Spain court mulls US torture case

[Liebling:-)))]

Spain court mulls US torture case

Spanish judges have agreed to consider charging six former US officials with providing legal justification for alleged torture at Guantanamo Bay.

Human rights lawyers brought the case against the six, who all served under former President George W Bush.

Among those named was former defence official Douglas Feith, who said the charges against him "made no sense".

Spanish courts can prosecute offences such as torture or war crimes even if they occurred in other countries.

The former officials - who include ex-Attorney-General Alberto Gonzalez - could face arrest on leaving the US if the courts decide to issue warrants.

'Controversial position'

The lawyers who brought the case accuse the six of providing legal cover to allow the security services to use techniques of interrogation such as "waterboarding".

They say the methods amounted to torture.

Mr Feith, a former under-secretary for defence, rebuffed the accusations.

"The charges as related to me make no sense," he said.

"They criticise me for promoting a controversial position that I never advocated."

The lawyers took their accusations to Judge Baltasar Garzon, who agreed to allow state prosecutors to decide if the case has merit.

Judge Garzon was responsible for bringing a prosecution against former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested in the UK in 1998.

Spain's courts have also launched investigations over alleged crimes in Argentina, Tibet, El Salvador and Rwanda.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Spain court mulls US torture case

 

[Liebling:-)))]

Spanish court weighs case against Bush officials

Suit alleges ex-attorney general, five others gave legal cover for torture


MADRID - A Spanish court has agreed to consider opening a criminal case against six former Bush administration officials, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, over allegations they gave legal cover for torture at Guantanamo Bay, a lawyer in the case said Saturday.

Human rights lawyers brought the case before leading anti-terror judge Baltasar Garzon, who agreed to send it on to prosecutors to decide whether it had merit, Gonzalo Boye, one of the lawyers who brought the charges, told The Associated Press.

The ex-Bush officials are Gonzales; former undersecretary of defense for policy Douglas Feith; former Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff David Addington; Justice Department officials John Yoo and Jay S. Bybee; and Pentagon lawyer William Haynes.

"The charges as related to me make no sense," Feith said Saturday. "They criticize me for promoting a controversial position that I never advocated."

Yoo declined to comment. A message left at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco where Bybee is now a judge was not immediately returned. A message left at Chevron Corp. in San Ramon, Calif., where Haynes reportedly works as an attorney was not immediately returned.

Spanish law allows courts to reach beyond national borders in cases of torture or war crimes under a doctrine of universal justice, though the government has recently said it hopes to limit the scope of the legal process.

Garzon became famous for bringing charges against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, and he and other Spanish judges have agreed to investigate alleged abuses everywhere from Tibet to Argentina's "dirty war," El Salvador and Rwanda.

Spaniards among alleged torture victims

Still, the country's record in prosecuting such cases has been spotty at best, with only one suspect extradited to Spain so far.

When a similar case was brought against Israeli officials earlier this year, Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos assured his Israeli counterpart that the process would be quashed.

Even if indictments are eventually handed down against the U.S. officials, it is far from clear whether arrests would ever take place. The officials would have to travel outside the United States and to a country willing to take them into custody before possible extradition to Spain.

The officials are charged with providing a legal cover for interrogation methods like waterboarding against terrorism suspects at Guantanamo, which the Spanish human rights lawyers say amounted to torture.

Yoo, for instance, wrote a series of secret memos that claimed the president had the legal authority to circumvent the Geneva Conventions.

President George W. Bush always denied the U.S. tortured anyone. The U.S. has acknowledged that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-described plotter of Sept. 11, and a few other prisoners were waterboarded at secret CIA prisons before being taken to Guantanamo, but the Bush administration insisted that all interrogations were lawful.

Boye said he expected the National Court to take the case forward and dismissed concerns that it would harm bilateral relations between the two countries.

He said that some of the victims of the alleged torture were Spaniards, strengthening the argument for Spanish jurisdiction.

"When you bring a case like this you can't stop to make political judgments as to how it might affect bilateral relations between countries," he told the AP." It's too important for that."

