George Bush: Preliminary Indictment for Torture – by Stephen Lendman
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A previous article addressed torture as official US policy under Bush, accessed through the following link:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/07/torture-as-official-us-policy.html
It remains so under Obama, authorized at the highest levels of government as part of America’s bogus war on terror to instill fear and target suspected political opponents globally, including at home. No matter that it violates US and international law that prohibits torture at all times under all circumstances with no allowed exceptions.
Nonetheless, on September 17, 2001, Bush issued a 12 page “memorandum of notification” directive to CIA’s director and National Security Council members, authorizing CIA to capture suspected terrorists and Al Qaeda members, then hold and interrogate them in offshore detention facilities. It launched his torture program by vesting CIA operatives with unprecedented lawless power. It gave them carte blanche authority to function extra-judicially by whatever methods it chose.
Numerous subsequent Bush administration memos, Executive Orders, National and Homeland Security Presidential Directives, findings, and other documents explicitly or implicitly authorized torture, including one on August 2, 2002, written by John Yoo, then White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, Jay Bybee (now a federal judge), and David Addington. It argued for letting interrogators use harsh measures amounting to torture. It said federal and international laws don’t apply when dealing with Al Qaeda because of presidential authorization during wartime. It “legalized” anything in the war on terror, as well as authorizing supreme presidential power.
On March 14, 2003, the same quartet issued another memo titled: “Military Interrogation of Alien Unlawful Combatants Held Outside the United States,” now called the “Torture Memo.” It swept away all legal restraints, authorizing military, CIA or other US interrogators to use extreme measures amounting to torture. It also gave the president “the fullest range of power….to protect the nation,” stating he “enjoys complete discretion in the exercise of his authority in conducting operations against hostile forces.”
Other administration documents reflected John Yoo’s views that interrogation methods may inflict “intense pain or suffering” short of what would cause “serious physical injury so severe that death, organ failure, (loss of significant body functions), or permanent damage” may result.
It was inquisitional ruthlessness, including sleep deprivation, prolonged isolation, waterboarding, painful stress positions, sensory deprivation or overload, beatings, electric shocks, induced hypothermia, and other extreme measures able to cause irreversible physical and psychological harm, including disabilities, psychoses, and at times deaths.
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International Criminal Court (ICC) Complaint Against Bush/Cheney et al
On January 20, 2010, Professor Francis Boyle and Lawyers Against the War filed a complaint against “Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Rice and Gonzales for:
“their criminal policy and practice of ‘extraordinary rendition’ perpetrated upon about 100 human beings. This term is really their euphemism for the enforced disappearance of persons and their consequent torture. This criminal policy and practice by the Accused constitute Crimes against Humanity in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the ICC.”
Though America isn’t party to the treaty, “the Accused have ordered and been responsible for the commission of ICC statutory crimes within the respective territories of many ICC member states, including several in Europe. Consequently, the ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute the Accused (under) Rome Statute article 12(2)(a) that affords the ICC jurisdiction to prosecute (these crimes) in ICC member states.”
The complaint also requested international arrest warrants be issued, pursuant to Rome Statute authority.
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)-Released Bush Torture Indictment (BTI)
On February 7, the ninth anniversary of Bush’s lawless establishment of an “unlawful combatants” classification, CCR released a Bush Torture Indictment (BTI).
Earlier, Francis Boyle explained that he “resurrected a long-defunct World War II era (‘unlawful enemy combatant’) legal category,” later superseded by the four Geneva Conventions.
He described Bush’s action as “creat(ing) an anti-matter of legal nihilism where human beings (including US citizens) can be disappeared, detained incommunicado, denied access to attorneys and regular courts, tried in kangaroo courts, executed, tortured, assassinated and subjected to numerous other manifestations of State Terrorism.” He almost entirely negated post-WW II international and US laws, including treaties to which America is party.
CCR’s response, “provides a strong factual and legal basis to hold (him) accountable” in all 147 countries that ratified the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)….”
BTI “is based on two criminal complaints that were to be filed on February 7 in Switzerland on behalf of two torture victims,” supported by CCR and allied groups, “in advance of Bush’s planned trip to Geneva on February 12….”
Including are more than 2,500 pages of material. Under Swiss law, preliminary investigations may only begin if torturers enter the country. As a result, Bush cancelled his trip to avoid possible indictment. CCR promises BTI will await him “wherever he travels next.”
Moreover, Amnesty International (AI) also repeatedly called for him to be investigated for torture violations, and sent Swiss authorities factual evidence of his culpability.
According to Martin Scheinin, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counterterrorism:
“Nobody, from those who administered the practices to those at the top of the chain of command, is under a shield of absolute immunity for the practices of secret detention, extraordinary rendition and torture. Legally this case is quite clear. Bush does not enjoy immunity as a former head of state, and he has command responsibility for the decisions that were taken.”
