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30. Nov 2005

Dick Cheney skyldig i krigsforbrydelser

 
Nej, det er ikke mig, men Colin Powells tidligere stabschef Lawrence Wilkerson, som siger det i et interview med BBC, der også omtales i The Guardian.

Ifølge Wilkerson diskuterede man internt i den amerikanske regering, om man skulle følge Geneve-konventionen eller tillade tortur og anden hårdhændet behandling:
In that debate, two sides had participated: one that essentially wanted to do away with all restrictions and the other which said no, Geneva should prevail and the president walked right down the middle.

He made a decision that Geneva would in fact govern all but al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda look-alike detainees. Any other prisoners of course would be governed by traditional methods, international law, Geneva and so forth.
Men hvem var det mon, der pressede på for at tillade tortur og i sidste ende få Geneve-konventionen helt afskaffet i amerikansk krigsførsel? Wilkerson svarer på BBCs spørgsmål:
Who is right now very publicly lobbying the congress of the United States, advocating the use of torture? The vice-president of the United States.
Men præsident Bush havde jo netop taget forbehold overfor anvendelsen af Geneve-konventionen og sagt, at det måtte underordnes den "militære nødvendighed"? Men militær nødvendighed kan ikke undskylde alt, som Wilkerson påpeger:
If I'm a soldier in the field - I'm an NCO [non-commissioned officer ] or I'm a private or a corporal - and I need to shoot a detainee who might be threatening to kill one of my buddies or even me then I can do that.

It does not mean that I can go into a darkened cell with a detainee shackled with his hands above his head to the wall and beat him so that eventually he dies, and the army coroner declares it homicide, and two years later when the army quits obfuscating and throwing obstacles in the way of the investigations, people are actually punished for having murdered two individuals in Bagram, Afghanistan in December 2002.
Og, for at runde af, Wilkersons svar på det helt konkrete spørgsmål:
If what you say is correct, in your view, is Dick Cheney then guilty of a war crime?
Well, that's an interesting question - it was certainly a domestic crime to advocate torture and I would suspect that it is - for whatever it's worth - an international crime as well.
Vel, her er vist en del at følge op på. Og det skal der også nok være nogen, der gør - så check f.eks. vedlagte Technorati-link.

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