[News] Call on German Prosecutor to Investigate Rumsfeld for War Crimes

[News at freedomarchives.org]

In this issue of Rights Alert!

Call on the German Federal Prosecutor to Investigate Rumsfeld and Other 
U.S. Officials for War Crimes at Abu Ghraib

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and four Iraqis who were 
tortured in U.S. custody filed a complaint on November 30, 2004, with the 
German Federal Prosecutor's Office against high ranking United States 
civilian and military commanders over the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and 
elsewhere in Iraq.

Please join our effort! The German Prosecutor's Office has discretion to 
decide whether to initiate an investigation and may come to a decision as 
early as January. It is critical that they hear from you and understand 
that people around the world support this effort. 
<http://rd.bcentral.com/?ID=2366542&s=15012916>Send a letter here.

We are asking the German prosecutor to launch an investigation: since the 
U.S. government is unwilling to open an independent investigation into the 
responsibility of these officials for war crimes, and since the U.S. has 
refused to join the International Criminal Court, CCR and the Iraqi victims 
have brought this complaint in Germany as a court of last resort. Several 
of the defendants are stationed in Germany.

Defendants include Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, former CIA 
Director George Tenet, Lt. General Ricardo S. Sanchez, Major-General Walter 
Wojdakowski, Brig.-General Janis Karpinski, Lt.-Colonel Jerry L. 
Phillabaum, Colonel Thomas M. Pappas, Lt.-Colonel Stephen L. Jordan, 
Major-General Geoffrey Miller, and Undersecretary of Defense for 
Intelligence Stephen Cambone.

German law allows German courts to prosecute for killing, torture, cruel 
and inhumane treatment, forcible transfers and sexual coercion such as 
occurred at Abu Ghraib. The world has seen the photographs and read the 
leaked "torture memos" - we are doing what is necessary when other systems 
of justice have failed and seeking to hold officials up the chain of 
command responsible for the shameful abuses that occurred.

(If the above link doesn't work, paste this address into your browser:
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/whatsnew/action/actionAlert2.asp

For more information on the suit, go to 
<http://rd.bcentral.com/?ID=2366540&s=15012916>www.ccr-ny.org.)

Please forward this message widely!

Sincerely,
Michael Ratner
President
Center for Constitutional Rights

Peter Weiss
Vice-President
Center for Constitutional Rights


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