US judge dismisses Rumsfeld torture lawsuit
Reuters AlertNet – US judge dismisses Rumsfeld torture lawsuit
WASHINGTON, March 27 Reuters – A U.S. federal judge dismissed on Tuesday a lawsuit seeking to hold former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other high-ranking military officers liable for the torture and abuse of Afghan and Iraqi prisoners, including some at Abu Ghraib prison.In throwing out the lawsuit, U.S. District Chief Judge Thomas Hogan ruled in the 58-page opinion that the defendants are entitled to immunity.
The plaintiffs had said they were stabbed, sexually abused, dunked in freezing water, and beaten while being hung upside down from the ceiling in Iraqs notorious Abu Ghraib prison and other U.S.-run facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In his opinion, Hogan cited other court rulings that rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution generally do not extend to foreign citizens in other countries. The plaintiffs have no right to sue in U.S. court, he said.
Hogan said that allowing money damages against military officials during a war “would invite enemies to use our own federal courts to obstruct the armed forces ability to act decisively and without hesitation in defense of our liberty and national interests.”
In other words, to act in contravention of international law without fear of reprisal. Hmm… wonder how he’d feel about the so-called “insurgents” in Iraq (in reality resistance fighters opposing an occupying force) using similar arguments?
-- fotdmike
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