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It’s something that has certainly been spoken of within the liberal blogosphere. I’ve seen the random bumpersticker or freeway blogger suggest it as well, but it is no longer something that can be written off as a partisan or extremist view. As Countdown guest host Rachel Maddow and George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley discuss on Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross sent a report last year to the CIA saying that the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo was unquestionably torture and the Bush administration officials that approved the treatment are war criminals.
Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret report that the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation methods for high-level Qaeda prisoners constituted torture and could make the Bush administration officials who approved them guilty of war crimes, according to a new book on counterterrorism efforts since 2001.[..]
The book, “The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals,” by Jane Mayer, who writes about counterterrorism for The New Yorker, offers new details of the agency’s secret detention program, as well as the bitter debates in the administration over interrogation methods and other tactics in the campaign against Al Qaeda.[..]
Citing unnamed “sources familiar with the report,” Ms. Mayer wrote that the Red Cross document “warned that the abuse constituted war crimes, placing the highest officials in the U.S. government in jeopardy of being prosecuted.” Red Cross representatives were not permitted access to the secret prisons where the C.I.A. conducted interrogations, but were permitted to interview Abu Zubaydah and other high-level detainees in late 2006, after they were moved to the military detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The book says the C.I.A. shared the report, which Ms. Mayer first described last year in less detail in The New Yorker, with President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
No Trackbacks To “International Committee of Red Cross Says Bush Administration Guilty of War Crimes“
it had to go public sometime.
This is one evil regime.
CoIntelPro for Pronktastic Democratic Victory Over SCLM, DIEBOLD, ESS and SEQUOIA! @ 1:
Haha, I was waiting for it too! Poor Turley looks so let down. Too bad someone can’t give him the gift of Impeachment for Christmas.
Just one thing…
Please don’t expect The Hague to prosecute your war criminals. At least not until you revoke the ‘Hague Invasion Act’.
http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/08/aspa080302.htm
Signed by your President Bush in august 2002.
Could this have been planned?
Anyone else find it odd the Red Cross gives it’s reports to the government, but doesn’t publicly tell anyone? I did not know the Red Cross was a governmental branch. Who is the real criminal here? The one’s committing the acts, or the one’s that know and say nothing?
Let the war crimes tribunal begin.
I think the International Red Cross just earned a contribution check from me.
Nancy, do you see what’s going on? Aren’t you tired of covering up the crimes of this murderous administration? Or, are you afraid to open that Pandora’s box of impeachment because it will implicate your own abeting of war crimes?
You can run but you can’t hide. Someday the truth of your involvement will come out and it’s going to piss people off.
Well duh. But so is Pelosi for taking impeachment off the table.
Well, they have shat upon our Constitution; and broken just about every international law on the books. They would probably be working on destroying intergalactic law if they’re were intelligent interstellar lifeforms we interacted with.
When it comes to cronism and corruption, the heavens are the limit with BushCo.
May impeachment and BushCo’s later prosecution for war crimes be swift and thorough.
It’s nice to see that link, but I doubt that any US news outlet will follow up on this report. It will be treated as just another aberrant anti-US screed.
I would have to agree that Pelosi would be abetting and aiding a criminal, and so she would be guilty for war crimes as well. I can’t imagine her running another term, but most likely she would become a high paying lobbyist.
I heard that the international community is going after the president Bashir of Sudan? for Daphur massacre.
Someone was telling me about this on the news while the TV was on, and I jump to conclusion that it was our president.
everyone quit whining and accept this ….nothing will be done to these criminals and thats the end of this story ..welcome to USA 2008
Off the table, I’m betting.
SC @ 11:
Americans can’t get away with torture and war crimes any more in the new century.
Mayfield @ 16:
oh yeah?
whos gonna stop them??
