UN pressures US over torture memos

[depakid]

The US is obligated by a United Nations convention to prosecute Bush administration lawyers who allegedly drafted policies that approved the use of harsh interrogation tactics against terrorism suspects, the UN's top anti-torture envoy says. Earlier this week, President Barack Obama left the door open to prosecuting Bush administration officials who devised the legal authority for gruesome terror-suspect interrogations. He had previously absolved CIA officers from prosecution.

Manfred Nowak, who serves as a UN special rapporteur in Geneva, said Washington was obligated under the UN Convention against Torture to prosecute US Justice Department officials who wrote memos that defined torture in the narrowest way in order to justify and legitimise it, and who assured CIA officials that their use of questionable tactics was legal.

"That's exactly what I call complicity or participation" to torture as defined by the convention, Nowak said at a news conference. "At that time, every reasonable person would know that waterboarding, for instance, is torture." Nowak, an Austrian law professor, said it was up to US courts and prosecutors to prove that the memos were written with the intention to incite torture.

Nowak and other experts said that a failure to investigate and prosecute when there was evidence of torture left those responsible vulnerable to prosecutorial action abroad. "If it should turn out ... that the (US) government and its authorities are not willing to prosecute those where we have enough evidence that they instigated or committed torture, then there is also an obligation on all other 145 states" party to the convention to exercise universal jurisdiction, Nowak said.

That means countries would have an obligation to arrest the individuals in question if they were on their soil and extradite them to the US if Washington gave clear assurances they would bring them to justice. In the absence of such assurances, it would fall upon the respective country to take the individuals to court.

More: http://www.smh.com.au/world/un-pressures-us-over-torture-memos-20090425-aien.html?page=-1
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So what it sounds like to me is that it's going to be in the best interests of a LOT of people involved with this that the big (and perhaps the biggest) face some justice- or else it leaves a lot of other individuals vulnerable down the line.

[mmonk]

1. I don't understand the lack of shame in this country.

Pretty sad the country that helped bring these concepts forward now rejects them.

[depakid]

3. 2 generations of relentless propaganda and hate radio

Americans who haven't spent time abroad (not just a short vacation) really have no comprehension about just how appalling their media is.

People from other countries, like Australia or Britian don't believe it themselves until they come to the states for a bit and sample the "wares." Shocks their consciences- or disgusts them. Or both.

[life_long_dem]

2. I want to know what motivated the lawyers to give the green light for torture.

A big payoff? Blackmail? Threats?

They must have researched the subject. They had to know water-boarding wasn't legal. Were they just being typical republican assholes?

I say no immunity for them.

[vaberella]

4. Well that's the end of it. If we thought Bush wasn't going to get punished from us.

The UN might actually get some will and do it themselves.

[struggle4progress]

5. Oh, this is just a misunderstanding. We can clear it all up in no time. Why don't we

just give the UN copies of all the torture memos? They can look through it all, but I'm sure the honesty and integrity of the Bush folk and their undying respect for civilized standards and international law will be immediately obvious to everybody -- so we'll be able to move on quickly