The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Berlin’s Republican Lawyers’ Association seem to think this will amount to something.
Alleging responsibility for war crimes and torture at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison, a human rights group has filed a criminal complaint in Germany against US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top US officials.
The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Berlin’s Republican Lawyers’ Association said they and five Iraqi citizens mistreated by US soldiers were seeking a probe by German federal prosecutors of leading US policymakers.
They said they had chosen Germany because of its Code of Crimes Against International Law, introduced in 2002, which grants German courts universal jurisdiction in cases involving war crimes or crimes against humanity.
It also makes military or civilian commanders who fail to prevent their subordinates from committing such acts liable.
Me thinks whatever the outcome, it, and 5 or 6 bucks will get you a cup of Joe and a dozen donuts.
Also named in the complaint are former CIA director George Tenet, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Steven Cambone, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, Brigadier General Janis L. Karpinski and other military officers who served in Iraq.
Hey it’s Christmas, where’s the partridge in a pear tree? And where in the sam hell are the criminal charges against the jihadist cut throats terrorizing the Sunni Triangle?
Well… I’m waiting….
UPDATE: While we all wait for the jihadists to be charged in this German kangaroo court, here is a description of Germany’s “Code of Crimes Against International Law.” It includes this tasty little morsel:
Prosecution can be dropped in cases where neither the victim nor the perpetrator of a crime are German citizens. If the accused is not in Germany nor can be expected to come to Germany, prosecution can also be dropped.
Germany’s Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries justified these limitations by saying that Germany should not act as a “global policeman” by prosecuting all crimes against international law regardless of where they have been committed.
Why do I get the feeling the Justice Minister, if asked, would agree with my take that this entire charde is a waste of time, energy, and money?
UPDATE II: California Yankee is floating the term treason as an apt description of the CCR’s action. He also inludes an excellent chronology of events in the Abu Ghraib abuse case.
UPDATE III: Will the CCR and Berlin’s Republican Lawyers’ Association also file charges against these soldiers? Their alleged abuse bares a “striking similarity to events reported in the US-run prison in Abu Ghraib, Iraq.”
UPDATE IV: Rob has joined the chorus lambasting these idiots.