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| UN torture envoy: US must prosecute Bush lawyers |
| 2009-04-26 |
| VIENNA (AP) - The U.S. is obligated by a United Nations convention to prosecute Bush administration lawyers who allegedly drafted policies that approved the use of harsh interrogation tactics against terrorism suspects, the U.N.'s top anti-torture envoy said Friday. Earlier this week, President Barack Obama left the door open to prosecuting Bush administration officials who devised the legal authority for gruesome terror-suspect interrogations. He had previously absolved CIA officers from prosecution. Gruesome? I believe not. Harsh? Hardly. Manfred Nowak, who serves as a U.N. special rapporteur in Geneva, said Washington is obligated under the U.N. Convention against Torture to prosecute U.S. Justice Department officials who wrote memos that defined torture in the narrowest way in order to justify and legitimize it, and who assured CIA officials that their use of questionable tactics was legal. "That's exactly what I call complicity or participation" to torture as defined by the convention, Nowak said at a news conference. "At that time, every reasonable person would know that waterboarding, for instance, is torture." Nowak, an Austrian law professor, said it was up to U.S. courts and prosecutors to prove that the memos were written with the intention to incite torture. They were written to with the intention of getting information to keep U.S. Citizens from getting murdered. Nowak also said any probe of questionable CIA interrogation tactics must be independent and have thorough investigative powers. Bite me, Manfred. "It can be a congressional investigation commission, a special investigator, but it must be independent and with thorough investigative powers," Nowak said. The memos authorized keeping detainees naked, in painful standing positions and in cold cells for long periods of time. Other techniques included depriving them of solid food and slapping them. Sleep deprivation, prolonged shackling and threats to a detainee's family also were used. Oh, the Humanity! How gruesome! Nowak said Saturday that Obama's decision not to prosecute CIA operatives who used questionable interrogation practices violates the same U.N. convention. But at that point he did not specifically address the issue of how the convention would apply to those who drafted the interrogation policy and gave the CIA the legal go-ahead. |
| Posted by:Deacon Blues |
| #11 And our spineless POS for a pres will follow the UN all the way to ruin. And |
| Posted by: Zorba Craising6734 2009-04-26 22:19 |
| #10 The CIA does have another option, Rambler. Besides asking the President, call up Nancy Pelosi and ask her what they can do to the terrorist. Better yet, get the whole damn Congressional "oversight" committee involved. What, exactly, can we do to make this terrorist talk, oh great overseers? Put your names to what we do. Or we do nothing, on your say-so (or lack thereof). And if you think your answer will be kept secret in the years to come, you obviously haven't been in D.C. long enough to matter. >:-( |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-04-26 21:42 |
| #9 I can see it now: we capture a terrorist who we know has some actionable information. The CIA operatives ask headquarters if it is OK to do something not nice to him. The headquarters people ask the CIA lawyers for an opinion. The CIA lawyers ask the White House for an opinion. The White House asks the White House lawyers for an opinion. The White House lawyers ask their personal lawyers if they can give an opinion. The personal lawyers hem and haw, and eventually recommend against giving an opinion, because the White House lawyers might later on be prosecuted by a subsequent administration, or by the UN. The White House lawyers the the White House that they have no opinion ... Eventually, DC disappears under a mushroom cloud. Note, I am not talking about beating the terrorist or attaching electrodes to his genitals or any of the things the North Vietnamese did to John McCain and the other POWs. I am talking about making the terrorist stand in an uncomfortable position, or waterboarding him, or yelling at him to get him to talk. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2009-04-26 21:07 |
| #8 And our spineless POS for a pres will follow the UN all the way to ruin. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2009-04-26 19:36 |
| #7 Meanwhile, the buttocks gluers of Iraq get a free pass. Al |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2009-04-26 15:39 |
| #6 Tell 'em they can talk about prosecuting Bush lawyers *after* they pay their parking tickets. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2009-04-26 14:24 |
| #5 and for them too hate us so much they still want too sit their ass up in new york, why not move too The Hague? |
| Posted by: rabid whitetail 2009-04-26 12:50 |
| #4 we never seem too prosecute the UN delegates or anyone else(soldiers, Kofi Annan, the guy who threw his aunt down an elevator shaft) affiliated with the UN so why they worried about who we prosecute for this. Can't wait for the day when we get a president that runs on getting the UN out of the US |
| Posted by: rabid whitetail 2009-04-26 12:49 |
| #3 I wonder what Obama's position will be on this, vis-a-vis a command from a UN for the US to ignore its own laws and instead let UN laws take precedence. Surely a maverick like him wouldn't cravenly obey. |
| Posted by: gromky 2009-04-26 12:02 |
| #2 A: What are you going to charge Bush's lawyers with? Having opinions? B: I was unaware the Al Qaida was a UN member or signatory to any UN convention. |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2009-04-26 10:51 |
| #1 Nowak said Saturday that Obama's decision not to prosecute CIA operatives who used questionable interrogation practices violates the same U.N. convention. Maybe Manfred can get an arrest warrant for Obama? |
| Posted by: john frum 2009-04-26 10:17 |