Ed Morrissey notes a John Leo column in which Leo points out that Amnesty International, in addition to labeling Guantanamo Bay “the gulag of our time,” recently called for foreign governments to arrest the President of the US, Donald Rumsfeld, and other top officials, and prosecute them for war crimes in the International Criminal Court: Did Amnesty International Call For Kidnapping Of American Leaders?

Captain Ed writes:

Perhaps this has received wide release and I just missed it, but this is the first report I’ve seen in the American media of such a call.

Well, not to blow the LGF horn too much, but we had this story back on May 26, ahead of almost everyone: lgf: Amnesty International Urges Prosecution for US Officials. I was surprised that it didn’t get more notice at the time.

Here’s the almost unbelievable AI statement to which we linked, at OneWorld.net: Bush, Other Top Officials Should Face Torture Probes, Says Amnesty; Urges Arrests if Warranted.

“If the United States permits the architects of torture policy to get off scot-free, then other nations should step into the breach,” William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in a statement launching Amnesty’s annual report.

Bush is among a dozen former or current U.S. officials who should be probed by foreign governments because Washington has failed to conduct “a genuinely independent and comprehensive investigation” of torture allegations against U.S. troops, commanders, and their civilian overseers, Schulz said.

Others on the Amnesty list of potential targets for investigation and prosecution include Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief George Tenet.

“If the U.S. government continues to shirk its responsibility, Amnesty International calls on foreign governments to uphold their obligations under international law by investigating all senior U.S. officials involved in the torture scandal,” Schulz said.

“If those investigations support prosecution, the governments should arrest any official who enters their territory and begin legal proceedings against them,” he added. “The apparent high-level architects of torture should think twice before planning their next vacation to places like Acapulco or the French Riviera because they may find themselves under arrest as Augusto Pinochet famously did in London in 1998.”