Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld cannot be tried on allegations of torture in overseas military prisons, a federal judge said Tuesday in a case he described as ``lamentable.'' U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan threw out a lawsuit brought on behalf of nine former prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said Rumsfeld cannot be held personally responsible for actions taken in connection with his government job. That's only been codified as a principle of common law since about 1400, I think, though without a "the king is immune from suit" principle all government action is hamstrung. I believe that was part of the intent here....
The lawsuit contends the prisoners were beaten, suspended upside down from the ceiling by chains, urinated on, shocked, sexually humiliated, burned, locked inside boxes and subjected to mock executions.
There are two guys who were nabbed today who're car bomb artists, responsible for 900 deaths and a couple thousand maimings. Boy, I sure hope nobody pees on one of them. I'd really hate to see their rights violated like that.
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First had argued that Rumsfeld and top military officials disregarded warnings about the abuse and authorized the use of illegal interrogation tactics that violated the constitutional and human rights of prisoners.
Hogan appeared conflicted during arguments last year. On one hand, he said he was hesitant to allow allegations of torture to go unheard. On the other hand, he said the case was unprecedented. ``This is a lamentable case,'' Hogan began his 58-page opinion Tuesday. I really feel for them. [Urp!]
No matter how appealing it might seem to use the courts to correct allegations of severe abuses of power, Hogan wrote, government officials are immune from such lawsuits. Additionally, foreigners held overseas are not normally afforded U.S. constitutional rights. ``Despite the horrifying torture allegations,'' Hogan said, he could find no case law supporting the lawsuit, which he previously had described as unprecedented.
You can keep looking back all the way to Roman law, and then you can look in the law books of every country in the world. 'Tain't there.
Allowing the case to go forward, Hogan said in December, might subject government officials to all sorts of political lawsuits. Even Osama bin Laden could sue, Hogan said, claiming two American presidents threatened to have him murdered. ``There is no getting around the fact that authorizing monetary damages remedies against military officials engaged in an active war would invite enemies to use our own federal courts to obstruct the Armed Forces' ability to act decisively and without hesitation,'' Hogan wrote Tuesday.