[Vision2020] Spanish Court Considering Arrest Warrants for American Torturers

[bear at moscow.com]

Tom, Donovan, and Vision 2020 Readers,

This is in response to the comment:
"The only "police force" that I feel has it within their jurisdiction would 
be Interpol. Perhaps a group of nations could file charges with Interpol against George 
Bush.
How would you foresee these nations proceeding against Bush?"

AND

"It would be a very bad idea to put OUR leaders up for trial in a Kangaroo World Court for

several reasons.
 1) Our leaders are elected to do things that are something bad for other countries.
2) Our leaders hold national security information that could be exhorted from them
3) It allows other nations to determine what values and beliefs we should hold
4) It allows others to establish laws higher than US laws, which we do not have input into
5) Our elected leaders would be pressured to do what is best for other nations over ours
out of 
fear of punishment.
6) It would inconvenience our leaders from doing their jobs if they could be kidnapped and

moved to another country.
 
I suggest instead, we try our own leaders and allow other countries to do that same."


I think that looking for an arresting agency is putting the cart before the horse, but it
is a good 
comment.

First, we have to find a judicial agency of government, preferably the US Government, that
has 
jurisdiction and brings charges. Not a big hurdle IF the US has the will to show the world
at 
large that we are in fact a nation of laws and that no one is above the law.  

The Constitution of the US,  Article VI, Paragraph 2, establishes the Constitution,
Federal 
Statutes, and U.S. treaties as "the supreme law of the land."  On 18 Apr 1988, the United
States 
signed the "United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading 
Treatment or Punishment", which was ratified by the Senate on 21 Oct 1994, which by 
incorporation makes it a US law, not just some international treaty that we haven't signed
or 
ratified. That step gets us into a court where the matters can be looked into.  Once that
is 
done, US law enforcement can take over from there. Once there is a legitimate information
or 
indictment against the accused individuals, there are many domestic agencies that can
execute 
an arrest warrant and get the individuals before a court.

What that does is give the rest of the world the message that we do not hold our leaders
and 
policy makers above the law. IF there are members of the US government, past or present,
that 
are accused of crimes, and at this point they are only accusations, they will be brought
before a 
legally constituted court to answer those accusations. 

Boy, what a message that sends not just current and past politicians, but what a message
it 
sends to the rest of the world in shaping its opinion of the US and just what kind of
people we 
are.  WE, the US, pushed the concept of no one being above the law when involved in
conflicts. 
In the last 60 some years we can look at the Nuremberg Trials, flawed as they were, all
the way 
up through the arrests and trials of Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein. What is good for
one 
country is good for others, otherwise we are just out there preaching "Do what I say, not
what I 
do".  Would go a long way to raising the stature of the US in the eyes of the world.






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