THE BUCK STOPS WITH DONALD RUMSFELD. So say the ACLU and Human Rights First, in a lawsuit filed today in federal court charging the Secretary of Defense with responsibility for "torture and abuse of U.S. detainees in military custody." The suit names 8 individuals abused by U.S. forces as plaintiffs in the case. This is the first time that a top-level U.S. government official has been charged in the ongoing revelations of human rights violations by American forces against detainees in prisons run by the U.S. military.

“Secretary Rumsfeld bears direct and ultimate responsibility for this descent into horror by personally authorizing unlawful interrogation techniques and by abdicating his legal duty to stop torture,” said Lucas Guttentag, lead counsel in the lawsuit and director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “He gives lip service to being responsible but has not been held accountable for his actions. This lawsuit puts the blame where it belongs, on the Secretary of Defense.”

This news came to my attention via TalkLeft.