It was revealed today that Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón has opened an investigation into allegations of torture at Guantánamo Bay. What inspired Garzón to open his investigation less than two weeks after Spanish Attorney General Candido Conde-Pumpido announced his opposition to such a move? Well, it appears precisely to have been the additional memos on harsh interrogation techniques released by the Department of Justice on April 16. As so happens, this was the very day on which Conde-Pumpido expressed his opposition to a Spanish investigation of six former Bush administration legal advisors.
In a court document dated April 27 [available here as a Word doc], Garzón writes:
According to what appears to be shown in the documents declassified by the American administration that have been mentioned in various media…, what was previously merely inferred has now been revealed: [the existence of] an authorized and systematic plan of torture and mistreatment of persons who were deprived of their liberty without charge…
Incidentally, Conde-Pumpido’s opposition to a Spanish investigation was never as unambiguous as some in the American media wanted to believe. According to the Spanish news agency EFE’s account of his April 16 news conference, Conde-Pumpido found the initial Guantánamo complaint to be “artificial,” since the plaintiffs had merely filed a complaint against the Bush administration advisors: “they do not dare to file one against the persons who could appear in principle to be directly responsible for the acts in question.” The latter formulation is presumably a round-about way of saying Bush, Rumsfeld and other administration officials had executive authority. According to the EFE report, Conde-Pumpido also referred less roundaboutly to the “material authors” of the acts.
Garzón appears indeed to have taken Conde-Pumpido’s criticisms to heart. The six advisors that were the object of the original complaint are not named in the document initiating proceedings. Instead, Garzón’s investigation into torture at Guantánamo is directed more broadly against “the possible material authors and instigators [los…inductores], and the necessary collaborators and accomplices of the same.”
4 responses so far
1 danbmil99 // Apr 30, 2009 at 1:27 am
This is a loser for the GOP. Throw Bush and Cheney under the bus already for God’s sake. They’ve brought your party to its knees. The mob wants blood, and it will get it one way or another.
Take a principled stand, stop whining about “24″ reruns as if no one has ever studied ethics before. Supporting immoral behavior with random thought experiments about ticking time bombs is for sophomore philo students. This is serious stuff, and the Left has taken the moral high ground.
If Bush/Cheney had towed the line on true conservative principles, I would understand this loyalty. But as it turns out, they have as much contempt for that ideology as they do for liberalism. Why protect them from their own stupidity? Obviously, if they were going to behave like their counterparts in “24″, they should have read the script — get some bad-ass who loves his country so much he’ll bend the rules and give you deniability. Nixon could have taught these jokers a thing or two.
Sheesh.
2 ottovbvs // Apr 30, 2009 at 6:50 am
These memos were the subject of a legal process that would almost certainly have resulted in their publication. Most of the contents were in the public domain anyway. Obama did the right thing although to some extent he was making a virtue of necessity. This whole issue is a total loser for the GOP so I’m at a loss to understand their desire to cling onto it. It merely serves to tie the party ever more closely to what even many conservatives grudgingly admit was one of the most disastrous and ineffective presidencies in US history. And we want to make Cheney the spokesman for the party? I read a piece by Larry Kudlow this morning applauding this as a good idea. I’d say it makes as much sense as the 18 months he spent telling us we were in a Goldilocks economy.
3 gibberish // Apr 30, 2009 at 10:35 am
If Spain had tortured Americans wouldn’t there be investigations?
4 danbmil99 // Apr 30, 2009 at 11:43 pm
The term “psychotic death spiral” comes to mind. The inability to admit mistakes is exactly what (almost) everyone hated about GWB. The GOP is acting exactly the same way on this (and many other) issues.
You could add the no-new-ideas policy of deregulation and lower taxes as the way out of our financial mess. Did they not watch the news since September? We just had a 100-year meltdown of financial markets, after pretty much 30 years of deregulation and lower taxes. How can they make that argument, without even adding a little twist or two so people can stomach it? Who are they selling to, besides themselves?
You must log in to post a comment.