There are so many scandals coming out of the Bush Administration that it is hard to react to them all. And don't expect the media to actually spend a little time on an important story,; but something happened this week that few, other than Arriana H noticed:
Chile's Supreme Court on Friday stripped former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution for alleged abuses at one of his regime's most notorious detention centers -- where the current president and her mother were tortured -- a court official said.
Does Bush or Cheney or Rumsfeld or Gonzales think It's going to be any different for THEM?
More and a link on the flip.
You can change the law ex-post facto all you want. But the simple facts of the case are that we did torture and are torturing people. And the story has not ended. As long as there are judges and courts and men and women who solemnly swear to live by the rule of law, there will be a high likelihood that Bush will be pursued for war crimes and so will the other likely suspects.
The case, which involves 59 cases of torture and kidnapping at Villa Grimaldi, is the first time torture has been specifically mentioned in one of the numerous legal cases brought against the 90-year-old former dictator.
Villa Grimaldi, a sprawling house in southeast Santiago, has been turned into a memorial park to honor the victims...The decision, which cannot be appealed, paves the way for the judge handling the case, Alejandro Madrid, to indict Pinochet in the Villa Grimaldi case. Villa Grimaldi was used by Pinochet's secret police for torture and even executions, according to court documents.
Pinochet already is under indictment for human rights violations and tax evasion. Previous attempts to try him have failed after the courts dropped the cases based on Pinochet's poor health. He has been diagnosed with mild dementia, diabetes and arthritis, and he has a pacemaker. The latest tests by court-appointed doctors show Pinochet is fit to stand trial.
Current president Michelle Bachelet, then a 22-year-old medical student, and her mother Angela Jeria were arrested months after the 1973 coup led by Pinochet and taken to Villa Grimaldi. Both have acknowledged they were tortured, though they are not among those named in the case.
Bachelet's mother once told a Santiago newspaper that Villa Grimaldi was "one of the worst houses of torture," where "I was kept for a week in a box, blindfolded, tied up, without food."
Link here:
http://news.yahoo.com/...
There is so much malfeasance going on right now that Bush et al must know that one day the people who have been tortured and released will find lawyers. Yes, the current administration puts them on a no fly list to keep them out of US courts. But one day, maybe not soon, one day, people representing the US torturers will file claims in Federal courts and European courts.
Rumsfeld may find out one day that he cannot travel to Europe. Bush too. Now of course this is all just me extrapolating. But don't kid yourself, why do you think Bush Administration officials are trying to change the statutes?
Because they know that this is not over. One day, they might face the same secret detention centers and courts that they created.
What a fabulous irony that would be.
Hell, one day a future administration may punished all the propagandists for breaking the law as well. Imagine O'Liely and Hannity in jail for lying to the public. Just imagine.