuses to take action to reign in the Executive they allowed to operate "OUT OF CONTROL" and "UNCHECKED" it is the People's responsibility to act. Should the People refuse to act, they condemn their Nation to a history based on lawlessness. Almost the entire House of Representatives should have been voted out this past election cycle for failing to reign in an Executive they failed to keep in check. The 110th Congress of the USA FAILED to deliver Justice but instead, used that injustice perpetrated as a springboard to campaign on. It's like using the crimes of Jeffry Dahmer to campaign on while choosing to not pursue the criminal.
I DIDN'T KNOW THAT I COULD BECOME THE PRESIDENT OF THE USA AND BE ALLOWED TO BECOME A WAR CRIMINAL BY CONGRESS...
... What a perfect storm of incompetence.
R E M E M B E R:
It is the responsibility of Congress to keep the Executive Branch in check. The crimes of the Bush Administration could have been caught AND punished HAD Congress asserted their Constitutionally mandated responsibility. Instead, the majority of Congress stood down from that responsibility and instead choose to evade that responsibility and produced excuses of evasion, altogether.
WHY ISN'T NANCY PELOSI "OFF THE TABLE"?
After all, she's known of these crimes for years!
... Yet uses ignorance as her excuse to NOT fulfill her Oath of Office.
.
November 13th, 2008 at 9:58 pmBush/Chenney Rice, Perle, Wolfowitz, Yho or whatever that war ciminal's name is..., and all those facist scum in this criminal administration, who lied, who tortured, who approved redition flights, who approved and had secreet meeting in the WH about the use of TORTURE, who approved secret prisions, who are building permanet bases in Iraq and Adeghanistan in order to grab their natural resources, who are responsible for the illegal invasion and aoccupation of Iraq and Afeghanistan that already killed millions and displaced another millions, I hope they get indicted, prossecuted and executed for WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANYTY! HAGUE 2009.
November 13th, 2008 at 10:08 pm#8 misshusseinmolly,
That is the ultimate crime as all other crimes flow from it.
~ There would have been no Abu Ghraib without the crime of war aggression.
~ There would have been no private mercenaries in Iraq without the crime of war aggression.
~ There would have been no indiscriminate rendition or wholesale human trafficking without the crime of war aggression.
~ There wouldn't have been the needless slaughter of close to a million people at the market, at the road crossing, at the Mosque, in the alley, etc. without the crime of war aggression.
.
November 13th, 2008 at 10:09 pmOops, Forgot the linky linky from post #17
http://yubanet.com/opinions/Sherwood-Ross-Name-Members-To-Committee-To-Seek-Prosecution-of-Bush-For-War-Crimes.php
Sry :?
November 13th, 2008 at 10:13 pm#10 Wayne!
I'm with you! A real investigation should proceed and if crimes were commited, they should be prossecuted! That is, if the USA has any interest in restoring its international credibility. Otherwise... forget! I hope for a serious investigation, a serious indictment and prossecution and for the millions of inocent people, including USA's soldiers that have payed with their lives because this criminals LIES, I hope to see them facing execution like any other War Criminal!
November 13th, 2008 at 10:18 pm