Rumsfeld Skips Munich Security Conference

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File:Rumsfeld portrait.jpg

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
(Image missing from Commons: image; log)

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

THE PENTAGON, Washington DC — The U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will not attend high-profile talks on international defense policy at the Munich Security Conference claiming prior commitments. Rumsfeld will send Douglas J. Feith, the Undersecretary of Defense, instead, to discuss such items as the E.U. and U.S. stances on Iran.

Rumsfeld previously stated that he would not attend the conference unless Germany voided a complaint from the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, asking German authorities to prosecute him for war crimes. The group filed the complaint last December with the Federal German Prosecutor's Office, accusing Rumsfeld of war crimes and torture in connection with Iraq's Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse.

German legislation allows prosecution for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide regardless of where the crime occurred or of the nationality of the accused.

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