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Human Rights Watch Calls for Criminal Investigation Against George Bush
07.13.2011 12:04 epress.am
A US human rights group says former US president George W. Bush and
three of his administration's top officials should be investigated on
criminal charges for authorizing the use of torture, RFE/RL reports.
In a new report, Human Rights Watch cites `overwhelming evidence' that
Bush ordered the use of torture - including waterboarding and secret
rendition - to be used on terrorism suspects from the earliest days
after the terror attacks of 2001.
`The road to the violations ... began within days of the Sept. 11, 2001
attacks by Al-Qaeda on New York and Washington, D.C, when the Bush
administration began crafting a new set of policies, procedures, and
practices for detainees captured in military and counterterrorism
operations outside the United States,' the report says.
Titled `Getting Away With Torture: The Bush Administration and
Mistreatment of Detainees,' the report also contains what the group
says is evidence of illegal acts sanctioned by Vice President Dick
Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George
Tenet.
`The report makes very clear that, looking at the publicly available
evidence, there is overwhelming evidence that senior Bush
administration officials should be criminally investigated and
potentially prosecuted for authorizing torture,' said Andrea Prasow,
senior counsel in Human Rights Watch's Terrorism and Counterterrorism
Program.
The report accuses Bush of ordering the creation of the CIA's secret
program to kidnap and transport terrorism suspects to third countries
where they underwent harsh interrogations.
Cheney is accused of being `the driving force behind the establishment
of illegal detention policies and the formulation of legal
justifications for those policies,' including torture. Ex-CIA Director
George Tenet is said to have run the agency's waterboarding and secret
rendition programs.
The rights group says President Barack Obama has a legal duty to
investigate acts of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees
because the United States - along with more than 140 other countries -
is a signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture.
Human Rights Watch is urging the Obama administration to pursue a
criminal investigation against Bush and other former officials, but if
that doesn't happen - as it isn't likely to - the group wants foreign
governments to pursue their own cases.
Prasow says that under the Convention Against Torture's principle of
universal jurisdiction, any country can pass its own legal judgment.
`That principle says torture is so egregious, such a horrendous crime
that torturers need to be investigated and prosecuted wherever they
are found. So if the U.S. doesn't conduct an investigation, it's the
obligation of other countries that have signed the Torture Convention
to do that.'
From: A. Papazian
07.13.2011 12:04 epress.am
A US human rights group says former US president George W. Bush and
three of his administration's top officials should be investigated on
criminal charges for authorizing the use of torture, RFE/RL reports.
In a new report, Human Rights Watch cites `overwhelming evidence' that
Bush ordered the use of torture - including waterboarding and secret
rendition - to be used on terrorism suspects from the earliest days
after the terror attacks of 2001.
`The road to the violations ... began within days of the Sept. 11, 2001
attacks by Al-Qaeda on New York and Washington, D.C, when the Bush
administration began crafting a new set of policies, procedures, and
practices for detainees captured in military and counterterrorism
operations outside the United States,' the report says.
Titled `Getting Away With Torture: The Bush Administration and
Mistreatment of Detainees,' the report also contains what the group
says is evidence of illegal acts sanctioned by Vice President Dick
Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George
Tenet.
`The report makes very clear that, looking at the publicly available
evidence, there is overwhelming evidence that senior Bush
administration officials should be criminally investigated and
potentially prosecuted for authorizing torture,' said Andrea Prasow,
senior counsel in Human Rights Watch's Terrorism and Counterterrorism
Program.
The report accuses Bush of ordering the creation of the CIA's secret
program to kidnap and transport terrorism suspects to third countries
where they underwent harsh interrogations.
Cheney is accused of being `the driving force behind the establishment
of illegal detention policies and the formulation of legal
justifications for those policies,' including torture. Ex-CIA Director
George Tenet is said to have run the agency's waterboarding and secret
rendition programs.
The rights group says President Barack Obama has a legal duty to
investigate acts of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees
because the United States - along with more than 140 other countries -
is a signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture.
Human Rights Watch is urging the Obama administration to pursue a
criminal investigation against Bush and other former officials, but if
that doesn't happen - as it isn't likely to - the group wants foreign
governments to pursue their own cases.
Prasow says that under the Convention Against Torture's principle of
universal jurisdiction, any country can pass its own legal judgment.
`That principle says torture is so egregious, such a horrendous crime
that torturers need to be investigated and prosecuted wherever they
are found. So if the U.S. doesn't conduct an investigation, it's the
obligation of other countries that have signed the Torture Convention
to do that.'
From: A. Papazian