Is That Legal?

I will point out from the article -
'Earlier on Thursday, President Horst Koehler, in a speech broadcast on national television at the consecration of a new synagogue in Munich, warned anti-Semitism was still present.'

Germany faces a number of challenges, but not surprisingly, the symbolism of opening a synagogue gets overshadowed by thugs, especially in the American media. Take it as you wish, but the coverage in Germany of the opening was a much larger event than some drunk East German neo-nazis again showing that evil never goes away.

I wonder how you feel about the fact that there is a new attempt to get Rumsfeld indicted as a war criminal in Germany, as German law treats such acts as torture as universally criminal, without jurisdiction as they are crimes against humanity, and not a nation state? And the reasons previously offered why a member of a NATO government could not be prosecuted in 2004 seem to no longer apply - that is, Rumsfeld is now a private citizen, not an official, and that American justice would handle the case. As we have seen, Rumsfeld has faced no legal process investigating the violation of both American and international law.

It is not a dispute that Germany has absolutely no claim to the benefit of any doubt, and at best, can only earn the right to no longer be judged today for what happened in the past, without ever being able to avoid that past.

But at the same time, concrete actions involving criminals who have killed and tortured people in the last five years somehow seems more worthy of comment to me than a few drunken slime demonstrating how unfit they are to be members of a civilized society.

I am curious - do you have a round number of how many Americans, today, were actively involved in torturing secret prisoners (the number 35,000 seems incredible - but then, reduce by a magnitude, and 3,500 seems incredible) in secret prisons, where even discussion of the secret methods of 'interrogation' should not be discussed in open court because the needs of the state are more important than individual rights?

Does that remind you of anything in regards to Germany?

In Russia earlier this month (St. Petersburg, making this even more ironic) I accidentally got caught in a nationalist march. The least unpleasent of these are xenophobic bigots. But, many of them are out-right and explicit fascists, adopting Nazi slogans and symbolism and praising Hitler. Nationalist and fascist/nazi graphiti is all over Russia now. It's really quite shocking and more than a bit terrifying to see.