Bush Torture Lawyers Targeted in Criminal Probe (Source Says Spain Court Concerns Yoo, Others)

Source: El Pais / Harper's

March 28, 1:07 AM, 2009 · No Comment · Previous · Next

Bush Torture Lawyers Targeted in Criminal Probe
By Scott Horton

One of America’s NATO allies—which supported the Bush Administration’s war on terror by committing its troops to the struggle–has now opened formal criminal inquiries looking into the Bush team’s legacy of torture. The action parallels a criminal probe into allegations of torture involving the American CIA that was opened this week in the United Kingdom.

Spain’s leading newspaper, El País of Madrid, announced this morning that the Spanish national security court has opened a criminal probe focusing on Bush Administration lawyers who pioneered the descent into torture at the prison in Guantánamo. A source who preferred to remain anonymous advised that University of California law professor John Yoo, former Department of Defense general counsel William J. Haynes II (now a lawyer working for Chevron), former vice presidential chief-of-staff David Addington, and former attorney general and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales are all targets.

The case was opened in the Spanish national security court, the Audencia Nacional. In July 2006, the Spanish Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a former Spanish citizen who had been held in Guantánamo, labeling the regime established in Guantánamo a “legal black hole.” The court forbade Spanish cooperation with U.S. authorities in connection with the Guantánamo facility. The current criminal case evolved out of an investigation into allegations, sustained by Spain’s Supreme Court, that the Spanish citizen had been tortured in Guantánamo.

The Spanish criminal court now may seek the arrest of any of the targets if they travel to Spain or any of the 24 nations that participate in the European extraditions convention (it would have to follow a more formal extradition process in other countries beyond the 24). The Bush lawyers will therefore run a serious risk of being apprehended if they travel outside of the United States.

Read more: http://harpers.org/archive/2009/03/hbc-90004640

obviously we can't do it ourselves. argh.

:mad:

and Americans without health care and losing their homes, do you really want our President to spend his capital pursuing the prosecution of the Bush cabal? Do you really believe he has the time for this? Besides a couple of hundred angry posters here on DU, where is the outpouring of rage among the population against the Bushies? Are there rallies with thousands of protesters outside the White House, demanding justice?

There are other ways to go after Bush and company that won't put the onus on Obama. I want the bastards to see justice as much as anyone, but until there is a major show of public support for prosecution, I don't see it happening anytime soon.

OTOH, I certainly support Vincent Bugliosi's efforts to nail the bastards.

It's not an either/or situation...

...It's not like Obama does these investigations personally.

Shhhhh... no one say anything and invite them to a speaking gig there. It'll be great!

(keep it on the down-low)

border from Texas to Mexico. So, I don't know how much traveling outside the country these clowns desire anyway.

Good for Spain.With any luck this will open the way to the people at the top,i.e.Bush,Cheney,Rice,Rumsfeld,etc.Hopefully the U.S.can eventually be embarrassed into dealing with it's own war criminals.

Back in the day, there would have been a long long long boycott of Chevron.

Well, I boycott Chevron, anyhow, since we have no Chevron stations locally.

or hiding in an undisclosed secret location other than san ramon ca.

Chevron already has a contentious relationship with the locals,
(but has good jobs and is important to local economy)

William J. Haynes II
http://members.calbar.ca.gov/search/member_detail.aspx?x=801024

In house counsel for Chevron.
why hasn't Haynes been disbarred? hmmm....

that the world was going to watch and see if this administration and this current Congress would move to prosecution; if they didn't, the world would step in.

It may be a measure of how truly horrible Bush/Cheney have been that Spain and England have not waited very long.

the little neo-fascist guy on the right in this famous-for-a-while photo (from the Azores (Açores)):



Although, typical little coward, with 90% of the Spanish population against him on this issue and demonstrating in the streets of every city in the land, Sr. José María Aznar, after approving the illegal invasion of Iraq (in the UN and at this crucial 3-way meeting), he never committed genuine Spanish combat troops in Iraq, claiming that the military personnel he sent (and made sure stayed out of harm's way - a hospital ship, ok, and support) were there for 'humanitarian reasons'.

Nevertheless, his (and many others') overt support would/should be enough to convince any just Court of his very personal guilt. A court that could well, one day soon, be set up in Madrid, or, perhaps better, in Barcelona.

In the Spanish Parliament, he always refused to answer any questions, simply averring: "The whole world knows I am right" (and Mr. Jeb Bush, publicly, promised him, personally, great rewards).

____

Ya hay un español que quiere
vivir y a vivir empieza,
entre una España que muere
y otra España que bosteza.
Españolito que vienes
al mundo, te guarde Dios.
Una de las dos Españas
ha de helarte el corazón.

- Antonio Machado



Ghost Dog.
Long time in Spain.

http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/Commun/ChercheSig.asp?NT=024&CM=0&DF=&CL=ENG

With Pinochet, I seem to remember Garzon called for Pinochet's arrest when he was in another signatory's country, in this case the UK. Or did he flee to UK hoping for better treatment.

