|
|
Translate:
              Judge dismisses lawsuit against Rumsfeld
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld cannot be tried on allegations of torture in overseas military prisons, a federal judge said Tuesday in a case he described as “lamentable.”
The lawsuit contends the prisoners were beaten, suspended upside down from the ceiling by chains, urinated on, shocked, sexually humiliated, burned, locked inside boxes and subjected to mock executions. Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First had argued that Rumsfeld and top military officials disregarded warnings about the abuse and authorized the use of illegal interrogation tactics that violated the constitutional and human rights of prisoners. “This is a lamentable case,” Hogan began his 58-page opinion. No matter how appealing it might seem to use the courts to correct allegations of severe abuses of power, Hogan wrote, government officials are immune from such lawsuits. Additionally, foreigners held overseas are not normally afforded U.S. constitutional rights. “Despite the horrifying torture allegations,” Hogan said, he could find no case law supporting the lawsuit, which he previously had described as unprecedented. Allowing the case to go forward, Hogan said in December, might subject government officials to all sorts of political lawsuits. Even Osama bin Laden could sue, Hogan said, claiming two American presidents threatened to have him murdered. “There is no getting around the fact that authorizing monetary damages remedies against military officials engaged in an active war would invite enemies to use our own federal courts to obstruct the Armed Forces’ ability to act decisively and without hesitation,” Hogan wrote Tuesday. Had the Rumsfeld lawsuit been allowed to go forward, attorneys for the ACLU might have been able to force the Pentagon to disclose what officials knew about abuses at prisons such as Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and what was done to stop it. Hogan also dismissed the charges against other officials named in the lawsuit: retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, former Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski and Col. Thomas M. Pappas. Karpinski, whose Army Reserve unit was in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison, was demoted and is the highest-ranking officer punished in the scandal. Sanchez, who commanded U.S. forces in Iraq, retired from the Army and said his career was a casualty of the prison scandal. The ACLU and Justice Department had no immediate response to the ruling. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070327/ap_on_go_ot/detainee_abuse_rumsfeld Have Your Say: Judge dismisses lawsuit against Rumsfeld Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Related News
|
Just The Facts Please Last post by jamiedb @ 03:56 AM Go to Forum
| Latest Topics
What Is Marxism? Last post by Thinking Man's Idiot @ 02:31 AM Open Publishing. Last post by Thinking Man's Idiot @ 02:13 AM Why nationalisation isn't socialism Last post by Thinking Man's Idiot @ 01:41 AM Huge Planet Defies Explanation Last post by Nostalgia @ 01:20 AM Blow to the blockade in the USA Last post by Thinking Man's Idiot @ 01:18 AM Scientists develop guilt detector to catch smugglers at customs Last post by Nostalgia @ 01:13 AM Boffins unveil life-like robogirl Last post by Nostalgia @ 01:10 AM The bishop and the 'bank robbers' Last post by Thinking Man's Idiot @ 01:08 AM U.S. warns Syria against sending ground troops into Lebanon Last post by Nostalgia @ 01:06 AM  Email This Page To A Friend Latest Headlines
More Breaking News  Archive |
TOP NEWS DISCUSSIONS |
LATEST NEWS DISCUSSIONS |
|
|
Another Education is Possible Censorship and Freedom of Speech |
stony commented on: Smoking Ban To Hit Amsterdam Coffee Shops Yo guys, Don’t be scared about the ban in the coffeshops, it is still the same, nobody cares... Continue Reading & Reply denita commented on: McCain-Palin Campaign Increasingly Staffed by Bush Administration Officials the usa election is a set up…(they gave him a chance to... Continue Reading & Reply Maximus V commented on: VIDEO: Martin Bell - Media Censorship & War Criminals There is a prof in the background 40.11 into this vid, when the question about... Continue Reading & Reply Andrew Yu-Jen Wang commented on: Would Obama prosecute the Bush administration for torture? George W. Bush’s sentence-by-sen tence speaking skills are... Continue Reading & Reply |
|
The views expressed in the RINF news wire and newsletter are the sole responsibility of the author (s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the webmaster. RINF.COM: Breaking News & Alternative Media is Copyleft - Copy & Distribute Freely. News Forum |
U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan threw out a lawsuit brought on behalf of nine former prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said Rumsfeld cannot be held personally responsible for actions taken in connection with his government job.
Loading ...
