Rumsfeld: War Criminal

Apparently, prosecutors in Germany might charge Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials (HT: Sullivan--maybe all my readers should just read him, too). Here's why they're doing it now:

In bringing the new case, however, the plaintiffs argue that circumstances have changed in two important ways. Rumsfeld's resignation, they say, means that the former Defense Secretary will lose the legal immunity usually accorded high government officials. Moreover, the plaintiffs argue that the German prosecutor's reasoning for rejecting the previous case — that U.S. authorities were dealing with the issue — has been proven wrong.

"The utter and complete failure of U.S. authorities to take any action to investigate high-level involvement in the torture program could not be clearer," says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a U.S.-based non-profit helping to bring the legal action in Germany. He also notes that the Military Commissions Act, a law passed by Congress earlier this year, effectively blocks prosecution in the U.S. of those involved in detention and interrogation abuses of foreigners held abroad in American custody going to back to Sept. 11, 2001. As a result, Ratner contends, the legal arguments underlying the German prosecutor's previous inaction no longer hold up.

As a point of national honor, I think the United States should bring these authoritarian thugs to account, not Germany. But because of the passage of the shameful Military Commissions Act, we may have to outsource justice along with so many other things. Sign of the times, perhaps.