I Always Said I Had a Dream....

And now I just saw this on the Think Progress blog....

*************************************************

In remarks that aired on German television last night, Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, urged the U.S. to pursue former President George W. Bush and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld on charges that they authorized torture and other harsh interrogation techniques:

“Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation” to bring proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld. […] He noted Washington had ratified the UN convention on torture which required “all means, particularly penal law” to be used to bring proceedings against those violating it.

“We have all these documents that are now publicly available that prove that these methods of interrogation were intentionally ordered by Rumsfeld,” against detainees at the US prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Nowak said.

Indeed, a bipartisan Senate report released last month found that Rumsfeld “bore major responsibility” for abuses committed at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and other military detention center. Just last week, a Bush administration official overseeing Gitmo trials said Rumsfeld approved the torture of one particular detainee. Bush himself said last year that he was aware of his advisers’ discussions on torture and recently admitted that he personally authorized waterboarding Kalid Sheik Muhammad.

**********************************************

The President of the US (in my opinion) has a clear obligation to uphold the law and if/when he doesn't (like President Nixon) he can't be considered above the law.

Do I actually believe that anything will actually happen? No - I doubt it very much.

But would I like to see something happen? Absolutely. Think of the message it would send to the entire world if the leader of the world's most powerful country was held accountable before the law for authorizing action that breaks international law? It would be amazing!