U.N. special rapporteur on torture calls on U.S. to prosecute Bush and Rumsfeld.

[ProSense]

U.N. special rapporteur on torture calls on U.S. to prosecute Bush and Rumsfeld.

In remarks that aired on German television last night, Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, urged the U.S. to pursue former President George W. Bush and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld on charges that they authorized torture and other harsh interrogation techniques:

“Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation” to bring proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld. <…> He noted Washington had ratified the UN convention on torture which required “all means, particularly penal law” to be used to bring proceedings against those violating it.

“We have all these documents that are now publicly available that prove that these methods of interrogation were intentionally ordered by Rumsfeld,” against detainees at the US prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Nowak said.

Indeed, a bipartisan Senate report released last month found that Rumsfeld “bore major responsibility” for abuses committed at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and other military detention centers. Just last week, a Bush administration official overseeing Gitmo trials said Rumsfeld approved the torture of one particular detainee. Bush himself said last year that he was aware of his advisers’ discussions on torture and recently admitted that he personally authorized waterboarding Kalid Sheik Muhammad.

[RC]

1. Go after the criminals, one and all.

[hippywife]

2. Yes!

It's time to add all of our voices to that call, and add Cheney and Wolfie to that roster, as well.

[chill_wind]

3. Add to this the stark contrast today of the RW lunatics & MSNBC

"They just said on MSNBC that the right wing nuts are calling for Obama’s impeachment because he flubbed the words to his oath of office and is too incompetent to serve."

(from the comments section)

I include MSNBC, because of what/who they obviously choose to amplify and headline-- and NOT.
AS ever, we had to read this news on a liberal blog.

[Lord Helmet]

4. they have to do it

[ProSense]

5. Senate Republicans Delay Vote on Obama Justice Nomination

Senate Republicans Delay Vote on Obama Justice Nomination

By Cindy Saine
Washington
21 January 2009

Senate Republicans have forced the Judiciary Committee to delay for one week a vote on President Barack Obama's choice to be Attorney General, Eric Holder. Republican Senator John Cornyn says he wants more information from Holder on whether the Department of Justice will pursue criminal prosecution of U.S. intelligence personnel involved in the interrogation of detainees.

Just one day after President Barack Obama's inauguration, Republicans and Democrats were wrangling on Capitol Hill.

The Senate Judiciary Committee was expected to vote on Wednesday to confirm Eric Holder to be the new Attorney General, sending the nomination on to a vote by the full Senate. But Republican members invoked a rule that automatically delays the vote in the Committee by one week, saying that the process has been rushed and that the nominee has yet to answer all their questions.

The Committee's ranking Republican, Senator Arlen Specter, was almost apologetic, saying he would have been willing to let the panel vote, but that he still has concerns about the nomination.

more

Cornyn is out of his friggin mind.