Rumsfeld target of war crimes-related lawsuit

updated 7:09 p.m. ET Nov. 14, 2006

BERLIN - Lawyers for inmates of Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo Bay filed a lawsuit in Germany on Tuesday against outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, hoping his resignation and testimony from a former general will help to have him investigated for war crimes.

German federal prosecutors said they would examine the case. Although the lawyers who filed it acknowledged while there was little chance of seeing Rumsfeld in a German jail, the point was simply to increase the pressure on top brass they say are culpable.

"We are not expecting that Rumsfeld will appear in a court, but we are hoping investigators will begin looking into the case," said Wolfgang Kaleck, a German lawyer involved in the suit.

The 220-page suit, which also names 13 other U.S. officials, was sent to federal prosecutors under a German law that allows the prosecution of war crimes regardless of where they were committed. It alleges that Rumsfeld personally ordered and condoned torture.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said U.S. officials had not seen the 220-page complaint but said media reports suggested it was "frivolous."

"Abu Ghraib is something that the U.S. government has investigated very thoroughly," Whitman said, noting more than a dozen probes as well as hearings before Congress. "The appropriate individuals have been held accountable."

Ex-general to testify against former superiors
Former U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq, said she would testify against her superiors because only a handful of low-ranking soldiers have been convicted over the abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail.

Karpinski, who was relieved of her command and demoted to colonel last year, said she wanted to "be a voice for my soldiers."

"They were tried and convicted in the world court before they ever set foot in any courtroom ... while people who are far more culpable and responsible have walked away blameless," Karpinski said during a presentation of the case in Berlin.

There have been 11 convictions and about a dozen courts-martial in the United States related to Abu Ghraib. Critics complain that senior officers and policymakers escaped punishment.

Suit on behalf of 12 captives
The suit is brought on behalf of 12 alleged torture victims — 11 Iraqis held at Abu Ghraib and Mohamad al-Qahtani, a Saudi being held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who has been identified by the U.S. as a would-be participant in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Captured in December 2001 along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, al-Qahtani would not crack under normal questioning, so Rumsfeld approved harsher methods, according to the testimony before Congress.

After FBI agents raised concerns, military investigators began reviewing the case and in July 2005 said they confirmed abusive and degrading treatment that included forcing al-Qahtani to wear a bra, dance with another man, stand naked in front of women and behave like a dog. Still, the Pentagon determined "no torture occurred."

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