Monday, November 27, 2006

Will Rumsfeld be found a war criminal under the War Crimes Act?

The blog Balkinization helpfully highlights (mentioned in Cursor.org) that former U.S. General Janis Karpinski says she is now ready to testify that Donald Rumsfeld personally approved interrogation methods that break the Geneva Convention.

According to the 1996 War Crimes Act, "a grave breach in any of the international conventions signed at Geneva 12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a party" is considered a War Crime, and thus subjects any U.S. National found guilty of a war crime to be subject to the penalties of the War Crimes Act.

If Donald Rumsfeld is tried and found guilty under the War Crimes Act as a result of evidence like the testimony from General Karpinski, here are the penalties Rumsfeld could be subject to:

"fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death"

That's right, it seems to me that Donald Rumsfeld better hope he has very good defense lawyers standing by in case he is tried in the United States judicial system for War Crimes. Don't forget that at least at Abu Garab, a number of prisioners died during interrogations by Pentagon personnell, effectively employees of Donald Rumsfeld. Will Rumsfeld some day get the death penalty?

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