War Criminals Find Sanctuary in the USA

U.S. Haven for War Criminals: (not counting Bush/Cheney)
by markthshark
Sat Nov 17, 2007 at 05:00:50 PM PST

"America has become a haven for the world's war criminals because it lacks the laws needed to prosecute them." – Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) – November 14, 2007

Unbeknownst to most Americans, more than 1,000 people from 85 different countries accused of such crimes as mass rape, killings, torture and genocide, now reside inside the United States, according to figures from the Department of Homeland Security.




The Washington Times is a major contributor on CNN. The Times is owned by the Rev Moon and is notorious for its racist, sexist right wing agenda.

Moon contributes heavily to the RNC.








Senator Durbin continued, saying torture was the only serious human-rights violation that constituted a crime under American law when committed outside the United States by a non-American national.

"This is unacceptable. Our laws must change and our determination to end this shameful situation must become a priority," Durbin, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, said at a hearing of the subcommittee Wednesday.
He's trying to get more information about specific cases.


Juan Romagoza Arce, is the director of a clinic providing free care for poor people in Washington D.C. Back in 1980, the El Salvadoran military seized the young doctor as he cared for the poor in his native country’s civil war. He was tortured for 22 days. Reportedly, an estimated 75,000 people died in the 12 year war.
During his testimony before Durbin’s committee, Romagoza told lawmakers that he was given electric shocks until he lost consciousness then kicked and burned with cigarettes until he came to. He also told of being sodomized, nearly asphyxiated in a hood containing calcium oxide -- a chemical that can cause severe shortness of breath when inhaled. Romagoza also said he was subjected to waterboarding, including being hung by his feet with his head immersed in water until nearly drowned.
The disturbing story appeared in Wednesday’s McClatchy’s Washington Bureau:...



Romagoza and two other torture victims brought a civil suit in U.S. federal court in West Palm Beach, Fla., against two Salvadoran generals who moved to Florida in 1989: Jose Guillermo Garcia, who was the minister of defense, and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, who was the director general of the Salvadoran National Guard.
In 2002, a jury found them liable for the torture of the three, and a judgment of $54.6 million was entered against them and upheld on appeal.
Romagoza said he didn't expect to see any of the money.
He testified that he'd received many threatening phone calls and letters at the time of the trial but that he'd overcome his fears and testified.
"I felt like I was in the prow of a boat and that there were many people rowing behind that were moving me into this moment," he told Durbin's panel.

"I felt that if I looked back at them I'd weep, because I'd see them again, wounded, tortured, raped, naked, torn and bleeding. So I didn't look back, but I felt their support, their strength and their energy."