They are also guilty of war crimes under USA Federal law:
The law defines a war crime to include a “grave breach of the Geneva Conventions”, specifically noting that “grave breach” should have the meaning defined in any convention (related to the laws of war) to which the U.S. is a party. The definition of “grave breach” in some of the Geneva Conventions have text that extend additional protections, but all the Conventions share the following text in common: “… committed against persons or property protected by the Convention: willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health.”
The law applies if either the victim or the perpetrator is a national of the United States or a member of the U.S. armed forces. The penalty may be life imprisonment or death. The death penalty is only invoked if the conduct resulted in the death of one or more victims.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.....ct_of_1996
this is a formal indictment of bush and cheney
and we know that congress has NO BALLS
to do the right thing and IMPEACH them both.
chickensh*ts that are only interested in keeping
their positions in congress, but don’t mind destroying
the U S CONSTITUTION.
james rock @ 14:
What’s a war crime here and there, when the economy is in such great shape?
james rock @ 14:
and in the eyes of the world, this makes ALL Americans criminals.
Time for this lame leader of the House to put Impeachment BACK ON THE TABLE.
New light has been raised, and issues are coming to the forefront that poor, ignorant little nancy didn’t know about when she promised to be his bitch.
The whole country bares the stench of this administration. Shame on us.
jonathan turley is essentially begging for the icc to step in and restore the rule of law in the united states . . . sadly, i know how he feels
i wonder if u.s. citizens would have standing to request an icc investigation, especially since our tax dollars and our military are being used to commit war crimes, and our elected representatives are refusing to stop it
Yeah, well be that as it may, who’s going to prosecute them?
There are only legal consequences when those consequences are actually enforced.
Bush thinks he’s divinely inspired and above the law. Congress is just doing it’s “patriotic” duty and covering for him. The only real patriot doing the people’s work is Dennis Kucinich.
Yellow Cake is for Twinkies @ 18:
this is a no brainer . . . why hasn’t george bush been stopped? is there no federal prosecutor out there who is willing to stand up for the rule of law?
innocent bystander @ 25:
Federal prosecutors are the DOJ and who has the DOJ in his pocket, Bush.
is any one else getting sick and tired of watching crime after crime being committed by our “officials” but not a single one of them being carted off to jail?
did i fall asleep and wake up in some fuc*ed up dimension where black is white and bad is good?
james rock @ 17:
At the moment no one, though the US has done an incredible job of isolating itself internationally, and making it’s people the most hated in the world so they will (hopefully) travel less now, once the economy falls over completely no one will have to stop them as they will be too busy in fighting. The current political polarisation taken to a violent level. Then many will end up in the FEMA camps and the fascism that has taken over will come to full fruition, and to think the US did this to themselves, well done, mission accomplished.
Diane @ 12:
Hence the defence of any criticism of the US, soundly followed by “we’re #1 ra ra ra ra” … as with the typical US brain washing crap that everyone buys into so hard.
CoIntelPro for Pronktastic Democratic Victory Over SCLM, DIEBOLD, ESS and SEQUOIA! @ 1:
I think it did a while ago, though this wont make any difference in the US I dare say.
BennyP @ 15:
Optimist.
To James Rock,
It all comes back to the Golden Rule, he who has the gold makes the rules. Our politicians are so out of touch with us that they only see the world from their perch at the 1% versus the other 99% of us who actually have to suffer their decisions. So for that top 1% of our population, things couldn’t be better, and no one at all is going to hold them liable or accountable for a damn thing (for example, FISA Telecomm Immunity).
This is why our politicians aren’t really too concerned about changing things or moving with any sort of haste to avert or correct our failing economy, disastrous foreign policy, bankrupt domestic policy, or anything else, save for when it directly affects them and their fellow 1%-ers (for example, the mortgage bailouts).
Unfortunately, the bottom 99% of us are so horribly uncoordinated and divided due to the actions and manipulations of the 1%-ers that we will never correct the situation we have for ourselves and things will only continue to get worse until we 99%-ers are reduced from wage-slaves to actual slaves.
