[Vision2020] Spanish Court Considering Arrest Warrants for American Torturers

[Ted Moffett]

Arrest warrants have been issued in Italy and Germany for illegal rendition
perpetrated by CIA US operatives.  While the rendered victims may have been
tortured, I am not sure the arrest warrants involve specific mention of
torture as a crime.  But note the Europe wide application of the warrants
mentioned below.  This could seriously limit the travel plans of those
facing arrest:

Story on arrest warrants issued in Italy:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/07/05/italy.spy/index.html

Quote below from website above:

"The warrants signed against the 22 other Americans are European-wide,
meaning that the targets could be legally arrested in any other European
Union member nation."
---------------------
Story on arrest warrants issued in Germany:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,490514,00.html

------------------------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett



On 3/29/09, nickgier at roadrunner.com <nickgier at roadrunner.com> wrote:
>
> Greetings:
>
> This is the same judge who had Augusto Pinochet arrested in London for the
> same charges.  The International Committee of the Red Cross has now made it
> official: In a 43 page report last month the ICRC concluded that the Bush
> administration, in violation of the Geneva Conventions, did indeed torture
> terror suspects.
>
> Spain can claim jurisdiction because five of its citizens were tortured at
> Gitmo.
>
> Read more about his report in The New York Review of Books, April 9, 2009.
>
> Nick Gier
>
> March 29, 2009, The New York Times
> Spanish Court Weighs Inquiry on Torture for 6 Bush-Era Officials
> By MARLISE SIMONS
>
> LONDON — A Spanish court has taken the first steps toward opening a
> criminal investigation into allegations that six former high-level Bush
> administration officials violated international law by providing the legal
> framework to justify the torture of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, an
> official close to the case said.
>
> The case, against former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and others,
> was sent to the prosecutor’s office for review by Baltasar Garzón, the
> crusading investigative judge who ordered the arrest of the former Chilean
> dictator Augusto Pinochet. The official said that it was “highly probable”
> that the case would go forward and that it could lead to arrest warrants.
>
> The move represents a step toward ascertaining the legal accountability of
> top Bush administration officials for allegations of torture and
> mistreatment of prisoners in the campaign against terrorism. But some
> American experts said that even if warrants were issued their significance
> could be more symbolic than practical, and that it was a near certainty that
> the warrants would not lead to arrests if the officials did not leave the
> United States.
>
> The complaint under review also names John C. Yoo, the former Justice
> Department lawyer who wrote secret legal opinions saying the president had
> the authority to circumvent the Geneva Conventions, and Douglas J. Feith,
> the former under secretary of defense for policy.
>
> Most of the officials cited in the complaint declined to comment on the
> allegations or could not be reached on Saturday. However their defenders
> have said their legal analyses and policy work on interrogation practices,
> conducted under great pressure after the 2001 terrorist attacks, are now
> being unfairly second-guessed after many years without a terrorist attack on
> the United States.
>
> The court case was not entirely unexpected, as several human rights groups
> have been asking judges in different countries to indict Bush administration
> officials. One group, the Center for Constitutional Rights, had asked a
> German prosecutor for such an indictment, but the prosecutor declined.
>
> Judge Garzón, however, has built an international reputation by bringing
> high-profile cases against human rights violators as well as international
> terrorist networks like Al Qaeda. The arrest warrant for General Pinochet
> led to his detention in Britain, although he never faced a trial. The judge
> has also been outspoken about the treatment of detainees at Guantánamo Bay.
>
> Spain can claim jurisdiction in the case because five citizens or residents
> of Spain who were prisoners at Guantánamo Bay have said they were tortured
> there. The five had been indicted in Spain, but their cases were dismissed
> after the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that evidence obtained under torture
> was not admissible.
>
> The 98-page complaint, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times,
> is based on the Geneva Conventions and the 1984 Convention Against Torture,
> which is binding on 145 countries, including Spain and the United States.
> Countries that are party to the torture convention have the authority to
> investigate torture cases, especially when a citizen has been abused.
>
> The complaint was prepared by Spanish lawyers, with help from experts in
> the United States and Europe, and filed by a Spanish human rights group, the
> Association for the Dignity of Prisoners.
>
> The National Court in Madrid, which specializes in international crimes,
> assigned the case to Judge Garzón. His acceptance of the case and referral
> of it to the prosecutor made it likely that a criminal investigation would
> follow, the official said.
>
> Even so, arrest warrants, if they are issued, would still be months away.
>
> Gonzalo Boye, the Madrid lawyer who filed the complaint, said that the six
> Americans cited had had well-documented roles in approving illegal
> interrogation techniques, redefining torture and abandoning the definition
> set by the 1984 Torture Convention.
>
> Secret memorandums by Mr. Yoo and other top administration lawyers helped
> clear the way for aggressive policies like waterboarding and other harsh
> interrogation techniques, which the C.I.A. director, the attorney general
> and other American officials have said amount to torture.
>
> The other Americans named in the complaint were William J. Haynes II,
> former general counsel for the Department of Defense; Jay S. Bybee, Mr.
> Yoo’s former boss at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel; and
> David S. Addington, who was the chief of staff and legal adviser to Vice
> President Dick Cheney.
>
> Mr. Yoo declined to comment on Saturday, saying that he had not seen or
> heard of the petition.
>
> Mr. Feith, who was the top policy official at the Pentagon when the prison
> at Guantánamo was established, said he did not make the decision on
> interrogation methods and was baffled by the allegations. “I didn’t even
> argue for the thing I understand they’re objecting to,” he said.
>
> But Mr. Boye said that lawyers should be held accountable for the effects
> of their work. Noting that the association he represents includes many
> lawyers, he said: “This is a case from lawyers against lawyers. Our
> profession does not allow us to misuse our legal knowledge to create a
> pseudo-legal frame to justify, stimulate and cover up torture.”
>
> Prosecutions and convictions under the Torture Convention have been rare.
>
> Reed Brody, a lawyer at Human Rights Watch who has specialized in this
> issue, said that even though torture was widely practiced, there were
> numerous obstacles, including “a lack of political will, the problem of
> gathering evidence in a foreign country and the failure of countries to pass
> the necessary laws.”
>
> This year for the first time, the United States used a law that allows it
> to prosecute torture in other countries. On Jan. 10, a federal court in
> Miami sentenced Chuckie Taylor, the son of the former Liberian president, to
> 97 years in a federal prison for torture, even though the crimes were
> committed in Liberia.
>
> Last October, when the Miami court handed down the conviction, Attorney
> General Michael B. Mukasey applauded the ruling and said: “This is the first
> case in the United States to charge an individual with criminal torture. I
> hope this case will serve as a model to future prosecutions of this type.”
>
> The United States, however, would be expected to ignore an extradition
> request for former officials, although other investigations within the
> United States have been proposed. Calls for the Justice Department to open a
> criminal investigation have so far been resisted by the Obama
> administration, but for more than four years, the Justice Department ethics
> office has been conducting its own investigation into the work of Mr. Yoo
> and some of his colleagues.
>
> While the officials named in the complaint have not addressed these
> specific accusations, Mr. Yoo defended his work in an opinion column in The
> Wall Street Journal on March 7, warning that the Obama administration risked
> harming national security if it punished lawyers like himself.
>
> “If the administration chooses to seriously pursue those officials who were
> charged with preparing for the unthinkable, today’s intelligence and
> military officials will no doubt hesitate to fully prepare for those
> contingencies in the future,” Mr. Yoo wrote.
>
> Scott Shane and Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.
>
>
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