Sen. Christopher Dodd is open to torture prosecutions

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Senator Christopher Dodd is the son of Thomas Dodd, who served as a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunals after World War II. Thomas Dodd's cross-examination of Hermann Göring provided the centerpiece of the trials. In 2007, Senator Dodd published "Letters From Nuremberg: My Father's Narrative of a Quest For Justice." Amazon.com You may want to check out a copy from your local library.

In a recent report in the New Haven Independent, Sen. Dodd said he is Open To Torture Prosecutions.

Making parallels to the Nuremberg trials, U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd told a gathering of liberal bloggers in New Haven he’d support bringing charges against any Bush administration officials found responsible for the policy of waterboarding terrorism suspects.

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“Not to prosecute people and pursue them when these acts occurred,” he said following the gathering, “is in a sense to invite them to do it again in a future administration.”

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Toward the end of the hour-long afternoon session in a second-floor room at the Temple Street pub, veteran blogger Al Robinson of My Left Nutmeg asked Dodd a two-part question: Is waterboarding, the near-drowning technique used by the CIA interrogators on al Qaeda suspects, a form of torture? And does the senator believe that Bush administration officials who OK’d the technique should be held accountable?

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“I believe waterboarding is torture,” Dodd responded. Not only was it torture — it didn’t work, he said. He noted that one suspect was waterboarded 183 times. “How effective could that be after the 90th?”

Dodd supported a call by Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont to have a select committee investigate the case. Now that President Obama has released the memos, they should be put to use rather than ignored, he argued.

“If people in fact did something that was illegal they should be pursued,” Dodd said, no matter how high up in the Bush administration the trail leads. He spoke of the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals after World War II in making the case that people responsible for the torture should be prosecuted; Dodd’s father was a prosecutor at the trials.

The Nuremberg Tribunal Principles are applicable to war crimes, which includes torture in violation of the Geneva Conventions, the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Torture Convention), and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Principles Nuremberg Tribunal 1950

For anyone who has not watched "Judgment at Nuremberg" in some time (yes, I know the movie takes liberties and is not entirely accurate), here is German Judge Ernst Janning (portrayed by Burt Lancaster) admitting his guilt. Keep in mind that judges, legislators and executive department officials were prosecuted and convicted for conspiracy, aiding and abetting, and being an accessory to a crime, as well as the crime.

Here is Judge Dan Haywood (portrayed by Spencer Tracy) delivering the verdict of the court.