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A war crime is a serious violation of the laws and customs of war, or international humanitarian law, that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility. There are many examples of war crimes, such as murdering or mistreating prisoners of war or civilian internees, and under the auspices of the George W. Bush administration including then-vice president Dick Cheney, Americans committed war crimes when they tortured prisoners of war and Iraqi civilian internees.
Although it is common knowledge around the world and in America, President Obama had the unfortunate task of admitting at a press conference that America did torture detainees after 9/11. The President’s remarks were ahead of a soon-to-be-declassified Senate report about the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation program” (torture). In speaking about the CIA, the President said, “We tortured some folks. We did some things that were contrary to our values. A lot of those folks were working hard and under enormous pressure, and are real patriots. But having said all that, we did some things that were wrong.” Then, why in dog’s name are they not being prosecuted? Patriots or not, torture is a war crime, and in the same was Israel’s targeting of innocent Palestinian civilians was a war crime, Americans torturing prisoners of war and civilian detainees is a war crime; it does not matter if people were patriotic, afraid, angry, or following orders, torture is criminal.
Former vice president and convicted war criminal Dick Cheney’s daughter does not think torture is a violation of international law, and is furious at President Obama for announcing what the all the world, including Americans, will “officially” know when the Senate report is released. A report, by the way, that concluded the Bush/Cheney authorization of so-called ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ of detainees in the wake of the 9/11 attacks was ineffective and yielded no critical intelligence
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