The argument from legality and necessity that the German leaders presented at Nuremberg was famously rejected by the US prosecutor, Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson:
"We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started it. And we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a trial of the causes of the war, for our position is that no grievances or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy."
Of course, as Chomsky wrote years ago, "If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged."
--CGE
On Sat, 15 May 2004, Eubulides wrote:
> Except [Rumsfeld and Cambone's secret, illegal military operation] is
> not illegal. A legally authorized illegality is an oxymoron. Now if we
> want to discuss the will to power involved in the formation of law as
> a mode of discourse............
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15981-2004May10.html
> Secret World of U.S. Interrogation
> Long History of Tactics in Overseas Prisons Is Coming to Light
> By Dana Priest and Joe Stephens
> Washington Post Staff Writers
> Tuesday, May 11, 2004; Page A01
>
>
> <snip>
> None of the arrangements that permit U.S. personnel to kidnap, transport,
> interrogate and hold foreigners are ad hoc or unauthorized, including the
> so-called renditions. "People tend to regard it as an extra-judicial
> kidnapping; it's not," former CIA officer Peter Probst said. "There is a
> long history of this. It has been done for decades. It's absolutely
> legal."
>
> In fact, every aspect of this new universe -- including maintenance of
> covert airlines to fly prisoners from place to place, interrogation rules
> and the legal justification for holding foreigners without due process
> afforded most U.S. citizens -- has been developed by military or CIA
> lawyers, vetted by Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and,
> depending on the particular issue, approved by White House General
> Counsel's Office or the president himself.
>
> In some cases, such as determining whether a U.S. citizen should be
> designated an enemy combatant who can be held without charges, the
> president makes the final decision, said Alberto R. Gonzales, counsel to
> the president, in a Feb. 24 speech to the American Bar Association
> Standing Committee on Law and National Security.
> <snip>
>