All his subordinate co-conspirators are also culpable, including former vice president Cheney. Getting them in the dock makes everyone involved vulnerable, including Obama administration officials following the same policies seamlessly.
No one deserves impunity, even present and past US presidents as well as others holding top administration posts. After aggressive wars and genocide, torture is the worst international crime, warranting prosecutorial justice against guilty parties.
Senior Editor Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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Human Rights Groups Announce Bush Indictment for Convention Against Torture Signatory States Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2011-02-07 |
No Immunity for Former Presidents Under Law
February 7, 2011, Geneva and New York – Today, two torture victims were to have filed criminal complaints, with more than 2,500-pages of supporting material, in Geneva against former U.S. President George W. Bush, who was due to speak at an event there on 12 February. Swiss law requires the presence of the torturer on Swiss soil before a preliminary investigation can be opened. When Bush cancelled his trip to avoid prosecution, the human rights groups who prepared the complaints made it public and announced that the Bush Torture Indictment would be waiting wherever he travels next. The Indictment serves as the basis on which to prepare country-specific, plaintiff-specific indictments, with additional evidence and updated information. According to international law experts at the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), former presidents do not enjoy special immunity under the Convention Against Torture (CAT).
“Waterboarding is torture, and Bush has admitted, without any sign of remorse, that he approved its use,” said Katherine Gallagher, Senior Staff Attorney at CCR and Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). “The reach of the Convention Against Torture is wide – this case is prepared and will be waiting for him wherever he travels next. Torturers – even if they are former presidents of the United States – must be held to account and prosecuted. Impunity for Bush must end.”
While the U.S. has thus far failed to comply with its obligations under the Convention Against Torture to prosecute and punish those who commit torture, all other signatories, too, are obligated to prosecute or extradite for prosecution anyone present in their territory they have a reasonable basis for believing has committed torture. If the evidence warrants, as the Bush Torture Indictment contends it does, and the U.S. fails to request the extradition of Bush and others to face charges of torture there, CAT signatories must, under law, prosecute them for torture.
In a statement this weekend, the groups who organized the complaints said, “Whatever Bush or his hosts say, we have no doubt he cancelled his trip to avoid our case. The message from civil society is clear – If you’re a torturer, be careful in your travel plans.”
The complaints that had been scheduled to be filed on Monday asked that the General Prosecutor of the Canton of Geneva investigate allegations that men were tortured as part of the Bush administration’s well-documented torture program. Bush proudly recounted in his recently published memoir that when asked in 2002 to if it was permissible to waterboard a detainee – a recognized act of torture – he replied “damn right.”
Monday, 7 February, is the ninth anniversary of the day Bush decided the Geneva Conventions did not apply to ‘enemy combatants.’
According to the Bush Indictment, which was written on behalf of torture victims by CCR and ECCHR, former President Bush bears individual and command responsibility for the acts of his subordinates which he ordered, authorized, condoned or otherwise aided and abetted, as well as for the violations committed by his subordinates which he failed to prevent or punish.
“Bush is a torturer and deserves to be remembered as such,” said Gavin Sullivan, Solicitor and Counterterrorism Program Manager, ECCHR. “He bears ultimate responsibility for authorizing the torture of thousands of individuals at places like Guantánamo and secret CIA ‘black sites’ around the world. As all states are obliged to prosecute such torturers, Bush has good reason to be very worried.”
CCR, ECCHR and FIDH were joined by more than 60 human rights organizations and prominent individuals who signed on to support the call for George W. Bush’s prosecution, including former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Theo van Boven, former UN Special Rapporteur on Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Leandro Despouy, and Nobel Peace Prize recipients Shirin Ebadi and Pérez Esquivel. A number of the human rights organizations which signed on are facing the on-going harms of the “counterterrorism” policies advanced under the Bush administration and then adopted or employed in their own countries..The complaint included 2500 pages of supporting materials.
Manfred Nowak, former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (2004-2010), was to submit an expert opinion on the complaints concluding that the conduct to which both plaintiffs were subjected constitutes torture, that Switzerland had an obligation to open a preliminary investigation, and that George W. Bush enjoys no immunity.
The Bush Torture Indictment, the official “letter of denunciation” summarizing the case and other materials are available here: http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/bush-torture-indictment.
The Center for Constitutional Rights, in addition to filing the first cases representing men detained at Guantánamo, has filed universal jurisdiction cases seeking accountability for torture by Bush administration officials in Germany, France and submitted expert opinions and other documentation to ongoing cases in Spain in collaboration with ECCHR. The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change. Visit www.ccrjustice.org. Follow @theCCR.
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) is an independent, non-profit legal organization that enforces human rights by holding state and non-state actors to account for egregious abuses through innovative strategic litigation. For more information visit www.ecchr.eu
The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) is a non-governmental federation for 164 human rights organizations. FIDH’s core mandate is to promote respect for all the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Its priority areas include protecting human rights defenders and fighting impunity. For more information on FIDH, seewww.fidh.org.
