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Go Garzon! Spanish Judge Wants to Keep Hope for the Rule of Law Alive
Judge wants to keep Gitmo case alive
By Al Goodman, CNN Madrid Bureau Chief
MADRID, Spain (CNN) — A Spanish judge moved Friday to keep alive an investigation into six former Bush administration officials for alleged torture of prisoners at the U.S. detention camp for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Cuba.
He acted just hours after prosecutors urged the case to be dropped, according to a court document.
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Spanish judge keeps Guantanamo probe alive
By Reuters
MADRID, April 17 (Reuters) - A Spanish judge considering possible criminal action against six former Bush administration officials for torture at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay defied pressure to drop the case on Friday.
But Judge Baltasar Garzon, internationally known for trying to extradite former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, accepted that he might not personally take charge of any eventual criminal investigation into officials including former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
On Thursday, Spain's attorney general said Garzon should dismiss the complaint brought by human rights lawyers calling for the officials to be prosecuted.
In a ruling on Friday, Garzon ignored this advice but also avoided a direct confrontation with the attorney general's office by submitting the case to a lottery system which will now assign it at random to one of the six high court judges.
"Let it be assigned to the corresponding court," Garzon said in the ruling.
The judge who gets the case will now have to decide whether to go ahead of it. Under the system, Garzon will have a one in six chance of getting the case back.
Under Spanish law, jurisdiction can be claimed in the case because five Spanish citizens or residents who were prisoners at U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, say they were tortured there.
Attorney General Candido Conde-Pumpido said the case should not be accepted because if anyone should be investigated for torture at Guantanamo it should be those who carried it out.
U.S. President Barack Obama also spoke out against the proposed investigation on Thursday, saying he would prefer not to focus on past events at Guantanamo, which he has promised to close.
The other Americans named in the accusation are William Haynes II, former general counsel for the Department of Defense; John Yoo, the former Justice Department lawyer who wrote secret legal opinions saying President George W. Bush had the authority to circumvent the Geneva Conventions; Douglas Feith, former undersecretary of defence for policy; Jay Bybee, Yoo's former boss at the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel; and David Addington, chief of staff and legal adviser to ex-Vice President Dick Cheney.
(Reporting by Jason Webb; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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Stay warm this winter in a black hooded sweatshirt. Order one. Order them by the dozen and donate them to occupations!
We got a few (Kaptur, Paul, Kucinich and Feingold) but not nearly enough. Just people that followed the damned law would be nice. I know Barack is under tremendous pressure from the intelligence community to let this slide, but I'm still ashamed of him. There shouldn't even be a question that Bush and Co. are as guilty as sin. What's it going to take?... Cheney gutting a prisoner right in front of Obama? Pathetic.
When Obama dumped Rev Wright ( who only told the truth) that made it clear. What's the big change?
Any President who protects Bush is just as bad if not worse. Its you dopes who voted for Obama when Nader was on the ballot.
Obama is your fault.
.....and until #43's Evil Executive Over Reach Genie is shoved back into the bottle and corked up tight things in this once respected Nation will remain as such. We all know that to behave Constitutionally is expected but for almost a decade we had the Little Shoppe of Horrors loosed upon us and once the Executive becomes an Oligarch the official ELECTED by us based on our naivete' of Belief in them if the Executive did not immediately pull back abide by our Constitution, Prosecute the egregious Offender's of Our 8th Amendment, CAT3 Torture Article, vis a vie the Geneva Convention, blatantly disregarding International Law then #44 has nowhere to go but further Over Reach and further and further. President Obama must be forced, if he refuses to erase that Thin Blue Line, to prosecute those Torturer's, Kidnapper's, Inventors of Horror, Violators of OUR Bill of Rights, because assuredly if you turn right instead left down
the corridor at JFK or LAX you may find yourself in that Dead Zone where the Neon light is flashing, "You Have Just Left the USA" shackled, hooded, kidnapped and dropped off at a Black Site for 3 years, sans habeas, sans counsel, Tortured, no translator, total darkness, yet you, Yes You are a US citizen! SO........
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of Totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy.
Mohandas Gandhi
Even if the attempt is successful it will probably only lead to a few of them ever seeing the inside of a prison and if America preempts Spain by prosecuting the case itself, there will be even less likelyhood of conviction/just punishment.
That said, it is a worthy attempt and should be supported provided that we include the proviso that it not be used as a precedent for claiming universal jurisdiction over peoples and cultures that do not share our values. Otherwise, we'll be having to justify 'humanitarian intervention' everywhere.
Just not to ourselves. Manuel Noriega had his country invaded and he was snatched over our worldly "concerns". He had never set foot in this country in his life before then. This empire building country has taken the old adage "the best defense is a good offense" and shot it's ass full of steroids and that's exactly what we've become- a stupid overbearing brute subject to 'roid rage at the slightest provocation. It's all fun and games signing treaties and other happy noise until we get caught violating said treaties. Pardon me, YOU ALL breaking the treaties. I claim the "Chickasaw" defense :) (jus' funnin'; I'm Native American, but I take responsibility for this junk, too. Hence my involvement here).
I don't see that setting a precedent in this matter would be a bad thing. I thought that was what the U.N. was founded on- Countries voicing grievances.