Bush, 30 Officials, To Be Named In Torture Complaint To Go To Obama Administration

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/87734

Bush, 30 Officials, To Be Named In Torture Complaint To Go To Obama Administration
Sherwood Ross January 13, 2009President Bush and his aides repeatedly ignored warnings that their torture plans were illegal from high State Department officials as well as the nation´s top uniformed legal officers, the Judge Advocates General of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, a new published report states.

"These warnings of illegality and immorality given by knowledgeable and experienced (government) persons were ignored by the small group of high Executive officers who were determined that America would torture and abuse its prisoners and who had the decision-making power to secretly require this to be done," said Lawrence Velvel, chairman of the "Steering Committee of the Justice Robert H. Jackson Conference On Planning For The Prosecution of High Level American War Criminals." The Steering Committee´s Report was drafted for the entire committee by Chair Velvel, a noted legal education reformer.

The Report anticipates a more extensive, full scale complaint, currently being drafted, that will be presented to the Executive Branch after January 20th, urging prosecution of President Bush and those who aided him.

"Far from American officials and lawyers authorizing or engaging in torture because it was lawful, they authorized and engaged in it because they wanted to (and) kept their actions secret from interested officials for as long as they could lest there be strong opposition to the torture and abuse they were perpetrating," Velvel said. "They deliberately ignored repeated warnings that the torture and abuse were illegal and could lead to prosecutions, and they ignored these warnings even when they came from high level civilian and military officers."

A preliminary Report by the Steering Committee seeking Federal prosecution of American officials "who ordered, authorized, approved or committed war crimes," released January 9th, 2009, says they are guilty of "wholesale" violations of statutes that include Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, the Federal War Crimes Act, the Convention Against Torture, plus numerous other violations of U.S. and international laws.

The Report said prisoners were subjected to savage beatings, sleep deprivation, slow drowning, hanging by chains, being slammed head-first into concrete walls, temperature extremes, food deprivation, burial alive in coffin-like boxes for extended periods, and even threats against their families.

Among other things, the Report charges the General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA), knowingly approved of at least 117 renditions to torture and that such renditions were "personally encouraged by President George W. Bush…"

In addition to President Bush, those named for prosecution by the Steering Committee include:

Vice President Dick Cheney and his former chief of staff and legal counsel David Addington, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and her predecessor Colin Powell, former Attorneys-General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and his aide Alice Fisher, former deputy assistant Attorney General; and Tim Flanigan, a deputy White House attorney.

[az chela]

1. All of the above named people need to be charged

with WAR CRIMES and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.If they get away with this it is a terrible travesty of justice to all the people who were killed and maimed and the ones who lost everything and the cost of the war destroying our economy.

[LakeSamish706]

2. Wow... Do I ever hope that this comes to pass.... These suckers need to feel the pain....

I have waited (as many, many others have) to witness this happening.....

[chill_wind]

3. I'd like to see Pat Roberts, Porter Goss and The Gang of Eight

have to answer a few questions about their times of tenure, as well.

[NNN0LHI]

4. General Jeffrey Miller had better be on that list

Thats all I can say.

Don

[chill_wind]

5. ...