At last report, Rumsfiend was considering canceling an appearance in Germany because of the threat. Looks like he got that taken care of.Germany's federal prosecutor Thursday rejected calls to investigate allegations that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was guilty of war crimes over the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal.
The U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and four Iraqis who say they were abused by American soldiers at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison had filed a criminal complaint with German Federal Prosecutor Kay Nehm in November.
They were seeking to take advantage of a 2002 German law allowing for the prosecution of human rights abuses and war crimes regardless of the where they occur.
Reuters article
Which of course isn't going to happen and is why the suit was filed in Germany in the first place.The German federal prosecutor said in a statement it was up to the United States in the first instance to pursue legal action against the alleged perpetrators and their superiors.
The courts worded their refusal in a way to appear as though there was reason to refuse.
It appears to many of us that there is plenty of evidence that U.S. authorities are failing to act. After all, the U.S. authorities are also perpetrators of the war crimes.The CCR said its action was a last resort after the failure of the U.S. congress to properly investigate Abu Ghraib.[...]
German prosecutors could only step in if U.S. authorities failed to act, for which there was currently no evidence, the prosecutor added.
But...the German populace isn't giving an inch
Hundreds of thousands of people have flooded the streets of major western German cities for the traditional Rose Monday procession, the highlight of the Catholic carnival season.
Political leaders received plenty of exposure, with an effigy of US President George Bush figuring on one float, backside bared, in the city of Mainz while German opposition leader Angela Merkel ran up a ladder behind.
Despite some outcry, organisers there said they were not caving in to any censorship, despite the planned visit to Germany by Bush on 23 February.
Aljazeera article
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