US citizen Otto Warmbier died after 17 months in North Korea, during which he was abused, ignored, exposed to cold and not fed.
The US has ordered a $500,000,000 judgement against North Korea. [dw]
Judge Howell ordered the payment, and wrote: “North Korea is liable for the torture, hostage taking, and extrajudicial killing of Otto Warmbier, and the injuries to his mother and father, Fred and Cindy Warmbier.”
As everyone hurries to point out: nobody is going to get any money from North Korea, it’s a symbolic verdict.
It also establishes the value of a human life lost, in captivity and despair, tortured by neglect and allowed to die. It’s a ridiculous question, some politicians occasionally ask, “how much is a human life worth?” An American like Otto Warmbier is worth $500,000,000.
Meanwhile, Felipe Alonzo-Gomez’ parents are unlikely to win a $500,000,000 judgement against the United States [cnn]
An 8-year-old migrant’s last days were a blur of border patrol stations and hospital visits in a location about 2,000 miles from his family’s home in Guatemala.
The boy’s death while in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection comes just weeks after a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl died while being held by CBP. He was identified as Felipe Alonzo-Gomez by US Rep. Joaquin Castro, but CBP did not name him.
The children’s deaths have highlighted the life-and-death challenges that migrants face in attempting to come to the US and caused CBP to announce several policy changes around its care of children under 10 years old.
I hope Steve Miller is named in the lawsuit. Not that the boy’s parents are going to get anything, either.
I wonder if (seriously) anyone has looked at whether what ICE is doing is torture under international humanitarian law. That is a capital offense in the US. Not that anyone in the US will ever be convicted for torture, unless someone grabs Dick Cheney and waterboards him.
Further questions arise. Are there competitive group prices for hospitals, weddings, etc. Can you get a rebate when your target deliberately disguised itself as a terrorist breeding ground in order to make you look bad in front of everyone else?
It’s not waterboarding, it’s simulated drowning to help Dick cope with the stress in a real emergeny. The plaintiff is to pay the defendant for services rendered. *bangs gavel*
I wonder how much Darren Rainey’s family is going to get…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Darren_Rainey
The US has ordered a $500,000,000 judgement against North Korea.
This makes the US Court System look even more ridiculous than ever though the brilliant US court decision “Iran must pay $6bn to victims of 9/11 attacks https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/judge-iran-pay-6bn-victims-911-attacks-180501120240366.html is high on the list of madness.
jrkrideau@#3:
This makes the US Court System look even more ridiculous than ever though the brilliant US court decision “Iran must pay $6bn to victims of 9/11 attacks https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/judge-iran-pay-6bn-victims-911-attacks-180501120240366.html is high on the list of madness.
Well, there’s that.
And the US awarded the crew of the Vincennes which shot down Iranian flight 655 – a civilian aircraft – combat action ribbons and never admitted a mistake. To be fair, a completely random out of the air “not a settlement” of $60million was paid
Even adjusted for inflation, Iranians aren’t worth as much as Americans, it would appear.
The US has been “terrorizing” Iran far more than Iran has terrorized the US.
Gosh, that sounds like a laundry list of what goes on every day at Guantanamo. You know, all the extrajudicial kidnapping, torture, killing (oops!), not feeding, force feeding and injuries to parents. By its own accounting, the U.S. must owe billions to other governments by now. I hope someone is keeping track.
voyager@#5:
Gosh, that sounds like a laundry list of what goes on every day at Guantanamo.
We have to move on; can’t keep looking back. We’ve owned up to our mistakes and now we’re ready to ignore them and learn our lessons from them, and be true to ourselves.
I’ve already stated this is much the same language, that according to our own laws on torture, there’s a good case for the death penalty against several recent presidents, including Bush, Obama, and Trump.
EnlightenmentLiberal@#7:
I’ve already stated this is much the same language, that according to our own laws on torture, there’s a good case for the death penalty against several recent presidents, including Bush, Obama, and Trump.
I agree. The lot of them should be in prison. But we’ve got to move on an’ all that.
The irony is that it was a Republican administration and congress, IIRC, that passed these US laws that permit the death penalty for people who torture POWs, in order to make a show about protecting our soldiers.