Trial of Donald Rumsfeld: A Prosecution by Book

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Overview

The evidence that the Bush administration is guilty of war crimes, presented in the form of a court case brought by one of the premier civil rights organizations in the United States.

"He won't be tried in the United States. He can't be tried by an international tribunal. So Donald Rumsfeld will have to be prosecuted by book."—from The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld

The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld lays out the evidence that high-level officials of the Bush administration ordered, authorized, implemented, and permitted war crimes, in particular the crimes of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

Using primary source documents ranging from Rumsfeld's "techniques chart" and Iraqi plaintiffs' statements to the testimony of whistleblowers and key pieces of reportage, the book sets forth evidence of a torture program that took place throughout the world: in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantánamo, secret CIA prisons, and other places unknown.

The accused are accorded a defense drawn from their memos and public statements. Readers are allowed to judge whether the Bush administration has engaged in torture and whom among the administration to hold responsible.

Reminiscent of Christopher Hitchens's bestselling The Trial of Henry Kissinger, The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld constitutes one of the only attempts to hold high-ranking Bush administration officials criminally responsible for their actions.

Includes excerpts from:
testimony from Abu Ghraib victims and the Tipton Three
the interrogation log from Mohammed al Qahtani's detainment at Guantánamo
the Gonzales, Yoo, andBybee memos
the U.S. Army's Fay/Jones Report on the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib
the August 2004 Final Report of the Independent Panel to Review Department of Defense Detention Operations
testimony from the former head of Abu Ghraib, Janis Karpinski
and analyses by Peter Weiss, Wolfgang Kaleck, Vincent Warren, and others

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

The Bush administration's security and intelligence-gathering policies have inspired few critiques as thorough as Ratner's. The president of the progressive Center for Constitutional Rights presents a mock trial of 14 U.S. government and military officials, Donald Rumsfeld chief among them; with immunity from criminal prosecution while in office, Bush and Cheney are named as unindicted co-conspirators. The charge is torture and war crimes. The opening statement describes the Bush administration's alleged "torture program" in detail and the role the "defendants" played. The "prosecution evidence" includes statements of former Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo detainees describing tortures such as sleep deprivation, water-boarding and stress positions. Ratner presents the defense primarily through government documents, such as the infamous John Yoo memo rejecting the application of the Geneva Accords to detainees. This "defense" is followed by a rebuttal based on international law that systematically rejects the government's arguments. Of course, a real trial would give the defense an opening and closing statement, and books don't allow for cross-examination. Though his case appears strong, Ratner's conceit will appeal primarily to those who have already voted "guilty." Photos. (Sept.)

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781595583413
Publisher: New Press, The
Publication date: 9/1/2008
Pages: 242
Sales rank: 1,233,615
Product dimensions: 5.70 (w) x 8.40 (h) x 1.00 (d)

Meet the Author

Michael Ratner is the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which, along with other human rights groups, filed a war crimes lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, and other U.S. officials in Germany under the country's universal jurisdiction law. He lives in New York City.

The Trial

1 Opening Statement, Michael Ratner, CCR President 3

2 Summary of the Indictment 21

3 Evidence for the Prosecution 41

Guantanamo 43

From Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib: The Export of Illegal Interrogation Techniques from Washington and Guantanamo to Iraq 81

Command Responsibility 99

4 Witnesses and Statements for the Defense 119

5 The Center for Constitutional Rights Rebuttal to the Memos and the Torture Program: Illegal Before 9/11, Still Illegal Today 181

6 Exhibits: Photos from Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib 203

Epilogue

7 Prosecuting War Crimes 211

Notes 233

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Trial of Donald Rumsfeld: A Prosecution by Book

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Editorial Reviews

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