Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse

A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the outgoing Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo
By ADAM ZAGORIN

Just days after his resignation, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The plaintiffs in the case include 11 Iraqis who were prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as well as Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo, whom the U.S. has identified as the so-called "20th hijacker" and a would-be participant in the 9/11 hijackings. As TIME first reported in June 2005, Qahtani underwent a "special interrogation plan," personally approved by Rumsfeld, which the U.S. says produced valuable intelligence. But to obtain it, according to the log of his interrogation and government reports, Qahtani was subjected to forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation and other controversial interrogation techniques.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses who will testify on their behalf is former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq. Karpinski — who the lawyers say will be in Germany next week to publicly address her accusations in the case — has issued a written statement to accompany the legal filing, which says, in part: "It was clear the knowledge and responsibility [for what happened at Abu Ghraib] goes all the way to the top of the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ."

A spokesperson for the Pentagon told TIME there would be no comment since the case has not yet been filed.

Along with Rumsfeld, Gonzales and Tenet, the other defendants in the case are Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone; former assistant attorney general Jay Bybee; former deputy assisant attorney general John Yoo; General Counsel for the Department of Defense William James Haynes II; and David S. Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. Senior military officers named in the filing are General Ricardo Sanchez, the former top Army official in Iraq; Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former commander of Guantanamo; senior Iraq commander, Major General Walter Wojdakowski; and Col. Thomas Pappas, the one-time head of military intelligence at Abu Ghraib.

Germany was chosen for the court filing because German law provides "universal jurisdiction" allowing for the prosecution of war crimes and related offenses that take place anywhere in the world. Indeed, a similar, but narrower, legal action was brought in Germany in 2004, which also sought the prosecution of Rumsfeld. The case provoked an angry response from Pentagon, and Rumsfeld himself was reportedly upset. Rumsfeld's spokesman at the time, Lawrence DiRita, called the case a "a big, big problem." U.S. officials made clear the case could adversely impact U.S.-Germany relations, and Rumsfeld indicated he would not attend a major security conference in Munich, where he was scheduled to be the keynote speaker, unless Germany disposed of the case. The day before the conference, a German prosecutor announced he would not pursue the matter, saying there was no indication that U.S. authorities and courts would not deal with allegations in the complaint.

In bringing the new case, however, the plaintiffs argue that circumstances have changed in two important ways. Rumsfeld's resignation, they say, means that the former Defense Secretary will lose the legal immunity usually accorded high government officials. Moreover, the plaintiffs argue that the German prosecutor's reasoning for rejecting the previous case — that U.S. authorities were dealing with the issue — has been proven wrong.

"The utter and complete failure of U.S. authorities to take any action to investigate high-level involvement in the torture program could not be clearer," says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a U.S.-based non-profit helping to bring the legal action in Germany. He also notes that the Military Commissions Act, a law passed by Congress earlier this year, effectively blocks prosecution in the U.S. of those involved in detention and interrogation abuses of foreigners held abroad in American custody going to back to Sept. 11, 2001. As a result, Ratner contends, the legal arguments underlying the German prosecutor's previous inaction no longer hold up.

Whatever the legal merits of the case, it is the latest example of efforts in Western Europe by critics of U.S. tactics in the war on terror to call those involved to account in court. In Germany, investigations are under way in parliament concerning cooperation between the CIA and German intelligence on rendition — the kidnapping of suspected terrorists and their removal to third countries for interrogation. Other legal inquiries involving rendition are under way in both Italy and Spain.

U.S. officials have long feared that legal proceedings against "war criminals" could be used to settle political scores. In 1998, for example, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet — whose military coup was supported by the Nixon administration — was arrested in the U.K. and held for 16 months in an extradition battle led by a Spanish magistrate seeking to charge him with war crimes. He was ultimately released and returned to Chile. More recently, a Belgian court tried to bring charges against then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for alleged crimes against Palestinians.

For its part, the Bush Administration has rejected adherence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on grounds that it could be used to unjustly prosecute U.S. officials. The ICC is the first permanent tribunal established to prosecute war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... 42,00.html

They’re going to have to do better than that.

This should sway the US into supporting the ICC.

I really don't see how Germany will have time for this, with that pending attack on Iran and all.

What a disgrace.

Absolutely.

Funny how there are no charges pending against the Terrorists that behead people and bomb civilian targets on a daily basis.

It just shows that certain European nations like Germany are clueless in regards to the Terror Threat and are on the wrong side of this conflict.

I wanna know when the Bill of Rights for the guards of GitMo is gonna come out. Because so far as I can tell, they just don't give a shit about us.

its funny that you think torture is somehow better than being a suspected terrorist.

This is a country that produced Nietzsche and Kraftwerk. I'd be more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

OH MY GOSH! THE HORROR! TORTOROUS HORROR!

Shit, they made me stand NAKED! And then, oh my gosh, they dropped the Quran ON THE GROUND! SHIT! The made me kneel on the ground for six hours But then came the controversial interrogation techniques. THEY USED DOGS! AND THEY EVEN MADE THE DOGS BARK AT ME! Rumsfeld deserves to go to prison for this stuff! Yaaaaarg.

Oh, did you know that I through cum and blood at guards? I assualted them, threw feces at them...ya know, just to try and get them to break?

...what a horrific situation. So sad.

They've produced some less than upstanding persons as well.

You'd really hand former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld over to the Germans?

And yes, this is the country that produced Nietzsche and Kraftwek.
It's also the country that "produced" the Holocaust. Funny how they are being held as the bastion of morality during wartime.

Yes, but when you are the leader of the free world and a model of freedom and liberty for others to follow, this is not the type of behavior you want to exhibit. Whether or not you feel it is warranted, the fact of the matter is it cannot happen. Even if it were to, it cannot be publicized. The administration failed on both accounts. That is what I find sad. There was so much potential following the September 11 attacks, and many bright minds in Congress and the Executive Branch. Somewhere along the line, they lost their way. Badly.

America is the country that produced Vietnam and crack in the ghettos. Does it matter if Germany or any other country is a bastion of morality?

I find it a shame that we are not the bastion of morality that we should be.

I'm sorry, but that shit's not torture.

Now, if we were pouring used motor oil down their throughts, making them undergo water torture, putting wooden splinters under their fingernails, beating them senselessly, breaking bones, starving them, not giving them water...I mean...anything that's really actually torture, I would be upset.

And don't get me wrong, I am VERY...no... I am EXTREMELY upset about what happened at Abu Grahib for a myriad of reasons. But almost none of it was torture.

It's just not fucking torture.

I really wish I could talk about what happened to me this week. I know this might seem like me beating the same drum I have in the past, BUT! My perspective on this has changed immensely very recently. It made me sit back and say..."Holy Shit..."

At some point I'd like to talk about my recent experience, but I can't right now. This whole scenario is more complicated than it seems on the surface.

It's actually not Germany charging Rumsfeld. It's one guy named Michael Ratner, an American by the way, who charges Rumsfeld IN Germany, because in Germany war crimes can be brought to court no matters who was responsible and where they took place.

As am I.



But some of it was then?



Indeed it is.

Wow. That's comforting to know...