Spain to Move Forward on War Crimes

As many in the USA - particularly former Bush/Cheney hacks and pundits of the far right - make up lame excuses for violations of international law Spain is about to move forward with investigations against the Chimperator, Emperor Palpatine Cheney and their willing minions who made a mockery of the Geneva Conventions and advanced a regime of torture against detainees. Yes, such an investigation will be very messy and if Bush and Cheney become full blown targets even unprecedented, but this MUST be done in order to (i) restore the soul of the USA and (ii) fully expose the full depravity of Cheney and the far right/Christianists that held sway over the nation for 8 years. If the USA will not prosecute its leaders for criminal acts, then other will have to do it. Here are some highlights from the Daily Beast:

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In a ruling in Madrid today, Judge Baltasar Garzón has announced that an inquiry into the Bush administration’s torture policymakers now will proceed to a formal criminal investigation. The ruling came as a jolt following the recommendation of Spanish Attorney General Cándido Conde-Pumpido against proceeding with a criminal inquiry, which was reported in The Daily Beast on April 16. Judge Garzón previously initiated and handled investigations involving Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, Argentine “Dirty War” strategist Adolfo Scilingo and Guatemalan strongman José Efraín Ríos Montt, often over the objections of the Spanish attorney general.

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Now, Garzón has announced a preliminary criminal inquiry into the Bush administration torture policy, specifying the evidence that a crime had been perpetrated against Spanish subjects, but not yet specifying the specific targets of the investigation. Judge Garzón’s decision revealed a deep engagement with documents which had been released in Washington in the last two weeks, particularly a group of memoranda prepared by lawyers in the Bush Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, a report of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and a memo released by the Senate Intelligence Committee, making it likely that he would focus on the authors of the torture memoranda and other lawyers who worked with them.

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Garzón is also seeking to have the criminal complaint of a Spanish human-rights organization against the Bush Six—six top Bush administration officials—recently reassigned by the chief judge of the Audiencia Nacional to Judge Eloy Velasco, referred back to him for purposes of consolidation with his new preliminary investigation.

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Spanish lawyers close to the case tell me that under applicable Spanish law, the Obama administration has the power to bring the proceedings in Spain against former Bush administration officials to a standstill. “All it has to do is launch its own criminal investigation through the Justice Department,” said one lawyer working on the case, “that would immediately stop the case in Spain.”