New York based watchdog, Human Rights Watch in a report on Tuesday called upon governments abroad to prosecute former US president George W Bush and his former senior cabinet colleagues for war crimes because the Obama administration was avoiding the responsibility.
In the 107-page report HRW said that Bush, former vice president Dick Cheney, former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former CIA director George Tenet could be prosecuted under the 1996 War Crimes Act and other laws.
'There are solid grounds to investigate Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Tenet for authorising torture and war crimes,' said HRW executive director Kenneth Roth.
HRW said in its report that 'enough strong evidence' was available from official information made public in last five years which suggest that these officials authorised and oversaw widespread and serious violations of US and international law and they failed to act to stop mistreatment, or punish those responsible after they became aware of serious abuses.
An investigation is necessary, it said, 'if the US hopes to wipe out the stain of Abu Gharib and Guntanamo and reaffirm the rule of law.'
The report said that the Bush administration stands accused of approving waterboarding, authorising the secret prisons of CIA, carrying out illegal abduction, torture and transfer of detainees to other countries where they were tortured.
HRW called for an investigation, because it became abundantly clear that the Obama administration has not lived up to its responsibilities to investigate the cases.
It said tat the US was legally obliged to investigate the top functionaries of the Bush administration for war crimes such as torture, abduction and other mistreatment of prisoners.
The report, 'Getting Away with Torture: The Bush Administration and Mistreat-ment of Detainees' cites substantial information warranting criminal investigations of Bush and his senior officials.
It said that the Bush administration's legal team was part of the conspiracy in preparing opinions authorising abuses which were illegal under US and international laws.
It called for examining the roles played by Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and the then attorney general, John Ashcroft, and administration lawyers in crafting the legal justifications for torture.
'If the US government does not pursue credible criminal investigations, other countries should prosecute US officials involved in crimes against detainees in accordance with international law,' says the report.
'President Obama has treated torture as an unfortunate policy choice rather than a crime. His decision to end abusive interrogation practices will remain easily reversible unless the legal prohibition against torture is clearly re-established,' said Roth.
The report said president Bush had publicly admitted that in two cases he approved the use of waterboarding.
He also authorised the 'illegal CIA secret detention and renditions programmes, under which detainees were held incommunicado and frequently transferred to countries such as Egypt and Syria where they were likely to be tortured'.
The report identifies Bush's second man, Dick Cheney as the driving force behind the establishment of illegal detention and interrogation policies, chairing key meetings at which specific CIA operations were discussed, including the waterboarding of one detainee, Abu Zubaydah, in 2002.
It said defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld had approved illegal interrogation methods and closely followed the interrogation of Mohamed al-Qahtani, who was subjected to a six-week regime of coercive interrogation at Guantanamo that cumulatively appears to have amounted to torture.
It said that CIA director George Tenet authorised and oversaw the CIA's use of waterboarding, stress positions, light and noise bombardment, sleep deprivation, and other abusive interrogation methods, as well as the CIA rendition program.
Source : New Age
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