The U.S. Government Tortured Children:Â
Demand War Crimes Prosecutions Now!
A new book by Michael Haas reveals that the Bush Regime detained and tortured thousands of children in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo. In George W. Bush, War Criminal? Haas reports that, while imprisoned, these children were subjected to various forms of physical and psychological torture that included: Rape; severe physical beatings; solitary confinement; denial of contact with parents for years at a time; use of dogs.
* In May 2008, Human Rights Watch reported that the U.S. had detained 2400 children in Iraq since 2003, including 100 new children per month in 2007.Â
* Haas reports that, in 2002 alone, the U.S. captured "at least 800 boys, aged 10 to 15" in Afghanistan, and sent 64 of them to Guantanamo.
Prosecute the Bush Regime for War Crimes:
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Torture and indefinite detention--including the horrific abuses against children described here--have their origins in the highest levels of government. Bush Regime lawyers like John Yoo wrote the key memos that authorized torture and indefinite detention. In April 2008, ABC News reported that Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, John Ashcroft, and George Tenet met repeatedly in the White House to plan specific "enhanced interrogation techniques" to use on specific detainees. George W. Bush himself admitted to approving these meetings. Dick Cheney has admitted to authorizing waterboarding --which both the U.N. High Commissioner For Human Rights and president Barack Obama have said is torture.
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What this all adds up to is: Top Bush officials all the way up to the former president himself are guilty of war crimes, and must be prosecuted. Under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, each state that has signed the convention--including the United States--is required to investigate and prosecute torturers.   Therefore, prosecution of the Bush Regime is not only morally, but legally, required.
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Barack Obama is Covering & Continuing the Bush regime's crimes:
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Barack Obama is continuing Bush's indefinite detention and denial of habeas corpus. He is continuing rendition--the practice of kidnapping a person in one country and shipping them to another country for imprisonment. He is using the "state secrets" argument to block torture victims from suing the U.S. government. While announcing the closure of Guantanamo in a year or two, he is continuing to hold hundreds of detainees there, including more than 59 whom the government itself has cleared for release, where they are held in solitary and force fed through nasal tubes when they go on hunger strikes.
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The Obama administration is now, itself, in violation of international law for refusing to prosecute the Bush crimes. As Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), said during a February 5 interview with Democracy Now: "As we sit here, the Obama administration is in violation of the Convention Against Torture if it doesn't commence an investigation of Cheney, of Rumsfeld and others."Â
