Apparently, former president, George W. Bush does "cut and run." On February 7, 2011, two torture victims were to have filed criminal complaints for torture against former president George W. Bush in Geneva. Bush was due to speak there at a charity gala on February 12th. On the eve of the case filing, Bush abruptly canceled his trip, choosing instead to attend the Super Bowl in Dallas. Why would he rather be in Dallas than in Geneva? For one thing, Swiss authorities are under a legal obligation to start a preliminary criminal investigation if a torturer is on Swiss soil. But, thanks to Attorney General Eric Holder's refusal to apply U.S. law to investigate torture, Bush isn't even breaking a sweat in Dallas -- or anywhere in the U.S. for that matter.
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), along with the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights prepared the detailed case in Switzerland, with support from the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). Swiss law requires the presence of an alleged torturer on Swiss soil before a preliminary investigation can be open. Because Bush canceled, the complaints could not be filed as the basis for legal jurisdiction no longer existed. However, the fact that Bush authorized torture remains -- especially on this, the ninth anniversary of his decision that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to the conflict with al Qaeda or to so-called "unlawful combatants".
In the long run, ducking a charge of torture is not as easy as ducking a shoe thrown at a press conference. Accordingly, CCR publicly released the Preliminary Bush Torture Indictment. The Indictment provides a strong factual and legal basis to hold Bush accountable -- in any of the 147 countries which have ratified the Convention Against Torture (CAT) -- for having authorized torture. In addition, the Indictment compiles more than 2,500 pages of publicly available supporting material, and has the support of two Nobel Peace Prize winners, more than 60 NGOs, and two former UN Special Rapporteurs on Torture and on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers.
In light of clear international law, broad international support, and the evidence laid out in the indictment, it's no wonder that Bush canceled his trip to Switzerland in order to evade the possibility for prosecution for torture. And, of course, that's a big part of the point of this aspect of international law: the perpetrators of torture crimes shouldn't be afforded safe haven. But another important question for us to consider as the rest of the world gets much smaller for George W. Bush is, why is Eric Holder comfortable with allowing him safe haven here in the United States?
Vince Warren is the Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
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Torture in WWII got a lot of, "My commanding officer is Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse", and a lot of other answers from people who didn't know any more than the minimum to do their jobs. Not everyone has the answers the "interviewers" want.
'and this is what you want to spend your time and energy on' - What should their justice dept be spending their time on if not prosecuting crimes, in this case a pretty big one?
The logical answer would be that he's following the instructions of his boss.
One has to wonder who warned him and why they chose to side with the alleged perpetrator rather than the victims who were seeking to have their case heard in a fair and open court. Once again we see evidence of Government's failure to follow the rule of law.
I've regularly found that the characteristics of an organisation reflect those of the CEO / MD. The rot always starts at the top - if you do not address that you can never fix the problem. Witness Tunisia, Egypt, North Korea, the rot starts at the top, and the correction is happening from the top-down.
As Glenn Greenwald says in his Feb 7, 2011 article in Salon called "The Egyptian Mirror", it's interesting what one accepts about those others over there but not about these here at home.
Your kidding, aren't you? You have to wonder why he was (plainly) asked not to come? Do you really think that the Swiss government, or any other European government for that matter, wants a hot potato like that on its hands?
1/ while standard procedure would be to wait for a war criminal to arrive and then nail him, the Swiss Government failed to do so, likely asking him not to come - providing clear evidence of the Swiss GovernmentÂ's failure to follow standard procedure in applying the law. One might almost say the act was complicit in aiding and abetting a war criminal.
2/ the rot is at the top - in both the U.S. (Bush) and Switzerland (Who-T-F)
3/ we see these failings in 'those-over-there' Asian/African/Central American countries as representing Gov't corruption but do not see it in 'these-here-at-home' US/Europe/Aus/Canada where it is a simple hot-potato issue, not aiding and abetting a war criminal
Your support is much appreciated, thanks!
At least that fictional sherrif was chasing a speeder... no one here even bothers to prosecute real crimes. Instead we try to set up impediments to voting (voter ID acts), blame our problems on illegal immigrants, and drug cartels.
Yup... I'd say our Congress shows a complete lack of respect for the American Citizen.
What about the fact that they also tortured innocent people? What about the fact that the techniques they "borrowed" from the Vietcong were specifically designed to elicit false confessions?