McCaskill Opens the Door to Impeachment

20 Monday Apr 2009

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

Not sure if the standard of prosecuting torturers should be whether or not they relied on the advice of lawyers (in fact I’m certain that should NOT be the standard,) but I’m glad that Sen. McCaskill is open to impeaching Jay Bybee, who authored a memo in the Bush Administration that gave legal cover to torture and later became a federal appellate judge.

6 thoughts on “McCaskill Opens the Door to Impeachment”

Michael Bersin said:

April 20, 2009 at 5:33 am

…They [CIA] should be able to rely on the advice they get from the government’s lawyers and there should be no prosecution or further action there…
…now whether we should go down the road, I don’t think we want to look in the rearview mirror. I think this president has made this very clear…
[Impeachment of Judge Bybee]…I don’t know. I, I think we have to look at it, but I think we do need to sort out, um, how do you get lawyers at the top levels of the Justice Department that could give this kind of advice…

Bullshit.

Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nüremberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal, 1950.
Principle I
Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment.
Principle III
The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible Government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.
Principle IV
The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.
Principle VII
Complicity in the commission of a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity as set forth in Principle VI is a crime under international law.

[emphasis added]

Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
– entered into force internationally on January 27, 1980
Article 53. Treaties conflicting with a peremptory norm of general international law (jus cogens). A treaty is void if, at the time of its conclusion, it conflicts with a peremptory norm of general international law. For the purposes of the present Convention, a peremptory norm of general international law is a norm accepted and recognized by the international community of States as a whole as a norm from which no derogation is permitted and which can be modified only by a subsequent norm of general international law having the same character.

[emphasis added]

Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment – in force November 20, 1994
Article 4. 1. Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture. 2. Each State Party shall make these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature.
Article 16. 1. Each State Party shall undertake to prevent in any territory under its jurisdiction other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture as defined in article I, when such acts are committed by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. In particular, the obligations contained in articles 10, 11, 12 and 13 shall apply with the substitution for references to torture of references to other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
2. The provisions of this Convention are without prejudice to the provisions of any other international instrument or national law which prohibits cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment or which relates to extradition or expulsion.

[emphasis added]

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
– in force September 8, 1992
Article 4. 1 . In time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation and the existence of which is officially proclaimed, the States Parties to the present Covenant may take measures derogating from their obligations under the present Covenant to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, provided that such measures are not inconsistent with their other obligations under international law and do not involve discrimination solely on the ground of race, colour, sex, language, religion or social origin.
2. No derogation from articles 6, 7, 8 (paragraphs I and 2), 11, 15, 16 and 18 may be made under this provision. 3. Any State Party to the present Covenant availing itself of the right of derogation shall immediately inform the other States Parties to the present Covenant, through the intermediary of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, of the provisions from which it has derogated and of the reasons by which it was actuated. A further communication shall be made, through the same intermediary, on the date on which it terminates such derogation.
Article 7. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.

[emphasis added]

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
advisory declaration adopted by
the United Nations General Assembly (December 10, 1948)
Article 5
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

United States Constitution, Article VI
….and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land….

Title 18, Part I, Chapter 113C, Section 2340
(1) ”torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control; (2) ”severe mental pain or suffering” means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from – (A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering; (B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality; (C) the threat of imminent death; or (D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality; and (3) ”United States” includes all areas under the jurisdiction of the United States including any of the places described in sections 5 and 7 of this title and section 46501(2) of title 49.

No president, or attorney general, or senator, or anyone else can “derogate” the prohibition of torture ever. Period.
My God, is it too much to ask Claire Mccaskill to not waffle and stand up for some principle somewhere?

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Michael Bersin said:

April 20, 2009 at 3:59 pm

Pragmatism on Torture Another ‘Sorry Kind of Wisdom’
Sun Apr 19, 2009 at 09:41:11 PM PDT
via the BBC:

CIA torture exemption ‘illegal’
…The UN special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, says the US is bound under the UN Convention against Torture to prosecute those who engage in it…
“…The United States, like all other states that are part of the UN convention against torture, is committed to conducting criminal investigations of torture and to bringing all persons against whom there is sound evidence to court,” Mr Nowak told the Austrian daily Der Standard…

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hotflash said:

April 22, 2009 at 1:40 am

“I don’t think we want to look in the rearview mirror”
to try driving without using a rearview mirror shouldn’t have a license to drive at all. If I want to switch lanes, I start by checking rearview and sideview mirrors.

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McCaskill Opens the Door to Impeachment

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