‘A significant first step’

Boye noted that the case was brought not against interrogators who might have committed crimes but by the lawyers and other high-placed officials who gave cover for their actions.

"Our case is a denunciation of lawyers, by lawyers, because we don't believe our profession should be used to help commit such barbarities," he said.

Another lawyer with detailed knowledge of the case told the AP that Garzon's decision to consider the charges was "a significant first step." The lawyer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

There was no immediate comment from Garzon or the government.

The judge's decision to send the case against the American officials to prosecutors means it will proceed, at least for now. Prosecutors must now decide whether to recommend a full-blown investigation, though Garzon is not bound by their decision.

The proceedings against the Bush Administration officials could be embarrassing for Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has been keen to improve ties with the United States after frosty relations during the Bush Administration.

Zapatero is scheduled to meet President Barack Obama for the first time on April 5 during a summit in Prague.

Spanish court weighs U.S. torture case - Europe- msnbc.com

 

[Jiro]

Investigation on Bush Administration

Judge OKs probe of torture complaint against Bush officials

# Story Highlights
# Prosecutors will review Gitmo complaint to determine if crime committed
# Former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and five others accused
# Judge says case can be pursued in Spain because of Spanish detainees

(CNN) -- A senior Spanish judge has ordered prosecutors to investigate whether key Bush aides should be charged with crimes over the Guantanamo Bay detention center, a lawyer said Sunday.

Investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzon has passed a 98-page complaint to prosecutors that accuses former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and five others of being the legal architects of system that allowed torture in violation of international law, human rights lawyer Gonzalo Boye told CNN.

Prosecutors will review the document to determine if a crime has been committed.

The prosecutor's office will make a decision within five days, said Boye, one of the report's authors. Garzon accepted the complaint under Spanish law because there were several Spaniards at Guantanamo who allegedly suffered torture.

The complaint was filed in March 2008 by Boye and the Association for the Rights of Prisoners.

It names Gonzales -- who was President George W. Bush's counsel when the Guantanamo Bay detention center was established -- and other top Bush administration officials John C. Yoo, Douglas J. Feith, William J. Hayes II, Jay S. Bybee and David S. Addington.

A former top aide to Colin Powell, who was secretary of state in the early days of the Bush administration's "war on terror," testified before Congress last summer that the six officials "colluded" to develop a legal rationale for allowing detainees to be subjected to harsh treatment.

Lawrence Wilkerson was Powell's chief of staff in President Bush's first term.

Yoo, the author of a memo which critics say authorized torture, also testified before Congress last year.

The former deputy assistant attorney general said that his role in the administration had simply been to provide legal advice.

"We were functioning as lawyers. We don't make policy. Policy choices in these matters were up to the National Security Council or the White House or the Department of Defense," he said.

Gonzales was Bush's legal counsel at the time and later became attorney general. Yoo and Bybee were at the Department of Justice, Haynes and Feith worked for the Department of Defense, and Addington was Vice President Dick Cheney's legal counsel.

Addington proved difficult to pin down when he testified under subpoena before a House of Representatives subcommittee June 26 with Yoo, who testified voluntarily but repeatedly refused to answer questions.

Addington, by then Cheney's chief of staff, delivered a flat "No" in answer to a question from New York Democrat Rep. Jerrold Nadler about whether Addington "contributed to the analysis or assisted in the drafting of the August 1, 2002, interrogation memo."

But when Nadler followed up with: "You had nothing to do with that," Addington again replied: "No. I didn't say I had nothing to do with it."

Addington never clarified what, if any, his role was.

Garzon, Spain's best-known investigating magistrate, issued the precedent-setting arrest warrant for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998.

The judge has investigated human rights abuses in former military governments in Chile and Argentina, Islamic terrorists operating in Spain, the armed Basque separatist group ETA, as well as major drug traffickers.

 

[Bottesini]

But will anything happen even if found guilty?

 

[Jiro]

oh wow - I wonder who's going to get arrested.....

 

[naisho]

Wow. It really looks as if they are cracking down on it.

 

[Calvin]

Mod Note:

Thread's merged.

 

[Byrdie714]

They haven't had much success doing this before.