[News] Bush Ducks Geneva Criminal Torture Charges

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley02072011.html
February 7, 2011


Bush Ducks Geneva Criminal Torture Charges


Swiss Miss Bush

By BILL QUIGLEY

Justice for George W’s torture violations jumped 
much closer this weekend.  Ex-President George W 
Bush was supposed to fly to Switzerland to speak 
in Geneva February 15.  But his speech was 
cancelled over the weekend because of concerns 
about protests and efforts by human rights 
organizations asking Swiss prosecutors to charge 
Bush with torture and serve him with an arrest warrant.

Two things made this possible. Switzerland allows 
the prosecution of human rights violators from 
other countries if the violator is on Swiss soil 
and George W admitted he authorized water 
boarding detainees in his recent memoir.  Torture 
is internationally banned by the Convention Against Torture.

The European Center for Constitutional and Human 
Rights, the International Federation for Human 
Rights, and the US-based Center for 
Constitutional Rights prepared criminal 
complaints with more than 2500 pages of 
supporting material to submit to the Swiss 
prosecutor.  These criminal complaints were 
signed by more than 60 human rights organizations 
world wide and by the former UN Special 
Rapporteur on Torture, the former UN Special 
Rapporteur on Independence of Judges and Lawyers, 
and Nobel Peace Prize recipients Shirin Ebadi and Perez Esquivel.

Amnesty International, which has repeatedly 
called for criminal investigation of torture by 
GWB, sent Swiss prosecutors a detailed legal and 
factual analysis of President Bush’s criminal responsibility for torture.

While some traditionalists in the human rights 
community scoff at the notion that GWB and others 
will ever be held accountable for their violations, experts disagree.

"Nobody – from those who administered the 
practices to those at the top of the chain of 
command – is under a shield of absolute immunity 
for the practices of secret detention, 
extraordinary rendition and torture," Martin 
Scheinin, UN special rapporteur on human rights 
and professor of public international law at the 
European University Institute told The 
Guardian.  "Legally this case is quite clear. 
Bush does not enjoy immunity as a former head of 
state, and he has command responsibility for the decisions that were taken."

Similar efforts to prosecute former President 
Bush, former Bush lawyers Attorney General 
Alberto Gonzales, Federal Appeals Court Judge Jay 
Bybee, John Yoo, William J. Haynes II, David 
Addington, and Douglas J Feith are proceeding in Spain.

All of these international efforts to seek 
justice for the human rights violations committed 
by the Bush administration are possible only 
because the US has refused to prosecute – another 
disappointment by the Obama administration.

Ironically, February 7 is the ninth anniversary 
of the date when GWB unilaterally decided that 
the Geneva Conventions did not apply to enemy 
combatants.  GWB denied, as most facing criminal 
charges do, that the possibility of prosecution 
was involved at all in the decision to cancel his trip.

The human rights community promised to pursue 
Bush and the other human rights violators 
whenever they leave the US.  Katherine Gallagher 
and Claire Tixiere, the lead lawyers authoring 
the 2500 page criminal case in Geneva 
stated:  “The reach of the Convention Against 
Torture is wide – this case is prepared and will 
be waiting for him wherever he travels next. 
Torturers – even if they are former presidents of 
the United States – must be held to account and 
prosecuted. Impunity for Bush must end.”

Bill Quigley is Legal Director of the Center for 
Constitutional Rights and law professor at Loyola 
University New Orleans.  For more on the Bush 
Torture Indictment see 
<http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/bush-torture-indictment>http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/bush-torture-indictment 
You can reach Bill at <mailto:quigley77 at gmail.com>quigley77 at gmail.com




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