Rumsfeld to scrap German visit if probe launched

[Kellanved]

BERLIN - US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is considering calling off a planned visit to Germany early next year after a US human rights organisation asked German authorities to prosecute the Pentagon chief, a news report said.

The weekly Focus news magazine said on Monday Rumsfeld has informed the German government via the US embassy he would not take part at the Munich Security Conference in February should there be any indication of an investigation.

The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights filed a complaint last week 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.

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.
...
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=26&story_id=14957&name=Rumsfeld+to+scrap+German+visit+if+probe+launched+

[Wickerman]

1. drip

[NJCher]

2. Go Germany!!!

Yeah!!!!


Cher

[catmandu57]

3. They should investigate

if nothing else to be on the record, and, to show the rest of the world that these bastards are'nt invincible.

[Solly Mack]

4. What a coward

Gee, he doesn't think he's done anything...so?

Isn't that what the right wing constantly harped about with Clinton?
If you're not guilty, why worry?

lololol

[TahitiNut]

5. He can run, but he can't hide.

War criminal!

[Judi Lynn]

26. It'd be good to see them smoke him out.

Then smoke out the one who sent him!

[jimshoes]

28. That pic!

Skeletor, possibly the most evil man on earth.

[Gman]

6. If Rumsfeld's committed no war crimes...

what's he got to be afraid of in Germany???

[milmascara13]

32. DONALD DUMSFELD

Donald Rumsfeld - Korean War - student deferments. Classy answer to the reservists in Kuwait. Of course, he didn`t hear the question!!

More than 100 years ago, a battle-scarred soldier, Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, observed: "It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation."

[donheld]

36. Welcome milmascara13

[peekaloo]

7. Damn "Old Europe" just ain't a friendly place to visit these days.

bastard.

[BeyondThePale]

8. Like everyone in the shrub administration,

Rummy knows how to cover his ass!

[Ms_Mary]

9. Touche, what will the WH do to try to counter that PR nightmare.

Not that the followers will believe it anyway...

[ixion]

10. BushCo will wind up like Kissinger

unable to leave the continental US because of warrants for their arrest on war crimes charges.

[DemoTex]

15. May their retirement years be a hell-on-earth.

I hope Bu$h and Rummy rot on their respective "ranches" while the sane world works toward their prosecution.

[daleo]

35. Pinochet has been indicted in Chile, I read

So you just never know.

[ze_dscherman]

11. We don't want him

... but wouldn't it be great if we kept him? :evilgrin:

[Joe Chi Minh]

12. All about values,

doncha know.

[neweurope]

13. I'd be glad not to see him here but he'll come.

Saying he won't come is just extortion of the German Government. You see - you ARE the mightiest nation on earth - if not to say the biggest bully on the block - and for quite a number of reasons the government just can't afford to not welcome him here :puke:

Going to court in Germany was an excellent move because it brings publicity. Can hardly wait for the first US-citizen to apply for political asylum here. But nothing will come of it, somehow the court will find a way of saying it is not competent.

[Vidar]

14. Thank you, Germany. We can only hope that this becomes

more widespread throughout Europe & the world, and that the same courtesy is extended to all the other American war criminals.

[Kellanved]

19. I don't think it'll get that far

It won't go to court, the prosecutor will declare himself not competent (And Nehm indeed is incompetent).

[kineneb]

34. Hey, I want asylum in Germany!

I am fluent in German and a number of ancestors came from Germany. And I like it there! I tell the "red-state" types that for me there is California and not much else until I get to Europe. (no offence ment to folks in other states, I am a native Califorinio)

[neversaynever]

16. YOU CAN HELP MAKE IT HAPPEN...ACTION ALERT

The Center for Constitutional Rights and four Iraqis who were tortured in U.S. custody have filed a complaint with the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office against high ranking United States civilian and military commanders over the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere in Iraq.

