Rumsfeld flees France

Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld fled France today fearing arrest over charges of “ordering and authorizing” torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the US military’s detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, unconfirmed reports coming from Paris suggest.

US embassy officials whisked Rumsfeld away yesterday from a breakfast meeting in Paris organized by the Foreign Policy magazine after human rights groups filed a criminal complaint against the man who spearheaded President George W. Bush’s “war on terror” for six years.

A complaint was filed with the Paris prosecutor's office by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the International Federation of Human Rights. as Rumsfeld arrived in France for a visit.

This is the fifth time Rumsfeld has been charged with direct involvement in torture since 9/11.