Bush exempt from torture prosecution--as of 11/26/97. Why that date?
(Cross posted at Daily Kos)
As you all know, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 exempts Bush-Cheney from prosecution for war crimes against any detainee being held at Gitmo or elsewhere.
But did you know that that exemption is retroactive -- and reaches back to November 26, 1997?
What is the significance of that date?
The answer will send a chill up your spine and turn your blood ice-cold, I promise.
I asked Mark Adams, attorney at law, to research this. Here's what he said:
Ara --Get it? The law that would have been the lynchpin of any torture case against Bush-Cheney has been overridden by the MCA of 2006.The answer to your question is buried, DEEP! But I found the motherlode:
http://tinyurl.com/fg4tf
This document is the funding authorization for the Legal Services Commission that pays out attorney's fees and compensation to victims of government beatings!
$283 Million Bucks worth of funding, including payment to the court appointed attorneys for...
Section 502, (a)(2)(C)(i) ... "an alien who has been battered or subjected to extreme cruelty in the United States"
It also redefines "cruel and unusual punishment" so this old definition had to go ....
Section 502, (b)(1) ... "The term 'battered or subjected to extreme cruelty' has the meaning given such term under regulations issued pursuant to subtitle G of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994"
That 1994 Act provided relief from deportation to undocumented spouses and children of immigrants who were battered or subject to cruel and unusual treatment.
http://tinyurl.com/m9fyx
Jesus Ara, it provided for the death penalty in cases where death resulted from:
(6) HEINOUS, CRUEL, OR DEPRAVED MANNER OF COMMITTING OFFENSE-
The defendant committed the offense in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse to the victim.The Violence Against Women Act was part of the violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement act of 1994
http://tinyurl.com/m8hvyI'd have to go to the Code of Federal Regulations to get the real skinny. But that stuff's only for bureaucrats, not courts.
--Mark
It's your "Get out of jail lethal injection, FREE" card, you bastards.
"motherlode??"
Who writes like that. I know I would have misspelled it for sure.
;-)
If anyone is still confused by my notes to Ara on this, click on the KOS cross-post. I tried to put the legalese in better Englishese.