Political Theater of “Absurd”: 

Bush on Amnesty International

The following analysts are available for interviews:

"There is nothing 'transparent' in the U.S.'s handling of prisoners. Some are held in offshore prisons like Guantanamo which are off-limits to human rights groups, and some have 'disappeared' into 'secret locations,' while yet others are sent to dungeons in Syria and Egypt to be interrogated. Thirteen months after the Abu Ghraib photos, there still has not been one independent investigation into the widespread allegations of detainee abuse."

"The U.S. government insists on keeping many photographs and results of some investigations secret. The reports of torture of prisoners in U.S. custody have become the symbol of U.S. hypocrisy worldwide, and no high-level officials have been investigated for their roles in setting the policies that lead to torture. Congress should establish a truly independent commission to do a thorough investigation, no matter whom it might implicate. And, as the head of U.S. Amnesty International said, if the U.S. continues to shirk its responsibility, other countries should prosecute senior U.S. officials for violation of the Torture Convention, citing Britain's arrest of [former Chilean leader] Augusto Pinochet."

"Rumsfeld approved the use of dogs, stress positions, stripping, hooding, poking, removal of religious objects -- a series of interrogation techniques that amount to torture. The FBI has documented the use of grabbing people's genitals and smearing menstrual blood in an effort to violate detainees' religious beliefs. The U.S. government is not holding people accountable. In our effort to bring these violators of international human rights to justice, the Center for Constitutional Rights is suing Rumsfeld for torture in Guantánamo and we are using the 'Pinochet principle' -- the idea that leaders at the highest level of government are responsible for their crimes and should be brought to justice wherever they are -- by pursuing criminal charges against Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales and Gen. Ricardo Sanchez in Germany."

"The Bush administration's legal troubles don't end with Sanchez or Gonzales. They go right to the top: to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush himself. Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International USA say there is 'prima facie' evidence against Rumsfeld for war crimes and torture. And Amnesty International USA says there is also 'prima facie' evidence against Bush for war crimes and torture."

Rothschild added: "Amnesty International USA has even taken the extraordinary step of calling on officials in other countries to apprehend Bush and Rumsfeld and other high-ranking members of the administration who have played a part in the torture scandal. The Geneva Conventions and the torture treaty 'place a legally binding obligation on states that have ratified them to exercise universal jurisdiction over persons accused of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions,' Amnesty International USA said. 'If anyone suspected of involvement in the U.S. torture scandal visits or transits through foreign territories, governments could take legal steps to ensure that such individuals are investigated and charged with applicable crimes.'"