Secretary Rumsfeld Attempts to Shirk Responsibility for U.S. Torture Policies, Say ACLU and Human Rights First
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
Military Law Experts Say Preventing Abuse Is Part of Rumsfeld’s Job
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> Report to the UN Committee Against Torture
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NEW YORK -- The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First today
announced their response to arguments by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
and three other defendants that they are immune from a lawsuit holding them
accountable for torture and abuse of civilians detained by the U.S. military in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The Constitution prohibits the
Secretary of Defense from adopting or permitting policies of torture or cruelty
against civilians detained in U.S. military custody,” said Lucas Guttentag, lead
counsel in the lawsuit and director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights
Project. “He and the other defendants seem to believe that the
Constitution is irrelevant if the victims are foreign nationals tortured outside
the United States. That is not the law. The courts must be able to
hold government officials accountable for the horrors of Abu Ghraib and the
widespread abuse that resulted from the Rumsfeld policies.”
The
filing is the latest development in a lawsuit against Secretary Rumsfeld brought
by the ACLU and Human Rights First in March 2005 on behalf of victims of torture
in U.S. custody. The ACLU also brought three related lawsuits against Lt.
General Ricardo Sanchez, former Brigadier General Janis Karpinski and Colonel
Thomas Pappas. The four cases were consolidated and transferred to the
federal district court in Washington D.C. last year. Today’s filing comes in
response to arguments by Secretary Rumsfeld and the other defendants that even
if all the facts in the complaint are proven true, the case must be dismissed
because they are immune from liability.
“Our
laws clearly state that commanders are responsible for the actions of their
troops if they knew or should have known of their wrongdoing. Secretary
Rumsfeld’s argument that ordering torture was ‘within the scope of his
employment’ shows a complete disregard for U.S. and international law,” said
Hina Shamsi, counsel in the lawsuit and senior counsel in the U.S. Law and
Security Program at Human Rights First.
The combined
lawsuit, which is the first federal court case to name a top U.S. official in
the ongoing torture scandal in Iraq and Afghanistan, charges the Secretary and
three senior commanders with legal responsibility for acts of torture and abuse
against nine Iraqi and Afghan former detainees. The men represented in the
lawsuit were held in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, where
they were subjected to abuse, torture and other cruel and degrading treatment,
including severe and repeated beatings, cutting with knives, sexual humiliation
and assault, mock executions, death threats, and restraint in contorted and
excruciating positions. None of the men was ever charged with a crime. All have
been released.
Eight military law experts this week filed a
“friend-of-the–court” brief in support of the ACLU and Human Rights First’s
arguments on behalf of their clients. According to the experts, “It was
the essence of Secretary Rumsfeld and other defendants’ scope of employment to
educate and train those within their command responsibility to adhere to
domestic and international standards and to do everything within their power to
prevent and punish deviations from them.” The experts gave the court their
opinion that, contrary to the position of Secretary Rumsfeld, allowing the
federal case to proceed would not intrude into matters of national security and
military decision-making.
Following the filing of the original
lawsuits, the ACLU and Human Rights First filed an amended complaint on January
6, 2006, after the four lawsuits were consolidated and transferred to the U.S.
District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington.
More
information about the case including the latest filing and the friend-of-the
court brief filed by the military law experts can be found online:
www.aclu.org/rumsfeld and www.humanrightsfirst.org/lawsuit
Read the Plaintiffs' Consolidated Opposition to Defendants' Motions to Dismiss
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