UN TORTURE MONITOR SAYS OBAMA IS BOUND TO PROSECUTE VIOLATORS
BBC - The UN special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, says the US is bound under the UN Convention against Torture to prosecute those who engage in it. . . Mr Obama on Thursday said he would not prosecute under anti-torture laws CIA personnel who relied in good faith on Bush administration legal opinions issued after the 11 September attacks.
Mr Nowak - who is due to travel to Washington to meet with officials - said that could be a mitigating factor, but does not absolve those involved.
"The fact that you carried out an order doesn't relieve you of your responsibility," he was quoted as saying.
Mr Nowak, an Austrian law professor, said US courts could still try those suspected of carrying out torture, as Mr Obama has not sought an amnesty law for affected CIA personnel.
Mr Nowak - who is due to travel to Washington to meet with officials - said that could be a mitigating factor, but does not absolve those involved.
"The fact that you carried out an order doesn't relieve you of your responsibility," he was quoted as saying.
Mr Nowak, an Austrian law professor, said US courts could still try those suspected of carrying out torture, as Mr Obama has not sought an amnesty law for affected CIA personnel.
posted by TPR | 7:41 PM
2 Comments:
Bush44 will do his best to avoid applying the law of this nation and international law on torture. But he will probably have to pick a few scape goats that are a little higher up the feeding chain than the twitlets like England that have been prosecuted to date.
Following torture orders is not a viable excuse for a raw recruit. Anyone else should be tried to the fullest extent of the law.
For me, the issue is coming down to whether we should try ObamaCo, the BushCos, and ClintonCo together or separately. They should certainly all stand trial for their lives, if the law means anything.
Looking at what these criminals are getting away with, I'm actually beginning to feel a certain amount of uncomfortable sympathy for the Nazis hanged at Nürnberg. If they'd only been part of the US ruling class, they'd have walked away from their crimes and lived out the rest of their unnatural lives in wealth and comfort.
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