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UN torture investigator calls on Obama to charge Bush for Guantanamo abuses

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] US President Barack Obama has an obligation to bring charges against former President George W. Bush and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for ordering illegal interrogation methods at Guantanamo Bay, according to a statement made by UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Manfred Nowak in an interview Tuesday with German television program ZDF Frontal 21. Nowak said that such actions constituted a violation of the UN Convention Against Torture, to which the US is a party. Nowak noted that although evidence is available to press charges, he does not know whether US law would recognize the interrogation techniques used as forms of torture. Last week, the chairman of the US House Judiciary Committee released a report recommending the Obama administration undertake a criminal investigation to determine whether any laws were broken by the Bush administration. In an interview broadcast last week, Obama said that while he has not ruled out prosecuting officials for rights abuses during the Bush administration, he wanted to focus on "getting things right in the future." In late December, the US Senate Armed Services Committee alleged in a report that high-ranking Bush administration officials, including Rumsfeld, are responsible for the abuses committed by US interrogators in military detention centers.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on January 21, 2009 (boomark / email).