We are asking the German prosecutor to launch an investigation: since the U.S. government is unwilling to open an independent investigation into the responsibility of these officials for war crimes, and since the U.S. has refused to join the International Criminal Court, CCR and the Iraqi victims have brought this complaint in Germany as a court of last resort. Several of the defendants are stationed in Germany.


here's the URL, taken from Michaelmoore.com, where you can write to encourage these efforts. Only takes a minute.


http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/whatsnew/action/actionAlert2.asp

[Hosnon]

17. Hehe, go Germany - I HATE this administration...damn cronies. nt

[Demeter]

18. This Bunch Has Wanted To Isolate Themselves From Reality

so they built a bubble of impenetrability around themselves. Now the world is using that bubble idea to isolate them from harming the rest of the world, and punishing them for the crimes they've already committed. The US is going to be one big prison, and we are going to be the wardens of the BFEE. The trouble with prisons is neither the inmates nor the guards are free, nor will they ever be.

[sattahipdeep]

20. Under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction, suspected war criminals

may be prosecuted irrespective of where they are located.

http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=TCRlT9TuSb&Content=471

The four Iraqis were victims of gruesome crimes including severe beatings, sleep
and food deprivation, hooding and sexual abuse.

(Further details of the treatment of the complainants are attached.)

The German Prosecutor has discretion to decide whether to initiate an
investigation. It is critical that he hear from you so he knows that people
around the world support this effort.Send a letter

http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/whatsnew/action/actionAlert2.asp

[sattahipdeep]

21. The German Code of Crimes

....
The German Code of Crimes against International Law grants German Courts
what is called Universal Jurisdiction for the above-described crimes.
Article 1, Part 1, Section 1 states: "This Act shall apply to all criminal offenses
against international law designated under this Act, to serious criminal offences
designated therein even when the offence was committed abroad and bears no
relation to Germany.” This means that those who commit such crimes can be prosecuted
wherever found: they, like pirates of old, are considered enemies of all humankind.

http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=TCRlT9TuSb&Content=471

[laylah]

22. Low-life chicken excrement!

Whadda ya afeard of, Rumass? You and Kissinger belong together...in hell! :mad:

Jenn

[Liberal Grant WI]

23. Alright!

hahaha christ...that just leaves the question...does anyone like anyone from the Bush administration?

[bamacrat]

24. Wait a minute, did he just admit he did something wrong?

Why else would you tuck tail and run when someone says they might investigate you. if hes so certain that we went to iraq with reason what is he worried about. let them investigate. really no wait someone should make them. maybe then we would be rid of rummy.

[Zerex71]

25. Germany knows from torture, abuse, and unlawful incarceration.

Thankfully, they learned the horror of their ways.

[Karenina]

27. FAQ: HOW does this man

still have his job? :shrug:

[Bouncy Ball]

29. Good.

FUCK you rumsfeld, you piece of shit. And while I'm at it fuck you bush and your filthy warmongering LIES.

[susu369]

30. Even Rummy's German relatives have disowned him

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0209-02.htm

The Rumsfelds of Weyhe-Sudweyhe, an unremarkable red-brick suburb of Bremen, were once proud of their long-lost cousin, America's secretary of state for defense - but no longer.

Like many Germans, they are appalled by Donald Rumsfeld's hawkish attitude to military action against Saddam Hussein. About 18,000 anti-war demonstrators marched through Munich yesterday to protest at his presence at an international security conference - chanting slogans such as "No room for Rumsfeld!"

"We think it is dreadful that Donald Rumsfeld is out there pushing for a war against Iraq," Karin Cecere (nee Rumsfeld), 59, said from her two-up, two-down home last week. "We are embarrassed to be related to him," she told The Telegraph.

Margarete Rumsfeld, her 85-year-old mother, was equally dismissive: "We don't have much to do with him anymore. Nowadays he's just the American defense secretary to us, but for God's sake, he'd better not start a war," she added.

They used to feel differently. Twenty-five years ago, the German Rumsfelds were thrilled to welcome Mr Rumsfeld - then the United States ambassador to Nato stationed in Brussels - into their extended family.
--snip--

[lies and propaganda]

31. happy happy joy joy...

I ♥ Germans!

[proudbluestater]

33. Dupe! D'oh!