Obama has duty to go after war criminals

The 1949 Geneva Civilian Convention, which is considered treaty law of the United States, expressly and unavoidably requires that all parties search for perpetrators of grave breaches of the treaty and bring them "before its own courts" for "effective penal sanctions" or "if it prefers . . . hand such persons over for trial to another High Contracting Party."

The obligation is absolute. The United States must either initiate prosecution or extradite to another state. "Grave breaches" of the Convention include "torture or inhuman treatment" and unlawful transfer of a non-prisoner of war from occupied territory. Similarly, the Convention Against Torture expressly and unavoidably requires that a party to the treaty extradite or "submit the case to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution." In 2006, the United Nations Security Council rightly stressed "the responsibility of States to comply with their relevant obligations to end impunity and to prosecute those responsible for war crimes," which include the use of torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment. In 2007, the U.N. General Assembly stressed that use of torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment "must be promptly and impartially examined . . . [and] those who encourage, order, tolerate or perpetrate acts of torture must be held responsible and severely punished."

Many authoritative reports have already recognized that what we saw in Abu Ghraib photos and waterboarding, the cold cell, stripping persons naked and use of snarling dogs to instill intense fear are torture. If they were not, they are also cruel treatment. If they were not, they constitute inhumane treatment. As such, they are manifest violations of the laws of war and any violation of the laws of war is a war crime.

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