Rights groups to chase Bush

Former US President George W. Bush

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/164157.html

Human rights activists have pledged to be hot on the heels of former US President George W. Bush wherever he makes a trip to.

"The reach of the Convention Against Torture is wide -- this case is prepared and will be waiting for him wherever he travels next," AFP quoted Katherine Gallagher, an attorney and vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), as saying on Monday.

Rights groups state that criminal complaints against Bush over alleged torture have been lodged in Geneva, Switzerland.

The former US president reportedly had to call off his trip to Switzerland because of the risk that he could be taken in to be questioned for war crimes and torture.

"Swiss law requires the presence of the torturer on Swiss soil before a preliminary investigation can be opened," said the Paris-based FIDH along with the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights and the Centre for Constitutional Rights.

A statement issued by the rights groups pointed out that "When Bush cancelled his trip to avoid prosecution, the human rights groups who prepared the complaints made (them) public and announced that the Bush torture indictment would be waiting wherever he travels next."

New York-based Human Rights Watch has said that US officials themselves should file criminal charges against Bush.

"The US government should take the lead to investigate former US President George W. Bush and other senior officials for authorizing torture of terrorism suspects rather than leaving prosecutions to other countries," the NGO said.

Waterboarding is one of the so-called harsh interrogation techniques approved during Bush's presidency to be used against prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as those held at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Human rights groups maintain that waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning, is illegal under the Geneva Conventions.

Rumsfeld involved in Abu Ghraib torture

Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/163683.html

Governmental documents indicate that former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, among other US officials, played a role in the torture policies in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

In his new autobiography, Rumsfeld says Abu Ghraib's prisoner abuse was perpetrated by rogue soldiers, despite governmental documents hinting at pro-torture policies issued by senior US officials, such as Rumsfeld, himself.

"There were decisions made by Secretary Rumsfeld, himself, and by other members of the Bush cabinet to endorse torture to allow the use of interrogation methods that in the past, the United States had regarded as war crimes," Hameel Jaffer told Press TV's US Desk in an interview.

As a result of these policies, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and other worldwide US-run detention facilities have used severe torture techniques, previously regarded as war crimes in the United States.

Since 2004, numerous accounts of “systematic and illegal abuses of detainees” have been reported. Cases including rape, torture, and murder have been among those reported.

An estimated 1,300,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed, while about 4.7 million have been displaced since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.

During these seven years, 4,436 US troops have been reported as being killed.

Ex-US defense secy. accused of torture

Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/160063.html


A US rights group has filed a lawsuit charging former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with involvement in torturing former prisoners in American prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) catapulted the torture case into prominence on Thursday after it lodged an appeal to a court in the District of Columbia, alleging that Rumsfeld and some senior US military officials were quite aware of a torture case involving nine detainees between 2002 and 2004 in American prisons in the two countries, AFP reported.

The case initially was brought forth in December 2006, but later on was withdrawn by a federal court in March 2007 on the grounds that the ex-defense secretary and other top American military officials were immune from prosecution.

The US-based human rights group stated that under the Constitution and international law, torture is strictly prohibited and commanders are obliged to act when they know or should have known of such abuses.

The ACLU argued that the 78-year-old Rumsfeld and other military officials were repeatedly notified of abuse and torture at detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan by the International Red Cross and other reports as well as complaints by human rights organizations, thus they are directly responsible for the abuses.

The group further touched upon a case involving a prisoner identified as Ali.V, adding that prisoners, who were later released without charge, “were beaten, tortured, and sexually abused.”

Meanwhile, three judges at an appeals court in the District of Columbia said the case has a little chance to succeed.

The remarks came as a group of activists, each wearing black hoods and orange jumpsuits representing the prisoners at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay staged a rally in front of the court room on Thursday to protest against negligence over the torture case.

Rumsfeld is currently putting finishing touches on the release of his memoire book titled “Known and unknown”, which is due to hit bookshelves in the US on 8 February.

'US govt. lawyers okayed torture'

Philippe Sands is a British lawyer at Matrix Chambers
and is ‎a professor of international law at University
College London


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=138719§ionid=3510203


Senior US government lawyers of the Bush administration schemed to circumvent the Geneva Conventions in order to torture the Guantanamo detainees more aggressively, a certified Queen's Counsel says.

In an interview with Press TV, Philip Sands, the author of Torture Team, blamed lawyers close to former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for marginalizing international laws to sanction the torture of detainees at US-run prisons.

Sands cited a memo that Rumsfeld signed on December 2, 2002 as proof of the US officials' crime. The memo sought to help the US government coerce imprisoned suspected terrorists into revealing intelligence.

The memo authorized the use of controversial practices that were later employed at prisons in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

Many human rights activists have criticized these techniques, saying they are in violation of international definitions of torture such as Common Article 3 of the 1941 Geneva Conventions.

In 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled that President George W. Bush's decision to waive the Geneva Conventions was wrong and illegal.

US to engage in 'hit and run' war in Somalia

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120260§ionid=351020501


The United States is involved in preparatory military operations in Somali for a 'major' offensive against Somali fighters, report says.

US is providing military assistance to Somali government in order to retake capital Mogadishu from Somali fighters, a recent report in The New York Times indicates.

The American military is conducting nighttime surveillance in the Al-Shabab-controlled areas of the capital and training Somali intelligence officers and forces in addition to providing logistical supports for the government, the report adds.

All the preliminary efforts, including reconnaissance and logistic operations, are meant to help launch a major assault on what US government dubs the 'al-Qaeda' branch in Somalia within 'a few' weeks.

“It's the Americans … helping us," the US newspaper quoted Somali military chief General Mohamed Gelle Kahiye as saying.

Meanwhile, a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity was quoted in the report as saying that American 'covert forces would get involved if the offensive fails to dislodge al-Qaeda terrorists.'

“What you're likely to see is airstrikes and Special Ops moving in, hitting and getting out,” noted the official.

The report also refers to secret US military and intelligence involvement in the Horn of Africa conflicts in the aftermath of the overthrow of Somalia's junta leader Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

It also mentions the US Central Intelligence Agency's failed collaborations with Somali warlords to stop the fighters in 2006 which led to a US-backed invasion of the impoverished African state by Ethiopian forces in the effort to kill top leaders of Somali fighters.

In summer 2009, the American government hastily shipped in millions of dollars of weapons in order to save the Somali government, it went on to say.

Recently, there have been reports of the arrival of US defense contractors in Somalia in order to support 'peace efforts' there.

American officials claim that between 6,000 and 10,000 trained Somalia troops would fight in the offensive against an estimated 5,000 Somali fighters.