Story of the Day: A Suit Well-Tailored for Rumsfeld

From Amy Goodman's interview with Michael Ratner, president of the Center of Constitutional Rights:

Would Rumsfeld stepping down leave him open to prosecution? In 2004, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a criminal complaint in Germany on behalf of several Iraqi citizens who alleged that a group of U.S. officials committed war crimes in Iraq. Rumsfeld was among the officials named in the complaint. The Iraqis claimed they were victims of electric shock, severe beatings, sleep and food deprivation and sexual abuse.

Germany's laws on torture and war crimes permits the prosecution of suspected war criminals wherever they may be found. Now, the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner, is returning to Germany to file a new complaint.

MICHAEL RATNER: Thank you for having me on this issue, Amy. One of the shocking things really so far about the coverage of Rumsfeld’s resignation, there's not a word in any of it about torture. And here, Rumsfeld is one of the architects of the torture program of the United States. I mean, we have those sheets of paper that went to Guantanamo that talk about using dogs and stripping people and hooding people. We have one of our clients, al-Qahtani, who was in Guantanamo. Rumsfeld essentially supervised that entire interrogation, one of the worst interrogations that happened at Guantanamo. He actually authorized a rendition, a fake rendition of al-Qahtani, where flew him -- put a -- blindfolded him, sedated him, put him on an airplane and flew him back to Guantanamo, so he thought he would be in some torture country. So here you have Rumsfeld, one of the architects, not a word about it.

AMY GOODMAN: How do you know that he personally supervised it?

MICHAEL RATNER: There’s actually documents out there, that there’s part of the log that comes out. The log was published of his interrogation. And then there’s a report called the “Schmidt Report,” which was an internal investigation, in which there are statements in there about Rumsfeld being directly involved in the interrogation of al-Qahtani. So this guy has committed -- without any question, this guy has committed war crimes, violations of the Geneva Conventions.

Ratner makes a good point. One I didn't bring up yesterday. Rumsfeld is not only a miserable strategist as Defense Secretary, but also a sadistic proponent of torture. The mainstream media still treats this subject as if wholly based on the perspective of the Bush administration: its myth, a cowardly lie, that torture was perpetrated by just a few "bad apples." In fact, torture was - and remains - a systemic problem sanctioned by the high chain of command, including Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.

Historians will surely point to the Military Commissions Act to mark one of America's low points. But a war crime is still a war crime. And torture is torture. This administration can - or could, at least before Tuesday - amend sacrosanct laws. But it can't remake reality.

And neither should the mainstream media.

War Crimes Suit Prepared against Rumsfeld
Democracy Now!

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A Suit Well-Tailored for Rumsfeld