Well, it's an admission that the people at Camp Delta and the secret sites are held lawlessly. That's something.
--- "B." <docile_body at yahoo.com> wrote:
> [Of course, they mean no one in politics or
> industry.
> And hilariously the article and Sen. Durbin assert
> the
> reason there's so many in the US is that we "lack
> adequate laws" to go after them! Yeah, Chuck can get
> arrested, people can go to Gitmo -- but those damn
> war criminals -- there's just no laws for'em! -B.]
>
> =================
>
>
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20071114/wl_mcclatchy/20071114bcuswarcrime_attn_national_foreign_editors_ytop
>
> U.S. has become haven for war criminals, senator
> says
>
> By Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers
> Wed Nov 14, 5:54 PM ET
>
> WASHINGTON — More than 1,000 people from 85
> countries
> who are accused of such crimes as rape, killings,
> torture and genocide are living in the United States
> ,
> according to Department of Homeland Security
> figures.
>
> America has become a haven for the world's war
> criminals because it lacks the laws needed to
> prosecute them, Sen. Richard Durbin , D-Ill., said
> Wednesday. There's been only one U.S. indictment of
> someone suspected of a serious human-rights abuse.
> Durbin said torture was the only serious
> human-rights
> violation that was a crime under American law when
> committed outside the United States by a
> non-American
> national.
>
> "This is unacceptable. Our laws must change and our
> determination to end this shameful situation must
> become a priority," Durbin, the chairman of the
> Senate
> Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Human Rights
> and
> the Law, said at a hearing of the subcommittee
> Wednesday.
>
> He's trying to get more information about specific
> cases.
>
> One is that of Juan Romagoza Arce, the director of a
> clinic that provides free care for the poor in
> Washington . In 1980, Romagoza was a young doctor
> caring for the poor in El Salvador during the early
> period of his country's civil war when the military
> seized him and tortured him for 22 days. An
> estimated
> 75,000 people died in the 12-year war.
>
> Romagoza told Durbin that he was given electric
> shocks
> until he lost consciousness, then kicked and burned
> with cigarettes until he came to. He also told of
> being sodomized, nearly asphyxiated in a hood
> containing calcium oxide— which can cause severe
> shortness of breath when inhaled— and subjected to
> waterboarding, including being hung by his feet with
> his head immersed in water until he nearly drowned.
>
> Romagoza and two other torture victims brought a
> civil
> suit in U.S. federal court in West Palm Beach, Fla.
> ,
> against two Salvadoran generals who moved to Florida
> in 1989: Jose Guillermo Garcia , who was the
> minister
> of defense, and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova , who
> was the director general of the Salvadoran National
> Guard .
>
> In 2002, a jury found them liable for the torture of
> the three, and a judgment of $54.6 million was
> entered
> against them and upheld on appeal.
>
> Romagoza said he didn't expect to see any of the
> money.
>
> He testified that he'd received many threatening
> phone
> calls and letters at the time of the trial but that
> he'd overcome his fears and testified.
>
> "I felt like I was in the prow of a boat and that
> there were many people rowing behind that were
> moving
> me into this moment," he told Durbin's panel. "I
> felt
> that if I looked back at them I'd weep, because I'd
> see them again, wounded, tortured, raped, naked,
> torn
> and bleeding. So I didn't look back, but I felt
> their
> support, their strength and their energy."
>
> He said he and others were angry and frustrated that
> the two men "live in the same country where we have
> found refuge from their persecution."
>
> Durbin said he'd send a letter asking the U.S.
> attorney in South Florida what was being done in the
> case.
>
> "If he says he doesn't have authority, we should
> change the law. If he has the authority and is not
> using it, we should change the U.S. attorney,"
> Durbin
> said.
>
> Durbin and Sen. Tom Coburn , R-Okla., have
> introduced
> legislation that would authorize the government to
> prosecute anyone found in the U.S. who's guilty of
> genocide, human trafficking or recruiting child
> soldiers.
>
> David Scheffer is a Northwestern University law
> professor who was the ambassador at large for
> war-crimes issues during the Clinton administration.
> He testified that after the experience of war-crimes
> tribunals after World War II and international
> tribunals prosecuting many atrocities over the past
> 15
> years, "one would be forgiven to assume that surely
> in
> the United States the law is now well established to
> enable U.S. courts— criminal and military— to
> investigate and prosecute the full range of
> genocide,
> crimes against humanity and war crimes. . . .
>
> "That, however, is not the case."
>
> THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NOV. 14 :
>
> The date of Wednesday's hearing is significant in
> the
> history of war crimes, Justice Department official
> Sigal P. Mandelker told the subcommittee:
>
> On Nov. 14, 1935 , the Third Reich issued
> regulations
> that deprived Germany's Jews of their citizenship
> and
> established a system to classify people as Jews
> based
> on their ancestry and affiliations.
>
> On Nov. 14, 1945 , the International Military
> Tribunal
> convened in Nuremberg, Germany , to try Nazi
> leaders.
>
> On Nov. 14, 1995 , the International Criminal
> Tribunal
> for the former Yugoslavia issued its first
> indictments
> on genocide charges over the massacres of as many as
> 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica. Two of the
> leaders indicted, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic
> ,
> remain fugitives.
>
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>
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