Subject: New York Times: Holding Rumsfeld Accountable for Torture
Date: August 18, 2011 1:32:07 PM AST
Reply-To: "IndictBushNow.org" <ImpeachBush@VoteToImpeach.org>
Click here to subscribe. Dear Jeremy,
With all of us working together, the movement to Indict Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and other high officials who condoned and authorized torture is moving forward. Because of you, we are getting the word out. Momentum for indictment is building.
Our movement is now making major breakthroughs in the mass media. This past Saturday, a major editorial in the country’s newspaper of record, the New York Times, hailed the recent Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruling allowing two U.S. citizens tortured by U.S. military forces in Iraq to sue former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and others. It should be the right of all people, citizens and non-citizens, to seek justice for Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney for torture.
Below is the editorial from the New York Times. Please read it and forward this message to all of your friends.
Holding Rumsfeld Accountable
New York Times, Aug. 13, 2011In a courageous decision last week, a federal appellate court ruled that two Americans who say they were tortured by American military forces in Iraq in 2006 can sue former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and others for violating their constitutional rights.
The case involves Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel, who went to Iraq to work for an American security firm and became whistleblowers when Mr. Vance grew suspicious that the company was involved in illegal activity, including weapons trafficking. They were detained by the military for three months and six weeks, respectively.
The opinion by Judge David Hamilton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recounted their “well-pled allegations” that while in custody they were “physically threatened, abused, and assaulted by the anonymous U.S. officials working as guards.” The government eventually released them, without explanation or charging them with any crime.
The case is important because it makes clear — for the first time — that government officials can be held accountable for the intentional mistreatment of American citizens, even if that conduct happens in a war zone. (Sadly, there remains no accountability for the abuse, and torture, of foreigners by American jailers and interrogators, which Mr. Rumsfeld and President George W. Bush personally sanctioned.)
In allowing the suit to go forward, the court said the plaintiffs had alleged facts showing “that it is plausible, and not merely speculative, that Secretary Rumsfeld was personally responsible for creating the policies that caused the alleged unconstitutional torture,” and that he “acted with deliberate indifference by not ensuring that the detainees were treated in a humane manner despite his knowledge of widespread detainee mistreatment.”
The court rejected what it called the “unprecedented breadth” of the argument put forward by Mr. Rumsfeld and other defendants — that no government or military employee could ever be sued by American civilians for torture or even murder in a war zone. The court made plain that the wrongdoing alleged “violates the most basic terms of the constitutional compact between our government and the citizens of this country.”
Judge Hamilton said further that granting Mr. Rumsfeld and others immunity from lawsuits “would amount to an extraordinary abdication of our government’s checks and balances that preserve Americans’ liberty.”
The ruling relies on the landmark Bivens case, which allows citizens to sue officials for damages for violating their constitutional rights and is a powerful, though limited, remedy against government wrongdoing. This decision gives Mr. Vance and Mr. Ertel a chance to prove their case and vindicate their rights.
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It is becoming clear that all torturers can be brought to justice—no matter how powerful they are.
The advancing court case against Rumsfeld is the first step in the struggle. If we redouble our efforts, we can hold Bush, Cheney and all others accountable for their many crimes.
Please help us keep the momentum going. We need tens of thousands more people to sign the petition to indict Bush and other officials. Tell your friends to go to the IndictBushNow.org and sign the petition today!
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