This video from the USA is called Ari Fleisher Admits Bush Should be Investigated for Torture.
By Associated Press:
Bush Trip Canceled for Security Concerns
Published: February 5, 2011
GENEVA — A visit by former President George W. Bush to Switzerland this week has been canceled because of security concerns, as the threat of mass protests loomed and the possibility emerged of a legal case against him for ordering torture.
Mr. Bush was informed Friday by the charity he planned to address in Geneva, the United Israel Appeal, that his Feb. 12 dinner speech had been called off, said his spokesman, David Sherzer. …
Mr. Sherzer declined to comment on the reasons for the cancellation.
The Swiss daily newspaper Tribune de Genève reported Saturday that the charity feared that protests against Mr. Bush planned by left-wing groups could result in violence.
“The calls to demonstrate were sliding into dangerous terrain,” the charity’s lawyer, Robert Equey, told the newspaper. “The organizers claimed to be able to maintain order, but warned they could not be held responsible for any outbursts.”
Protest organizers had called for participants to each bring a shoe to the rally outside the lakeside Hotel Wilson where the dinner was to be held. The shoe was meant to recall the one an Iraqi journalist threw at Mr. Bush during a news conference in 2008.
Mr. Equey said that efforts by human rights groups to submit legal complaints against Mr. Bush to Swiss prosecutors had not played a part in the decision to cancel the visit.
Several human rights groups including Amnesty International and the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights had planned to ask Swiss prosecutors to open a criminal investigation against Mr. Bush over the admission in his recent memoirs that he personally authorized the waterboarding of terrorism suspects.
“Whatever Bush or his hosts say, we have no doubt he canceled his trip to avoid our case,” the Center for Constitutional Rights and others said in a statement.
See also here.
Vincent Warren, Truthout: “Apparently, former president George W. Bush does ‘cut and run.’ On February 7, 2011, two torture victims were to have filed criminal complaints for torture against Bush in Geneva. Bush was due to speak there at a charity gala on February 12. On the eve of the case filing, Bush abruptly canceled his trip, choosing instead to attend the Super Bowl in Dallas. Why would he rather be in Dallas than in Geneva? For one thing, Swiss authorities are under a legal obligation to start a preliminary criminal investigation if a torturer is on Swiss soil. But, thanks to Attorney General Eric Holder’s refusal to apply US law to investigate torture, Bush isn’t even breaking a sweat in Dallas – or anywhere in the US, for that matter”: here.
Bush’s own words bolster potential torture prosecution against him: here.
Russ Baker, WhoWhatWhy.com: “In Donald Rumsfeld’s new book, Known and Unknown, out February 8, Rumsfeld offers an account of George W. Bush’s early interest in Iraq. This was just days after the 9/11 attacks. There were no apparent reasons for Bush to focus on Iraq, instead of on the actual perpetrators of the attacks”: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Rights groups vow to hunt Bush over torture
Mon, Feb 7, 4:40 pm ET
GENEVA (AFP) – Human rights groups vowed Monday to pursue George W. Bush wherever he travels, claiming that the former US president had cancelled a trip to Switzerland over fears that he could be probed for torture.
Bush was due to attend a fund-raising gala evening in Geneva this week, but organisers said Saturday that he had cancelled because of the risk of disturbances.
“The reach of the Convention Against Torture is wide — this case is prepared and will be waiting for him wherever he travels next,” said Katherine Gallagher, an attorney and vice-president of the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
Human rights groups pointed out that two “torture victims” were to have filed a criminal complaint in Geneva against Bush, who was due to speak at the gala here on February 12.
“Swiss law requires the presence of the torturer on Swiss soil before a preliminary investigation can be opened,” said the FIDH, the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights and the Centre for Constitutional Rights.
[ For complete coverage of politics and policy, go to Yahoo! Politics ]
“When Bush cancelled his trip to avoid prosecution, the human rights groups who prepared the complaints made (them) public and announced that the Bush torture indictment would be waiting wherever he travels next,” they added in a statement.
In his memoirs published last year, Bush claimed that use of the water boarding technique — which simulates drowning — had directly prevented terror attacks in Britain and the United States.
He also said in an interview with the British newspaper The Times it was “damn right” that he had authorised use of the controversial method on Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
“Waterboarding is torture, and Bush has admitted, without any sign of remorse, that he approved its use,” said Gallagher.
“Torturers — even if they are former presidents of the United States — must be held to account and prosecuted. Impunity for Bush must end.”
Gavin Sullivan, a lawyer at the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, added that Bush “bears ultimate responsibility for authorizing the torture of thousands of individuals at places like Guantanamo and secret CIA ?black sites?.
“As all states are obliged to prosecute such torturers, Bush has good reason to be very worried,” he said.
Human Rights Watch said in New York that the US authorities themselves should be pursuing Bush.
“The US government should take the lead to investigate former US President George W. Bush and other senior officials for authorizing torture of terrorism suspects rather than leaving prosecutions to other countries,” the organization said.
“The US government needs to demonstrate that no official, including an ex-president, is above the law,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
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