Officials Begin Movement Toward the Proscecution of Bush and Rumsfeld for Approving Illegal Torture

The first indications of global concerns being expressed for the United States to prosecute former president George W. Bush and former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld have begun to be made. In the January 20th, 2009 edition of the British newspaper, Telegraph.co.uk, referred to a recent interview given to the German television program "Frontal 21," on channel ZDF by Mr. Manfred Nowak, the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment as appointed by The United Nations Commission on Human Rights

According to the Telegraph, Mr Nowak: "called on the US authorities to pursue the former president and his former defence secretary for the treatment of prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba."

During his interview on German television, Mr Nowak said: "Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation," which according to the AFP news agency "to bring charges against Bush and Rumsfeld." By being a signatory nation to the United Nations torture convention, which Mr. Nowak said on ZDF; that the U.S. should employ "all means, particularly penal law" against offenders of the convention on torture.

Mr. Nowak observed on ZDF that: "We have all these documents that are now publicly available that prove that these methods of interrogation were intentionally ordered by Rumsfeld," that AFP explains were "against detainees at the US prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Nowak said."

Nowak also said on ZDF: "But obviously the highest authorities in the United States were aware of this," AFP adds that Mr. Nowak "authored a UN investigation report on the Guantanamo prison."

When queried by ZDF whether prosecution against Bush and Rumsfeld would be possible Mr. Nowak replied: "In principle yes. I think the evidence is on the table." Mr. Nowak however acknowledged that it is questionable whether "American law will recognize these forms of torture."

The Telegraph reports that: "A bipartisan Senate report released last month found Mr Rumsfeld and other senior Bush administration officials responsible for the abuse of Guantanamo detainees." In an article published on December 11, 2008, according to Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti, reporters for The New York Times; "top Bush administration officials, including Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, bore major responsibility for the abuses committed by American troops in interrogations at Abu Ghraib in Iraq; Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; and other military detention centers." The Telegraph continues it's reporting by adding: "that Mr Rumsfeld had authorized harsh interrogation techniques on Dec 2, 2002, although he ruled them out a month later. The coercive measures were based on a document signed by Mr Bush in February 2002."

Adding to the legal violations facing Mr. Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld is that in 1988, then-President Ronald Reagan signed the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the United States Senate, in 1990, ratified the treaty which by doing so, the Senate, as decreed by the Constitution of the United States, made violations of the treaty subject to punishment by the U.S. legal system.

In previously detailed developments, The Washington Post's Bob Woodward has reported that Susan J. Crawford: "The top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial has concluded that the U.S. military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, interrogating him with techniques that included sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in what Ms. Crawford termed a "life-threatening condition.""

In a story dated April 11th, 2008, then-President Bush told several ABC news reporters that: "... he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details about how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency,... Well," Mr. Bush explained: "we started to connect the dots in order to protect the American people.... And yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved." ABC news also reported that: "... the most senior Bush administration officials repeatedly discussed and approved specific details of exactly how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the CIA. The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic. These top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding."

During a January 11th, 2009 interview with Brit Hume of Fox News, former-President Bush acknowledged that he had authorized the torture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Although no legally definitive decisions have been reached yet; it would seem that either the United States, or the World Court are on a course that is leading them ever closer to the prosecution of former-President Bush and former-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as well as a number of other, allegedly involved Bush administration officials for having participated in the conduct of illegal acts involving violations of U.S. and international legal documents.