HRW Calls For Criminal Investigation re Bush Officials. Obama has legal obligation to investigate.

[Karmadillo]

The latest report is based on recently released documents that strengthen the case against Bush and others. HRW calls on foreign nations to act if the Obama Administration continues to shield them from investigation and prosecution.

http://www.rferl.org/content/hrw_wants_investigation_of_bush/24263852.html

July 13, 2011
By Heather Maher

<edit>.

In a new report, Human Rights Watch cites "overwhelming evidence" that Bush ordered the use of torture -- including waterboarding and secret rendition -- to be used on terrorism suspects from the earliest days after the terror attacks of 2001.

<edit>

Titled "Getting Away With Torture: The Bush Administration and Mistreatment of Detainees," the report also contains what the group says is evidence of illegal acts sanctioned by Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George Tenet.

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The rights group says President Barack Obama has a legal duty to investigate acts of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees because the United States -- along with more than 140 other countries -- is a signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture.

In a statement, the group's director, Kenneth Roth, said the United States "is right to call for justice when serious international crimes are committed in places like Darfur, Libya, and Sri Lanka, but there should be no double standards." He added, "When the U.S. government shields its own officials from investigation and prosecution, it makes it easier for others to dismiss global efforts to bring violators of serious crimes to justice."

more...

[FiveGoodMen]

1. K&R

[EFerrari]

2. This morning, Jeremy Scahill is on Amy's show. He's been to Somalia

and is reporting on Obama's secret CIA prison in Mogadishu. I guess it would be difficult to prosecute rendition and torture if you are involved in it, too.

[Karmadillo]

6. Certainly makes it hard to follow through on the oath of office.

nt

[gratuitous]

3. But Bush's lawyers said it was okay

And under the Obama Doctrine (which I have subtitled "Close Enough"), that's all that's needed to lay a patina of legality on whatever the fuck someone wants to do. As soon as Rupert Murdoch has one of his pettifogging shysters come out to put a "legal" imprimatur on his corporate shenanigans, the Obama Justice Department will close down any investigations.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Perhaps Newscorpse has influenced actions or inactions in this sphere as well?

Who can say how many people they hold by the short hairs?:shrug:

Thanks for the thread, Karmadillo.

[damntexdem]

5. Oh, but like all indictable criminal acts, that is in the past.

;-)