There's a pretty powerful piece of news out tonight. Well, I think so, anyway. But it will no doubt be ignored or buried by the US media. So pass it on yourself.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, said today that waterboarding is an international crime. She was quite clear on this: "I would have no problems with describing this practice as falling under the prohibition of torture."
The timing of her statement is quite impressive.
Arbour's comments follow on the heels of the admission by CIA Director Michael Hayden, in Congressional testimony, that the US has engaged in waterboarding. Better than that, the comments arrived in nearly the same news cycle as reports of Attorney General Michael Mukasey's flat refusal -- again in testimony before Congress -- to prosecute anybody for torture.
The initial accounts are reporting that Arbour said violators of the International Convention Against Torture should be prosecuted. However, the reports don't quote Arbour saying it quite that way, and I haven't been able to find a transcript yet.
Still, she is quoted reminding people that crimes such as torture have "universal jurisdiction" -- meaning any country can charge, prosecute, and punish violators of such international laws. And that's where she came close to saying that Bush, Cheney, et al, should be prosecuted:
"There are several precedents worldwide of states exercising their universal jurisdiction ... to enforce the torture convention and we can only hope that we will see more and more of these avenues of redress," Arbour said. [Emphasis added.] [Complete Reuters article.]
Meanwhile, our own Congress, after hearing not just this week's testimony from Hayden and Mukasey, but years of the same arrogant obfuscation and undisguised lying, cannot bring itself to even consider impeachment. Instead, it is considering banning waterboarding. That's pretty much the epitome of too little, too late.
Arbour's comments, coming as they do from a high-ranking UN official, will likely be given little weight in our mainstream media. But Arbour is no lightweight on the international scene. She was the chief prosecutor of human rights abuses in Rwanda and Yugoslavia.
As I noted, I have my doubts this story will go anywhere, despite its importance. So we all need to help it sprout wings. The Reuters article has a link that allows you to email it to friends. Forward it to your Representative and Senators. Forward it to newspaper editors. And friends and family.
We can hope only if we take some action.
Good to read interesting posts on your blog. Thanks.
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Posted by: Valeria | April 08, 2010 at 04:18 AM