God bless America!
We all know what our wonderful Democratic leadership will do with this information!
dadams @ 21:
exactly . . . i have opposed the iraq war since bush first began to babble about it, but i know that i have blood on my hands, because i clearly done everything i could to intervene
yes, i have hit the pavement in protest, and yes, i have written dozens of letters to government officials, but i have continued to pay my taxes and submit to the authority of a criminal government . . . there is no difference between me and the average german citizen during hitler’s rule
this situation calls for civil disobedience on a massive scale . . . anything less is acquiescence
The Bush Administration’s actions have violated the precedents laid down at Tokyo and Nuremberg. It’s a sad thing indeed when a 21st Century state behaves like the Nazi and Imperial Japanese barbarians. The fact that we in the US are guilty of the very things we hung others for implies that we ourselves are not as pure as the 1945 tribunals seemed to say. And, as for me, I am deeply ashamed that Americans should have acted like the barbarian hordes of Hitler and Tojo. What have we become?
Does anyone know where I can get trascripts for the Turley interview. There was a lot in there, and I wanted to quote some of it in my next posting.
Ron @ 27:
i realize that they are d.o.j. . . . i just cannot believe that there isn’t one federal prosecutor out there who believes in the rule of law . . . heck, aren’t they supposed to be jesus freaks? what about the 10 freakin’ commandments?
This Red Cross report is meaningless because our American government has completed lost its way. Bush and his cronies are war criminals, no doubt, and Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and their Congressional lackies are accomplices after (if not before) the fact.
And who’s going to do anything about it? Are we all gonna hold hands and sing Kumbayah and hope things get better? Are we going to write emails to our representatives–the same ones who keep funding Bush’s crimes and refusing to prosecute him? Are we going to keep posting comments on blogs and deluding ourselves that it matters?
When was the last time you read the Declaration of Independence? I did so on July 4th (I guess I’m a nerd-patriot), and it’s amazing how well it describes the current crimes and abuses of this government. Not only Bush, but the entire federal government is guilty of most of the abuses listed in the Declaration. But that document, lovely as it was/is, was only a document. It took a WAR OF REBELLION to actually end King George’s abuses.
And Americans will never again rise up in arms. I’d bet good money on it.
Face it, folks–America the Beautiful is dead. Gone. Our grand ideals, as detailed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, have been thrown out the window. What we have now is the corpse of America in a vegetative state.
innocent bystander @ 33:
i clearly have not done everything . . .
innocent bystander @ 23:
Can someone start a website where us “whiners” can sign a petition to the International Criminal Court demanding that they take action against Bush and Cheney. We’ll need a page for US citizens and another for people from other countries. Even if it doesn’t work it will be something Chimpy can use in his library.
to the people who run C&L:
is there a reason you show us these daily crimes committed by our officials other than to have us rage in anger?
its more than obvious that NOTHING will ever change ..so why do you continue to post these crimes?
to anger us?
to sadden us?
to show us how fuc*ed up our country is ?
Yellow Cake is for Twinkies @ 18:
Not just under the Federal Law, these crimes of Bush’s Administration were what the Axis leaders were hung for. What happened in the US that in 60-odd years we could go from looking at waterboarding as something authoritarian barbarians did, to becoming those authoritarian barbarians by committing their acts?
innocent bystander @ 36:
You forgot the 11th commandment.
Thou shall keep the paychecks coming in, and keep the ins benefits.
“yes, i have hit the pavement in protest, and yes, i have written dozens of letters to government officials, but i have continued to pay my taxes and submit to the authority of a criminal government . . . there is no difference between me and the average german citizen during hitler’s rule
this situation calls for civil disobedience on a massive scale . . . anything less is acquiescence”
We probably could just stop paying taxes on a massive scale, but like I said before, I doubt we’re coordinated enough. But I will tell you, as a former IRS employee, if even a few million of us stopped paying taxes, it would cause