BERLIN, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- A lawsuit filed Tuesday in Germany accuses outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and 11 others of war crimes.
New York's Center for Constitutional Rights is behind the suit that alleges Rumsfeld and his subordinates ordered, allowed and implemented abusive interrogation techniques of 11 inmates at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. It also represents Mohammed al Qahtani, a Saudi citizen detained at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since January 2002.
The group chose Germany as its venue for the lawsuit because of a law enabling the German Federal Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute alleged war crimes regardless of the location of the defendant or plaintiff, the place where the crime was carried out, or the nationality of the people involved.
In a release, the rights group also named alleged participation by former Chief White House Counsel and current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo and General Counsel of the Department of Defense William James Haynes.
There was no immediate response from Rumsfeld or the others.
