Rumsfeld scraps Munich visit over war probe

[BBond]

Rumsfeld scraps Munich visit over war probe

21 January 2005

MUNICH - United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has cancelled a planned visit to Munich.

Rumsfeld has informed the German government via the US embassy he will not take part at the Munich Security Conference in February, conference head Horst Teltschik said.
The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights filed a complaint in December with the Federal German Prosecutor's Office against Rumsfeld accusing him of war crimes and torture in connection with detainee abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

Rumsfeld had made it known immediately after the complaint was filed that he would not attend the
Munich conference unless Germany quashed the legal action.

The organisation alleges violations of German legislation which outlaws war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide independent of the place of crime or origin of the accused.

The prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe reportedly is examining the roughly 170-page complaint to see if an investigation is warranted.

The Center for Constitutional Rights said it and four Iraqis tortured in US custody had filed a complaint with German authorities against Rumsfeld, former CIA director George Tenet and eight other senior military and civilian officials over abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq.

The organization said it had turned to German prosecutors "as a court of last resort" because the US government "is unwilling to open an independent investigation" and had "refused to join the International Criminal Court".

Several of those it wants investigated are stationed in Germany, it added.

 

[SuperTool]

He preffers Nuremberg, not Munich

 

[CanOWorms]

The organization said it had turned to German prosecutors "as a court of last resort" because the US government "is unwilling to open an independent investigation" and had "refused to join the International Criminal Court".

There's a mistake in there. They mean International Colonialism Court.

 

[Zebo]

No offense but every American president/Sec Def since FDR could be charged with war crimes if we really applied the exact letter of the law... Russia too and we could'nt do squat. Thing is who's going to enforce it? We are the big dog, we make the rules and convene the courts. No one else can..

I suggest reading the Nuremberg Charter and Geneva, both which we signed, and according to our const we are bound by... See how many times it's been violated but our gov't///

 

[GreatBarracuda]

Running from justice ... Mr. Rumsfeld?

 

[raildogg]

You dont ever get tired of bashing the Bush administration, do you?

 

[GrGr]

Prudence is the better part of Valor, Mr Rumsfeld

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

drop dead

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: raildogg
You dont ever get tired of bashing the Bush administration, do you?

No.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf
drop dead

LOL

they are.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: Zebo

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf
drop dead

LOL

they are.

sorry, I wasn't referring to you

 

[Dari]

Originally posted by: raildogg
You dont ever get tired of bashing the Bush administration, do you?

BOBDN, I mean Bbond, isn't right in the head. I think he's paranoid. In another thread, he's accused people of trying to kill him, so he's hired a lawyer and is recording EVERYTHING.

 

[BBond]

Originally posted by: Dari

Originally posted by: raildogg
You dont ever get tired of bashing the Bush administration, do you?

BOBDN, I mean Bbond, isn't right in the head. I think he's paranoid. In another thread, he's accused people of trying to kill him, so he's hired a lawyer and is recording EVERYTHING.

OP:
Rumsfeld scraps Munich visit over war probe.

 

[imported_Aelius]

Ohh the irony.

 

[maluckey]

First ff, the author, and it looks like the rest of you have forgotten that Rumsfeld is covered by Immunity in all countries in which we have Diplomatic relations. Thi means that Rumsfeld could murder and eat someone, and never go to trial. His protest is valid, but really only for show, as is the attempt to prosecute.

Zebo is probably 100 percent dead-on in his assesment of charges against Presidents. The same is likely true for Cabinet Staff.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Originally posted by: Zebo
No offense but every American president/Sec Def since FDR could be charged with war crimes if we really applied the exact letter of the law... Russia too and we could'nt do squat. Thing is who's going to enforce it? We are the big dog, we make the rules and convene the courts. No one else can..

I suggest reading the Nuremberg Charter and Geneva, both which we signed, and according to our const we are bound by... See how many times it's been violated but our gov't///

It the law in Germany. Who is going to back it? They are. We have not become so omnipotent that we can waltz into Germany at the point of a gun and tell them they can't enforce their laws in their own country. I hope we never are that strong or if so we have an administration not so bent on their version of a "benevolent" Reich.

