Friday, October 26, 2007

BOOK 'IM!

Not that I expect anything to come out of this, but hey you can't fault a guy for trying! Today, Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Paris for a discussion sponsored by the magazine, Foreign Policy. It was a low key visit. He was tracked down by a coalition of human rights groups who informed him that they had filed a lawsuit against him for human rights violations in the French Court. There are French victims of Guantanamo and the lawsuit was filed on their behalf by The US based Center for Constitutional Rights, The International Federation of Human Rights, The French League for Human Rights and The German European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.
The Rights groups have strong evidence for their case based on three memorandums signed by Rumsfeld between October 2002 and April 2003 "legitimizing the use of torture", "hooding" of detainees, sleep deprivation and the use of dogs.
Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights said that this was the culmination of a years attempts to confront Rumsfeld after his resignation. He said thqt France had a legal responsibility under international law, based on previous cases and precedent to prosecute Rumsfeld.
"If a torturer comes into your country", he said, "there's an obligation to either prosecute him or return him to a place where he will be prosecuted."
Ratner said that Europe is getting "very hot" for Rumsfeld and suggested that a French
Court could at least issue its version of a subpoena.
Donald, for his part, when confronted by a group of 20 protesters on a Paris Street today screaming, "Murderer!" ducked into the safe haven of the US Embassy.



6 comments:

mud_rake said...

Book him!

Nothing else to say.

microdot said...

a little follow up, at the breakfasrt for the Foreign Policy Magazine talk he was to give, Rumsfeld was hustled out by American Embassy Officials and told to leave France tout de suite!
He was wisked over the border into Germany where charges against him were dropped in a similar case last year.
Under the Schengen agreement, though, the same rules thatr make it easy to travel between EU countries, also make it possible for law enforcement officials from one country to pursue a fugitive to another!
You can be sure that Sarko's high profile trip to Washington on the 4th of November had a lott to do with the slowness in which Rumsfeld was pursued.

kender said...

as if a bunch of smelly socialists whining about terrorists held in gitmo with a legal eagle who can file papers actually has a chance to capture he Sith Lord of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

You guys are such a riot.

microdot said...

Smelly? Perhaps you refer to the cheese? Is that an Epoisse in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
Thanks for the comment, Kender!
I appreciate that you took a little time from enjoying the fruits of your labor to come over here!

kender said...

I had to come over....with a name like brain police I just knew the irony here would be think as butter in january.

microdot said...

Actually, the blog is name is the from the title of a piece on Frank Zappas first Mothers record..
"Who Are The Brain Police?"
Stick around, the feast of Zappadan is coming up in December and maybe I'll sing it for you!