"It 'would be an atrocious violation of our Constitution and the principles on which it is based' to execute an innocent person," Justice Stevens wrote, quoting Judge Barkett's dissent.
"These units committed the most atrocious human rights violations," said el-Dawla.
Amnesty International accused the Bush administration of condoning "atrocious" human rights violations, thereby diminishing the United States' moral authority and setting a global example encouraging rights abuses by other nations.
"How can we move forward with such a delicate agreement in the face of such an atrocious human rights violation?" said Representative James P. McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, the co-chairman of the House Human Rights Commission.
The band reacted to the ongoing crackdown Monday with a Facebook post in both English and Arabic, writing that it has "become rather apparent in the last 48 hours that the state apparatus is hell-bent on executing the most atrocious of human rights violations.
It is, in fact, far from clear that this act, though plainly atrocious and horrific, was a violation of the laws of war.
The act was the state's response to a 2011 US Supreme Court decision that atrocious conditions in California prisons amounted to a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
And quite simply, as atrocious as the event was, there was no clear violation of the laws of war to provide a toehold for the professional humanitarians.