Garzon is a hero.

to a 6'x8' area in Leavenworth Kansas, on death row.

-Hoot

....just asking is all. Seems like there must be international extradition laws in place. Allies should be able to extradite suspects from each others' countries. Any international criminal law experts here want to address this?

Illegitimi non carborundum,

global_traveler

The Bush/Cheney cabal will be brought to justice, with or without Mr. O's cooperation.

It's our job to keep the pressure on Mr. O.

to the bush regime's illegal invasion of Iraq.

97% of the people said NO; the previous Spanish government ignored them.

George W. bUsh praised the Spanish government for "spreading freedom".






Edited to add "previous" Spanish government. The previous rightwingnut Spanish government.

:evilgrin:

by powers in the military, CIA and corpo/political world to get them out. I think this is where Pelosi's "impeachment is off the table" came from. Circa 2006. They were going to nuke Iran, and inflict armageddon at least on the Middle East, and possibly on the whole planet, and declare martial law here. A group assembled (I think it included top military, top corpos/politicos, Daddy Bush--whose purpose was to protect Jr--and Leon Panetta, who was a member of the Bush Sr's "Iraq Study Group" and whom I believe is long-time CIA, high up in the organization), and they offered Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld immunity from impeachment/prosecution in exchange for no nuking of Iran, and leaving peacefully when the time came (also, Rumsfeld had to go--nuking Iran was his plan).

I don't think we should easily accuse Obama of cowardice or lack of care for Constitutional government and the rule of law. I think he had to agree to this deal, in order to be permitted to win the election. (Puke corpos control the voting system with 'TRADE SECRET' code, and virtually no audit/recount controls--don't ever forget it.)

Nothing else makes sense to me. Ignoring the Bush Junta's list of war crimes and gross malfeasance and mass looting of our federal government--a list of crimes so long it could circle the earth--makes no sense. It is crazy. And Obama is not crazy. I think he just accommodated himself to this reality, in order to do the best he could do, under the circumstances, for us and for our country. It's not a good situation. In fact, thinking about it makes me want to :puke:. But I think it's what is. It is the situation that we are in, and that Obama is in. We do not have the power, the sovereignty, the democratic strength to prosecute the criminal agents of global corporate predators in our own land. That is the truth.

This doesn't mean that we should not agitate for prosecution of these fuckwads. But I think we need to understand why it is isn't happening. They have been immunized. How far down the chain that immunity goes, I can't guess. But I think it's interesting that the Spanish court did not name Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld--the main perps. This could be a strategy used by a lot of prosecutors, of starting lower on the chain and working up, in the hope that some of the lower perps will finger the upper perps. Or it could be a reflection of pressure from the powerful group that immunized the top Bushwhacks.

The motives of the group that made "the Deal"? Mixed. Not all bad. Nuking Iran would have been bad, bad, BAD--the height of evil. I think Cheney and Rumsfeld were power-mad, and Jr just a doofus, their puppet. They were willing to risk nuclear war with Russia and/or China, millions of deaths, nuclear poisoning of the Middle East, and possibly the death of the planet, to get control of Iran's oil. And they could not have done it without subduing the American people and the military brass opposition. That would have meant a putsch in the military, and martial law by those willing to inflict it. The thrust of the "hidden hand" support for Bush/Cheney--those who put them in office (via the Supreme Court, and kept them there, via Diebold & brethren)--was massive thievery, not armageddon. Armageddon is bad for business. You will notice that the massive thievery continued full force, even unto the Bushwhack Financial 9/11 in September, post-2006, with Rumsfeld out. Cheney and Rumsfeld had gone "off the reservation" with wild dreams of being "dictators of the world," by cornering the world's last oil supplies. While the Looting Faction did want the oil--and got Iraq's--they didn't want an even bigger conflagration that could have EASILY escalated into WW III. Limited war is good for business--especially war profiteer business--but all out war, with nukes involved, is too risky. So Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld were eased out, with the promise of immunity for their many crimes.

The other thing we have to do, if we want our democracy back--besides throwing Diebold, ES&S and all 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines into 'Boston Harbor'--is U.S. and world nuclear disarmament. You can't really have a democracy if the president can destroy all life on earth with the push of a button. That makes him an Emperor--or rather a Super-Emperor, an Emperor such as the world has never seen before, controlling all life on earth, including all future life. That is too much power for one person. But first we need to prevent anyone like Bush, Cheney or Rumsfeld from ever having that power again. We are only temporarily relatively safe from nuclear armageddon, given the situation with the voting machines. And we are not at all safe from lesser horrors, such as the unbelievable mass looting we have seen, potential mass disruption and starvation and the collapse of our civilization, and lesser wars (Afghanistan...and Venezuela?), with our "good king," Obama, in charge. The best thing we can do for him--if we feel this way about him, as I do, that his intentions are good, and that he is extraordinarily intelligent and a potentially great leader--is to insure that we can re-elect him--and elect the support he needs in Congress, that is, insure that the 2010 and 2012 elections cannot be stolen with these privatized 'TRADE SECRET' voting systems.