I was under the impression there was no Statute of Limitations on "War Crimes" but

[Winterblues]

last night on Rachael Maddow Show a Lawyer made the statement that torture had an eight year Statute of Limitation and that things done in early 2002 or late 2001 such as Legal Memos authorizing "enhanced interogation" might be reaching or even passed that Statute. If there is any hope of ever really holding the Bush* Cabal accountable it has to be started immediately or they will skip off into the sunset laughing and joking about how stupid Americans are. Do you think they could ever spend all of their "War Profits"?

[LynnTheDem]

1. There is no statute of limitations on war crimes.

18 U.S.C. § 2441 has no statute of limitations, which means that a war crimes complaint can be filed at any time. .

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20051028&articleId=1159

Article 1

No statutory limitation shall apply to the following crimes, irrespective of the date of their commission:

(a) War crimes as they are defined in the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Nurnberg, of 8 August 1945 and confirmed by resolutions 3 (1) of 13 February 1946 and 95 (I) of 11 December 1946 of the General Assembly of the United Nations, particularly the "grave breaches" enumerated in the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 for the protection of war victims;

(b) Crimes against humanity whether committed in time of war or in time of peace as they are defined in the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Nurnberg, of 8 August 1945 and confirmed by resolutions 3 (I) of 13 February 1946 and 95 (I) of 11 December 1946 of the General Assembly of the United Nations, eviction by armed attack or occupation and inhuman acts resulting from the policy of apartheid, and the crime of genocide as defined in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, even if such acts do not constitute a violation of the domestic law of the country in which they were committed.
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/p_limit.htm

[pleah]

2. I was watching that, too. I was surprised Rachel didn't question

her further on that issue. But, I also won't take the word of just one lawyer on this issue.

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. There is a legal distinction

If I were to kidnap someone and torture them, it would not be a war crime, and the statute of limitations would apply. If I were a military commander and ordered people under my command to torture prisoners of war, that would be a war crime and the statute of limitations on war crimes (ie, no limitation) would apply.

The distinction is in the context.

[ThomWV]

4. I think the problem is more pronounced with illegal wiretapping

Let's face it, at most there are only a several hundred instances of individuals having been tortured. There are hundreds of millions of cases of illegal wiretapping and while we may presume nt the torturing has ended, the wiretapping surely has not.

[Aloha Spirit]

5. Here's info

http://www.pubrecord.org/torture/643-conyers-proposes-extending-statute-of-limitations-on-torture.html
"...there are legitimate questions about the statute of limitations, which expire on March 11, 2009, on Bush's unilateral decision to reauthorize the spy program absent a green light from the DOJ.

In March 2004, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft was hospitalized with acute pancreatitis and it fell upon former Deputy Attorney General James Comey to recertify the program. But Comey and his colleagues at the DOJ refused to do so because the program appeared to be illegal."

[leftofthedial]

7. does the statutory clock begin ticking at the moment of authorization,

or at the moment of the last illegal wiretap (which I assume are still going on)?

[mmonk]

6. I haven't read where there is a real statute of limitations

of Constitutional crimes nor war crimes but there will be plenty of sympathetic lawyers proclaiming such as we move forward instead comparing it to common crimes.

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

8. extending the statute to 10 yrs

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has proposed extending to 10 years the statute of limitations on war crimes, torture, and domestic surveillance in the event an investigation into the Bush administration’s controversial policies turns up prosecutable evidence against former officials after statute of limitations laws currently on the books expire.

Congress should immediately consider “extending the statute of limitations for potential violations of the torture statute, war crimes statute, laws prohibiting warrantless domestic surveillance, or for crimes committed against persons in United States military custody or CIA custody to ten years.”


http://www.pubrecord.org/torture/643.html?task=view

[tritsofme]

9. Wouldn't such an extension be an illegal ex post facto law?

You can't change the rules in the middle of the game.