The Reckoning? Spanish Judge Orders War Crimes Investigation of Bush Officials
Sunday, March 29, 2009 at 16:34 
The Obama Administration has been trying to hold the line against any punishment of the Bushmen for their actions, and the "Truth Commission" proposal of Senator Patrick Leahy is unlikely to become reality. Overseas, however, the battle is not yet done:
"A Spanish court has taken the first steps toward opening a criminal investigation into allegations that six former high-level Bush administration officials violated international law by providing the legal framework to justify the torture of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, an official close to the case said."
The magistrate who ordered the enquiry is Baltasar Garzon, best known for his crusading arrest of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Those named in the complaint include former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff strategist, David Addington, ; Jay S. Bybee, Mr. Yoo’s former boss at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel; and David S. Addington, who was the chief of staff and legal adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney. the Bush Administration's favourite twisters of the law, John Yoo and Jay Bybee, and former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, and Department of Defense counsel William J. Haynes.
The New York Times, which has a copy of the 98-page complaint, says it is based on the Geneva Conventions and the 1984 Convention Against Torture. The case was prepared by Spanish lawyers, with help from experts in the United States and Europe, and filed by a Spanish human rights group, the Association for the Dignity of Prisoners.
Any arrest warrants are still months away and, as American legal experts quickly noted, they will be largely symbolic: it is unlikely that the Obama Administration would grant an extradition request from Spain. Still, the warrants would raise the prospect that any of the six men could be arrested and detained if they travelled abroad.
Reader Comments (4)
This is a good start, I think.
I didn't see Rumsfeld or Cheney on the list, but from what I understand, they should be. And then, of course, there's Bush, but I imagine there will be too much reluctance to formally charge a former president in this way.
The violations of international law are obvious enough, but I wonder whether these have violated domestic US law, apart from general constraints against acting in violation of US treaties.
Yes your right Craig. This must be the good start. Maybe the first fight for Pres. Obama?
Daniel
I think all the men I name should be arrested and tried for War Crimes.
George W. Bush
Alberto Gonzales
Donald Rumsfeld
Douglas Feith
Dick Cheney
Richard Perle
And a great many Jewish officials from Israel, who committed genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.
"If you kill one, it is a tragedy.
If you kill ten million, it is a statistic"
Stalin
Powerful people have been able to kill with impunity because no one else had more power to stop them. Of course this is always unjust but for reasons unknown leaders who would not act this way often protect the men that do. I think this is called 'gutless'.