 

[imported_Aelius]

You can't have a transparent government until you take away their elite God status and make them accountable and no longer immune to get away with anything. Be it a Board, a State, Federal, and Executive.

Take away the golden parachutes and see how many of these social and political elite want to be a Governor, serve on a Board or be President. The world is in quite a different perspective when you can be held accountable for you or your apointees fvckups.

You can't get more freedom then that. To suggest otherwise is outright hypocritical.

 

[GrGr]

Mr Rumsfeld has realized that Chicken is the better part of ChickenHawk

 

[ntdz]

Where's the proof he cancelled his visit because of some bogus war crimes probe? It's not there.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: ntdz
Where's the proof he cancelled his visit because of some bogus war crimes probe? It's not there.

Just like the bogus WMD's that we invaded Iraq over, and where such bogus war crimes took place. It's not there.

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: Zebo
No offense but every American president/Sec Def since FDR could be charged with war crimes if we really applied the exact letter of the law... Russia too and we could'nt do squat. Thing is who's going to enforce it? We are the big dog, we make the rules and convene the courts. No one else can..

I suggest reading the Nuremberg Charter and Geneva, both which we signed, and according to our const we are bound by... See how many times it's been violated but our gov't///

And in all that time, the only one I'm aware of who has at least been wanted for questioning is Kissinger(sp?) and he was in neither of those positions.

 

[fornax]

So Rumsfeld joins the distinguished company of Kissinger and a few other former officials who don't dare show their noses outside of US for fear of being arrested and prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity. I'm sure they watch the proceedings against Pinochet and other previously "untouchable" tyrants and butchers with ever increasing discomfort.

 

[conjur]

Rumsfeld Debating Whether to Avoid Germany
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=7533075

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday he has not decided whether to attend an international security conference next week in Germany, where he might be subject to arrest on a war-crimes complaint.

"I have not made a final decision on that (attendance). And there are several factors," Rumsfeld told reporters when asked if he would go to the prestigious annual private Munich Conference on Security Policy Feb. 12-13 when he is in Europe next week.

He conceded in response to questions at a press conference that one problem was the jurisdiction of a German court over a 160-page criminal complaint filed Nov. 30 with the federal prosecutor's office in Germany accusing him of war crimes in connection with detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

That complaint was brought by the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a group of lawyers representing Iraqis who say they were mistreated by U.S. forces at the Baghdad prison.

The complaint also names other senior U.S. military authorities, including former U.S. commander in Iraq Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, and former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet.

"It's certainly an issue, as it was in Belgium. It's something that we have to take into consideration," Rumsfeld said of the suit on Thursday. "Whether I end up there we'll soon know. It'll be a week, and we'll find out."

The German prosecutor's office has taken no action on he complaint, based on a 2002 German law that the gives the Karlsruhe Court "universal jurisdiction" in cases involving alleged war crimes.

A similar law was previously passed in Belgium but later modified, and cases against U.S. and other officials, including Cuban President Fidel Castro, were dismissed or rejected.

Officials of the Munich conference, which marked its 40th anniversary last year, earlier told the Washington Post that Rumsfeld might not attend. It draws members of (the U.S. Congress), cabinet ministers, lawmakers and prominent analysts and politicians from many parts of Europe and Asia.

Rumsfeld told reporters on Thursday he would attend an informal meeting of NATO defense ministers in Nice, France, Feb. 9-10 and was likely to make other stops, but that his final schedule was not complete.

"I'm going to be in Nice. And I'm very likely going to visit some other locations in that part of the world during that period," he said.

There's almost nothing I'd love to see more than Rumsfeld being led away in handcuffs!

Oh, please please please please please please!!!

 

[fornax]

It is correct that Rumsfeld is covered by immunity, so he will not be arrested if he goes. But the immunity will last four more years (well, unless the next Democratic president chooses him as Secretary of War). But the stage is set. Pinochet, Miloshevic, Argentinian military, and who knows, Rumsfeld might be next if he sets foot in the wrong country in a few years.