Report: Bush officials to be indicted for sanctioning torture

Free your mind

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Apr 14, 2009
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Scott Horton from The Daily Beast reports that Spanish prosecutors will seek criminal charges against Alberto Gonzales and five high-ranking Bush administration officials for the sanctioning of torture at Guantánamo Bay, with the public announcement expected on Tuesday in Madrid:
The six defendants—in addition to Gonzales, Federal Appeals Court Judge and former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, University of California law professor and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, former Defense Department general counsel and current Chevron lawyer William J. Haynes II, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff David Addington, and former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith—are accused of having given the green light to the torture and mistreatment of prisoners held in U.S. detention in “the war on terror.” The case arises in the context of a pending proceeding before the court involving terrorism charges against five Spaniards formerly held at Guantánamo. A group of human-rights lawyers originally filed a criminal complaint asking the court to look at the possibility of charges against the six American lawyers. Baltasar Garzón Real, the investigating judge, accepted the complaint and referred it to Spanish prosecutors for a view as to whether they would accept the case and press it forward. “The evidence provided was more than sufficient to justify a more comprehensive investigation,” one of the lawyers associated with the prosecution stated.
But prosecutors will also ask that Judge Garzón, an internationally known figure due to his management of the case against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and other high-profile cases, step aside. The case originally came to Garzón because he presided over efforts to bring terrorism charges against the five Spaniards previously held at Guantánamo. Spanish prosecutors consider it “awkward” for the same judge to have both the case against former U.S. officials based on the possible torture of the five Spaniards at Guantánamo and the case against those very same Spaniards. A source close to the prosecution also noted that there was concern about the reaction to the case in some parts of the U.S. media, where it had been viewed, incorrectly, as a sort of personal frolic of Judge Garzón. Instead, the prosecutors will ask Garzón to transfer the case to Judge Ismail Moreno, who is currently handling an investigation into kidnapping charges surrounding the CIA’s use of facilities as a safe harbor in connection with the seizure of Khalid el-Masri, a German greengrocer who was seized and held at various CIA blacksites for about half a year as a result of mistaken identity. The decision on the transfer will be up to Judge Garzón in the first instance, and he is expected to make a quick ruling. If he denies the request, it may be appealed.
As Horton notes, if US Attorney General Holder, the US courts, and federal prosecutors won't address the matter of torture of detainees in the custody of the United States...foreign courts indeed appear only too happy to step in.
Horton was a guest on CNN Tuesday morning where he discussed the "immediate implications" for the ex-Bush officials.
"The immediate implication is that they can't really travel outside the United States," Horton said, "certainly not to Europe because the judge would have the power, immediately now, to issue arrest warrants if they traveled there. But also Latin America which has extradition arrangements with the Spanish."




The Raw Story » Report: Bush officials to be indicted for sanctioning torture
 

normbc9

Electoral Member
Nov 23, 2006
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California
I really do hope this Indictment is carried through. Also that it includes other key players who were running unbridled and very loose in the Bush administration. The thing that would really be satisfying is too have them convicted and then put on the "Wanted" list in the nations of the world who have agreements with or recognize the jurisdiction of this court. I also hope the World Court will take up the cause.
 

talloola

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 14, 2006
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None of those prisoners should have been tortured, it is unacceptable, and not
successful. A prisoner could say 'anything' to stop someone from torturing him.
They lowered themselves to the level of any other barbarac country who physically
tortures 'not only' foreign prisoners, but their own citizens as well.
Throw the book at them. (nothing will happen to them, but it reads nice)
 

YukonJack

Time Out
Dec 26, 2008
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Winnipeg
Who in his right mind care what Spaniards say or do?

This is a nation that revels in torture and cruelty. This is a nation whose national sport is bull-fighting. This is a nation that holds the most barbaric sub-humans who inflict unwarranted and cruel pain on innocent animals in the highest respect. This is the nation that is idiotic enough to have festival where participants in a ridiculous contest run into brick and stone walls head first. This is a nation that thinks its cool to run in front of bulls and heroic to escape their goring. This is the nation who produced and worships Picasso and Dali as artists, who could not draw a straight line with a ruler. This is the nation of cowards that crumbled like dried out bull crap when the terrorists hit their railway. This is the nation where the most despicable fascism survived Hitler and Mussolini.

The initiator of this idiocy is a terrorist sympathizer judge, who in any normal country in the world would be in prison.
 

gopher

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Jun 26, 2005
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The Bush regime felt it had the right to incarcerate and prosecute Saddam.

Wouldn't it be ironic if Bush and his henchmen got the same treatment with his actions cited as legal precedent?
 

YukonJack

Time Out
Dec 26, 2008
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Well, it seems the Spaniards are not quite as stupid as I thought they were.

This circus of persecuting Americans has been officially stopped by their government.

They must have realized that no matter what anyone in the Bush administration may or may not have done to vicious criminal terrorists pales in comparison to what these so-called civilized people do to innocent animals in the bull ring.
 

YukonJack

Time Out
Dec 26, 2008
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"Wouldn't it be ironic if Bush and his henchmen got the same treatment with his actions cited as legal precedent?"

Sorry, Alfred E. Newman, it ain't gonna happen.
 

ironsides

Executive Branch Member
Feb 13, 2009
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Gab, gab gab things must be getting better for Obama if no one can find things to say about him. Bush is old news and the Obama goverment will not touch him or it. Why not go after Bush Sr,. or Clinton, they must have done something wrong that still effects us today.
 

EagleSmack

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Feb 16, 2005
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They just can't believe it is over...the Bush Presidency. They just cannot bring themselves to let it go.