This is what Bush would have gotten if he got convicted by a Spanish Judge. Spain rejected Baltasar Garzon attempt to bring Cheney and Bush on
war crimes. If Garson had been successful, this would have been the
sentence
"Torture committed the authority or public official abusing his office, and in order to obtain a confession or information or to punish any person for any act he has committed or is suspected of having committed, or for any reason based on any type of discrimination, subjecting to conditions or procedures which by their nature, duration or other circumstances, can involve physical or mental suffering, the elimination or reduction of their powers of knowledge, discernment or decision or that of any other way violate their moral integrity.The guilty of torture will be punished with imprisonment from two to six years if the infringement was serious, and imprisonment of one to three years if it is not.
That is a weak sentence. If Obama had the balls to bring them to trial, this would be the
http://law.justia.com/us/codes/title18/18usc2340a.html">sentence
(a) Offense.--Whoever outside the United States commits or attempts to commit torture shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both, and if death results to any person from conduct prohibited by this subsection, shall be punished by death or imprisoned
for any term of years or for life.
(b) Jurisdiction.--There is jurisdiction over the activity
prohibited in subsection (a) if--
(1) the alleged offender is a national of the United States; or
(2) the alleged offender is present in the United States,
irrespective of the nationality of the victim or alleged offender.
(c) Conspiracy.--A person who conspires to commit an offense under this section shall be subject to the same penalties (other than the penalty of death) as the penalties prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy.
In a parallel universe, in 2011, they might decide to come back to revisit this. It was always my thinking that they delayed the prosecution of Bush and Cheney until all of the major legislation that he campaigned on had passed. Trying Bush and Cheney is akin to doing political suicide in this country.
It will never happen but my post summarizes what the law states for what Bush and Cheney would be charged with.