No one is above international law, not even Bush

Finally, someone has the guts to take on the Bush Regime for its use of torture at the concentration camps in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and prisons in Iraq. Up until now, President George Bush has shrugged off such criticism. But how much longer can he?
''If the U.S. government continues to shirk its responsibility, Amnesty International calls on foreign governments to uphold their obligations under international law by investigating all senior U.S. officials involved in the torture scandal,'' said the head of Amnesty's U.S. section, William Schulz, who added that violations of the torture convention, which has been ratified by the United States and some 138 other countries, can be prosecuted in any jurisdiction.
And US officials my have to deal with arrests if they show up in the wrong country.
''If those investigations support prosecution, the governments should arrest any official who enters their territory and begin legal proceedings against them,'' he added. ''The apparent high-level architects of torture should think twice before planning their next vacation to places like Acapulco or the French Riviera because they may find themselves under arrest as (former Chilean dictator) Augusto Pinochet famously did in London in 1998.''
Pinochet was arrested and an attempt was made to prosecute him in Spain for the murder of Spanish citizens.
Amnesty has already targeted some US officials by name, in particular, Vice President Dick Cheney's general counsel, David Addington; Pentagon General Counsel William Haynes; and top officials in the Justice Department's Office of General Counsel, one of whom, Jay Bybee, has since been confirmed as a federal appeals court judge.
''A wall of secrecy is protecting those who masterminded and developed the U.S. torture policy,'' Schulz said. ''Unless those who drew the blueprint for torture, approved it, and ordered it implemented are held accountable, the United States' once-proud reputation as an exemplar of human rights will remain in tatters."
Amnesty is not alone in its concerns. Last summer, the 400,000-lawyer American Bar Association joined Amnesty, Human rights Watch, Human Rights First, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in making similar those demands.

Excerpts from:
Give Rumsfeld the Pinochet Treatment, Says US Amnesty Chief
by Jim Lobe May 26, 2005 Inter Press Service.
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