CIA Torture Exemption ‘Illegal’
April 19th, 2009Via: BBC:
US President Barack Obama’s decision not to prosecute CIA agents who used torture tactics is a violation of international law, a UN expert says.
The UN special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, says the US is bound under the UN Convention against Torture to prosecute those who engage in it.
Mr Obama released four “torture memos” outlining harsh interrogation methods sanctioned by the Bush administration.
Mr Nowak has called for an independent review and compensation for victims.
“The United States, like all other states that are part of the UN convention against torture, is committed to conducting criminal investigations of torture and to bringing all persons against whom there is sound evidence to court,” Mr Nowak told the Austrian daily Der Standard.
After WWII, when the U.S. basically conquered the world, the notion of prosecuting U.S. officials for war crimes was laughable. The U.S., along with the security council, viewed the UN as a tool for keeping other nations in line, namely the poor ones.
But that was then and this is now.
Since governments are fictions used by individuals for various purposes, it would mean little to bring down the U.S. government and raise up a global government. The U.S. and its vassals have acted as de facto global governors for the last 70 years in any case.
Would a rich and powerful U.S. allow its officials to be prosecuted by a would-be global government? Not likely. But 70 years ago, there were more elites who were U.S. exceptionalists than today. Would a debt-ridden, corrupt U.S. allow its officials to be prosecuted for war crimes to begin an official transition to global governance? Some of the ground-work, such as discrediting the U.S. has already been laid, so we shall see.
To paraphrase Andrew Jackson, “They’ve made their decision, now let’s see them enforce it.”
Not to mention this is perhaps the greatest limited hangout of all time: it’s being played in the MSM like this is the only state-sanctioned atrocities the US ever committed. We’re so f***ing squeaky-clean! LOL!
Look at how this is being spun on CNN. The administration released some memos describing torture techniques, very little of which was new information which Bush’s Whitehouse didn’t already state. I think this functioned as giving a tiny bit of meat to the anti-war side, so he can point to it in the future. However, it isn’t substantial. We haven’t left Iraq or Afghanistan yet.
But CIA director Hayden is throwing a fit and claiming that Obama’s team is endangering intelligence and military members, for releasing the memos. And the press obliges by creating the story that Obama is weak with the military
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/19/cia.torture.chief/index.html