Human Rights Watch is calling for a special prosecutor to examine of Donald Rumsfeld and George Tenet , in issues related to the abuse of detainees.
The group has concluded, based mainly on news reports and military reviews, that there was "overwhelming evidence that U.S. mistreatment and torture of Muslim prisoners took place not only at Abu Ghraib but at facilities throughout Afghanistan and Iraq as well as at Guantanamo, Cuba and at 'secret locations' around the world." The report found that there was no indication that Rumsfeld made any attempt to stop it.
The report found that Tenet was responsible for policies that sent detainees to countries where they wer tortured, which makes him potentially liable as an accomplice to torture.
The reason for the necessity of a special prosecutor is because attorney general Alberto Gonzales has a conflict of interest as he was himself deeply involved in the policies leading to these alleged crimes. So far the government has shown no interest in an independent inquiry. Republicans in Congress have blocked requests by Democrats to examine allegations of detainee abuse, and the Justice Department has ignored requests to appoint a special prosecutor.
According to a statement by Reed Brody, special counsel for Human Rights Watch, "This pattern of abuse across several countries did not result from the acts of individual soldiers who broke the rules, it resulted from decisions made by senior U.S. officials to bend, ignore or cast the rules aside."
It will be very interesting to see what comes of this. In this administration's atmosphere of near royalty, this may be one more thing that gets swept under the rug as they take more power and continue changing rules to accomodate their agenda.
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