Torture Charges Filed Against Bush Legal Team; Judge Garzon Handles Case: Publico of Spain

As readers of the Moderate Voice are now aware, legendary Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon Real has asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Madrid to examine a complaint against President Bush’s legal team, including Alberto Gonzales, Bush’s White House Counsel and later attorney general; David Addington, counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney; William J. Haynes, counsel to the Department of Defense under Donald Rumsfeld; Douglas Feith, undersecretary for policy in the DoD; Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee, and John Yoo, another legal counsel during the first term of the Bush Administration.

Below you will find the entire write-thru published yesterday morning in Spain’s Publico newspaper.

Publico’s Pere Rusinol writes in part:

“George W. Bush may continue to relax in Texas, but he must have at least an eye on Spain. A group of lawyers has submitted the first criminal complaint against members of his cabinet to National Court [Audiencia Nacional] for violating basic international rights and practicing torture at the Guantanamo base.”

“The complaint, filed on March 17, is already on the desk of Judge Baltasar Garzon. And although Garzon hasn’t formally initiated proceedings, the consequences are already being felt: legal sources explain that the judge has issued an order in which he asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office to examine the complaint, which is not aimed directly at Bush but against the team of lawyers at the White House and Pentagon who created the legal framework that justified Guantánamo and the use of torture in the ‘war against terrorism.’”

“The complaint cites recently declassified internal memos of the Bush legal team, which detail the new policy of putting the ‘war on terror’ beyond the limits of international treaties signed by the United States, such as Geneva Conventions that govern the treatment of prisoners, or the Convention Against Torture.”

By Pere Rusiñol

Translated By Halszka Czarnocka

March 28, 2009

Spain – Publico – Original Article (Spanish)

George W. Bush may continue to relax in Texas, but he must have at least an eye on Spain. A group of lawyers has submitted the first criminal complaint against members of his cabinet to National Court [Audiencia Nacional] for violating basic international rights and practicing torture at the Guantánamo base.

The complaint, filed on March 17, is already on the desk of Judge Baltasar Garzon. And although Garzón hasn’t formally initiated proceedings, the consequences are already being felt: legal sources explain that the judge has issued an order in which he asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office to examine the complaint, which is not aimed directly at Bush but against the team of lawyers at the White House and Pentagon who created the legal framework that justified Guantánamo and the use of torture in the “war against terrorism.”

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