Donald Rumsfeld, who was forced to resign as US defence secretary last Wednesday, may face criminal charges in Germany for alleged abuses in Guantanamo Bay and Iraq.
The US-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) announced on Friday: ‘On November 14, 2006, the CCR will file a criminal complaint against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in German Court.
‘The complaint requests the German Federal Prosecutor open an investigation and, ultimately, a criminal prosecution that will look into the responsibility of high-ranking US officials for authorizing war crimes in the context of the so-called “War on Terror”.
‘Former White House Counsel (and current Attorney General) Alberto Gonzalez, former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, and other high-ranking US officials are also charged in the complaint.
‘The complaint is brought on behalf of 12 torture victims – 11 Iraqi citizens who were held at Abu Ghraib prison and one Guantánamo detainee – and is being filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Republican Attorneys’ Association (RAV) and others, all represented by Berlin Attorney Wolfgang Kaleck.
‘The complaint is related to a 2004 complaint that was dismissed, but the new complaint is filed with substantial new evidence, new defendants and plaintiffs, a new German Federal Prosecutor and, most important, under new circumstances that include the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense and the passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 in the US granting officials retroactive immunity from prosecution for war crimes.’
German law allows the pursuit of cases originating anywhere in the world.
The Centre for Constitutional Rights argues that Rumsfeld was instrumental in abuses committed at Guantanamo Bay and at Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad.
The legal group alleges that Rumsfeld personally approved torture to be used to extract information from the prisoners.
Abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was brought to world attention after photographs of the incidents were released and published by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The ACLU applauded Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation and called on Congress to investigate the gross abuse of power committed under his watch.
‘Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation is a step in the right direction,’ said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director.
He further alleged: ‘Rumsfeld is responsible for the torture and abuse of detainees in US military custody and must be held accountable for the failures that occurred on his watch.
‘He has placed the blame on junior military members and has been nothing but derelict in his duty.
‘Congress must initiate an immediate and exhaustive investigation into his six-year-long record of unlawful activity, violations of the rule of law and complicity in the executive branch abuse of power.’
As a result of the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, more than 100,000 pages of government documents have been released detailing the torture and abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay.
In March 2005, the ACLU and Human Rights First filed the first federal lawsuit naming Rumsfeld and other top US officials in the ongoing torture scandal in Iraq and Afghanistan that has tarnished America’s reputation.
A hearing in that case, Ali v Rumsfeld, is scheduled for December 8.
In June 2006, the Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld ruled that the Bush administration policy on detention, orchestrated by Rumsfeld, was illegal.
The ACLU has also filed a lawsuit to uncover details of Pentagon surveillance of peace groups and law-abiding Americans who have attended anti-war protests.
The documents obtained by the ACLU reveal that the Pentagon shared information on activists with other government agencies through the Threat And Local Observation Notice (TALON) database, which was intended to track groups or individuals with links to terrorism.
The Human Rights First group also welcomed the resignation of US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
‘This step is welcome, and long overdue,’ said Human Rights First Executive Director Maureen Byrnes.
‘It should send an important message to the military, the intelligence community, and all engaged in the protection of US national security that Americans will no longer tolerate torture in their name.’
The ACLU and Human Rights First charged that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld bears direct responsibility for the torture and abuse of detainees, and filed a complaint in federal court in March 2005 on behalf of nine men subjected to torture and abuse under Secretary Rumsfeld’s command.
In the latest development in this lawsuit, on July 21, 2006, Secretary Rumsfeld reasserted his argument that he is immune from responsibility for acts of torture and abuse committed under his watch.
The lawsuit, together with three other suits filed by the ACLU, sets forth the legal basis for holding Secretary Rumsfeld and other high ranking members of the armed services responsible for torture and abuse of civilians detained by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Retired military officers and military legal experts have filed an amicus brief in support of the ACLU’s and Human Rights First’s suit, arguing against Secretary Rumsfeld’s position on the basis that allowing the federal case to proceed would not be an intrusion into matters of national security and military decision-making.
Two of the world’s foremost scholars on the international laws against torture and abusive treatment have also filed an amicus brief (PDF) in support of the lawsuit.
Two of the plaintiffs in this lawsuit – Thahe Mohammed Sabar and Sherzad Kamal Khalid – recently visited the United States to help our leaders and the public learn from first-hand accounts about the atrocities committed in our name.
President Bush has declared to the world, ‘We don’t torture.’
Human Rights First has posted a ‘Where Are They Now?’ summary on its website.
Among those mentioned are Secretary Donald Rumsfeld – who authorised abusive interrogation techniques including stress positions, sexual humiliation and threatening dogs, resigned the day after the 2006 mid-term election, more than two years after the photos of Abu Ghraib and his role in ordering the abusive interrogation techniques became public.
Former White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales – among the first to embrace the no-rules-apply approach to the ‘war on terror’ – is now US Attorney General.
General Dan K McNeill – who oversaw operations in Afghanistan during the time that detainees were tortured to death at the Bagram Air Force Base and claimed there were no indications of abuse contributing to the deaths despite autopsy reports finding severe trauma to the detainees’ bodies, received a fourth star and was promoted to Commanding General US Army Forces Command.
He will take over the NATO command in Afghanistan in February 2007.
Jay S Bybee, former Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel and the principal author of the memo defining torture so narrowly as to require an act to ‘be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death,’ became a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in March, 2003.