What? I didn’t do anything!
AlterNet: Rumsfeld Flees France, Fearing Arrest — This is rich. Now he’ll probably never be able to go back to France or much of Europe.
Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld fled France today fearing arrest over charges of “ordering and authorizing” torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the U.S. militarys detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, unconfirmed reports coming from Paris suggest.
U.S. embassy officials whisked Rumsfeld away yesterday from a breakfast meeting in Paris organized by the Foreign Policy magazine after human rights groups filed a criminal complaint against the man who spearheaded President George W. Bushs “war on terror” for six years.
Under international law, authorities in France are obliged to open an investigation when a complaint is made while the alleged torturer is on French soil.
found by Howard Harawitz
Hmmm. I thought he retired or something. Shouldnt he be fishing or driving around in and RV?
or puttering around in the basement, waterboarding the neighborhood kids …
.. or being held to account for his mismanagement of the Defense Department during a time of war?
After all, it was only when he was replaced that, even according to the right wing nuts, the war in Iraq started going in the right direction.
One thing that the Bush administration can be counted on: ZERO accountability, ZERO responsibility, ZERO ethics. In other words… ZERO value.
Bush Administration: Destroying America’s future and values one day at a time.
Muhahahahahah
This dates back to post-WW2 era, making it easy for common people to denounce war criminals.
Tip Of The Iceberg
In America, Rumsfeld is still a hero to the neocons, but a lot of people still don’t fully realize that there are countries where he could actually be tried as a war criminal because of what he has done.
#5. I am not sure he is a hero of ALL the neocons. a substantial number, true believers in the War to be sure, deplore how badly he botched their pet project.
It keeps them from confronting the fact that the idea, not just the execution, was bad.
Finally the French are good at something other than exporting anorexia.
#7. Viva la France!
International LAW??
and we are not PARt of this??
What is this? We are giving asylum to a Radical??
Maybe we could do a prisoner swap, with Roman Polanski?
Bullshit, Rummy was just doing the Government’s bidding. I know all you libs would love to see Rummy, Chaney and Bush’s head on a platter, but it aint going to happen. Get over it.
And this is EXACTLY why we won’t join the World Court or empower the UN to become effective==because they would take action against GOUSA!!! === because GOUSA would violate the internationally agreed to norms of behavior!
Now—what should happen to a country that invades another country without provocation and without UN authorization???==Of course==if its anyone but GOUSA, they should be condemned. If it is the GOUSA running roughshod over the rest of the world, then, other countries should understand our good intentions.
And thats why we will always have war. To avoid it, a UN type operation would need to be empowered to prevent same, and that won’t happen as long as the most powerful countries (at the time) refuse to give up power. So, wars will continue, and Superpowers will contine to decline because they fritter their national wealth away on ill considered wars. Rather poetic.
gquaglia –
I know all you libs would love to see Rummy, Chaney and Bush’s head on a platter, but it aint going to happen. Get over it.
No, we won’t get over it. Asking us to get over it is close to treason, considering what those egomaniacs have done to America. It would be wrong to even start to accept it.
Just because a crime isn’t getting stopped it does not mean that we should stand by and watch it happen and accept it.
You know who is most similar to Bush in his ideology right now in this world?
Mushareff of Pakistan. And look what he is doing these days.
That is Bush’s best buddy, his closest ally.
Think about it…
The reality is that the few remaining supporters of Bush t are only so because of their fear of accepting that they were wrong all along, that this guy is a wanna-be dictator and that his policies have done nothing but damage America.
So no, I won’t get over it.
It is wrong to accept it, and wrong to ignore it,
Who has Bush EVER held accountable for the piss poor performance of his government in every area? It’s time to start holding these people accountable for their actions, starting with his main counselors and cabinet members that misled him so badly.
So who frikin died and put France in charge?
the terrorists have won, unfortunatley most people have their heads so far up their asses they can’t see the goddamned truth.
#11. “Bullshit, Rummy was just doing the Government’s bidding.”
‘just following orders’ has not been a defense to war crimes for over 60 years now.
#11. “Bullshit, Rummy was just doing the Government’s bidding.”
As Doug says “‘just following orders’ has not been a defense to war crimes for over 60 years now.”
Specially when the overall policies are being written by the man in question. You are not following orders when you are the one issuing them to start with.
And while it is difficult to refuse to follow orders (although legally possible), in the case of Rumsfeld if he was receiving orders from above and he disagreed he did not have to implement the orders, he could have resigned (as Powell eventually did).
But that is irrelevant… Rumsfeld was not following orders, he was giving them.
As far as why France could have arrested Rumsfeld, they have every right to arrest anyone they want to if they have violated their national laws, while the person is on their land. And Rumsfled is no longer part of the government, so he does not have diplomatic immunity. In this case the actions of Rumsfeld regarding Iraq prisoners would have qualified him as a criminal worthy of arrest since there is ample evidence that he himself order the torture of prisoners.
This looks like another fine mess that Bush will have to whistle up a blanket pardon for. Only he’ll have to convince the french government to honor it. Which probably won’t take much arm twisting. We’ve probably got the goods on them for something they’ve done covertly. Or maybe they’ve brought this up as leverage toward getting a piece of Nam or Korea back.
I love how human rights groups always go after officials in the US and its allies and ignore people like Castro.
I got an idea. Let’s pull out of NATO and all troops out of Europe, and make it clear we won’t come back to help them if either Islamics or the Russians attack.
“…unconfirmed reports coming from Paris suggest.”
Obviously my journalistic standards are a little higher than this place: I need a confirmation that the suggestion was from an unconfirmed report before I’ll believe it.
Somewhat related: Canadian William Sampson is attempting to sue police in Saudi Arabia for torture. He’s appealing to a European court subsequent to the decision below.
“On Wednesday, the House of Lords overturned the appeal court’s judgment, saying the men do not have the right to sue Saudis because foreign government officials are immune from prosecution in Britain.
Lord Bingham of Cornhill said the principle of immunity for individual officials was “fundamental to the principle of state immunity.”
“A state is either immune from the jurisdiction of a foreign court or it is not,” he said.”
http://tinyurl.com/2t57ux
RBG
About bloody time!
Doesn’t the US have a fugitive extradition agreement with France for rapist, torturers, child molesters and murderers? Aside from child molesting, me thinks Rumsfeldt is guilty of those.
The question is, will Bush get arrested if he leaves the US? That would be pretty cool.
What makes anyone think that France has any jurisdiction in this matter? Were any of the detainee’s French citizens? Not too mention the diplomatic imunity… Sorry to ruin everyones wet dream.
He was sued (civil suit) not criminally charged and he did not flee France, his visit was over and he left on his predetermined time table
The blog had no facts to back up their accusations, just supposition and he said she said and you libs run with it like the hand of god came down and wrote it on the wall
#3 said it best
If I drag his ass back to France, do I get a reward
(sound of shotgun clicking)
3. I see, but other than Bushco, you have a long history of Republican support.
RBG
That arrest of Pinochet by Britain was just horrible. Here’s a guy who saved his country from becoming another Cuba, and the left is all mad at him for it.
MikeN, if anyone can paint Pinochet as a “good guy” dictator who rescued his country, you’re certainly the man for the job 😉