Avebarna Courier

NY Times 21-12-2014, por The Editorial Board

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/opinion/prosecute-torturers-and-their-bosses.html

Prosecute Torturers and Their Bosses

(..) Americans have known about many of these acts for years, but the 524-page executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report erases any lingering doubt about their depravity and illegality: In addition to new revelations of sadistic tactics like “rectal feeding ,” scores of detainees were waterboarded, hung by their wrists, confined in coffins, sleep-deprived, threatened with death or brutally beaten. In November 2002, one detainee who was chained to a concrete floor died of “suspected hypothermia.” (..)

But any credible investigation should include former Vice President Dick Cheney; Mr. Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington; the former C.I.A. director George Tenet; and John Yoo and Jay Bybee, the Office of Legal Counsel lawyers who drafted what became known as the torture memos. There are many more names that could be considered, including Jose Rodriguez Jr., the C.I.A. official who ordered the destruction of the videotapes; the psychologists who devised the torture regimen; and the C.I.A. employees who carried out that regimen. (..) 

2014-12-23

Asilados no Forte Apache

Al Jazeera online 11-12-2014, por James Rein

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/12/why-bush-won-be-prosecuted-over-cia-torture-2014121161914372298.html

Why Bush won’t be prosecuted over CIA torture

Rumsfeld, Bush & Cheney

Fonte: Internet

The release of the report on CIA torture of suspected terrorists after the 9/11 attacks has been followed by calls for the torturers - and top members of former president George W Bush's national security team - to be prosecuted. The chances of that happening, however, are slim. 

(..) When the ICC was founded, Washington struck deals with allies to ensure that US citizens would not face extradition to the court. In 2002, Bush signed the American Service-Members' Protection Act, dubbed the “Hague invasion clause", authorising the use of military force to liberate Americans in ICC detention.

[but]

(..) Some courts in Belgium, Spain, France and other European countries can prosecute severe rights abuses committed overseas. Famously, a Spanish court's indictment led to the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London in 1998. Lawyers have sought prosecutions against Bush-era officials for war crimes in multiple European courts. In February 2011, Bush cancelled a trip to Switzerland, where alleged torture victims were planning to file a criminal complaint against him.

(..) Melina Milazzo, a policy counsel for the Centre for Victims of Torture, said the Senate's 500-page report summary, and the unredacted details in the 6,700-page full version, which remains secret, may be valuable to European lawyers. 

 
[so]

"If I were a senior Bush administration official who was well-known to have engaged in this programme and advocated the use of torture, I would limit my vacations to the territory of the United States," Milazzo told Al Jazeera. (..) 

2014-12-12