Lawyer: Spanish prosecution of Bush lawyers will proceed
Published: June 24, 2009
Updated 5 months ago
The Spanish lawyer working to indict six former Bush administration attorneys for their roles in the US’s torture program says the case will go ahead in Spanish courts.
Gonzalo Boyé, a private lawyer in Spain, is working to indict the so-called “Bush Six” lawyers who gave the Bush administration its rationale for carrying out the systematic torture of terrorist suspects. The six are former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, author of the “torture memos,” Douglas Feith, then a deputy defense secretary, Pentagon lawyer William Haynes II, former assistant attorney general Jay Bybee, and David Addington, a former chief of staff to then-Vice President Dick Cheney.
A recent decision by Spain’s parliament to re-work its “universal jurisdiction” rules (which allow human-rights crimes anywhere in the world to be prosecuted in Spanish courts) won’t stop the prosecution of six Bush administration lawyers, Boyé told Mother Jones magazine in an interview.
“Accountability is the first step toward deterrence,” Boyé told the magazine. “With criminal offenses like this, it is necessary to send a clear message: No one is above the law, no matter their intentions. The security of any country can only exist within the rule of law. The war on terror is no exception.”
Many Western countries have in recent years introduced the notion of “universal jurisdiction” into their laws. If a human-rights crime occurs and the local government does nothing about it, countries with universal jurisdiction can prosecute those crimes in their own legal systems. Two notable examples of such countries are Germany and Canada.
However, Boyé points out, Spain is different because under the Spanish constitution, anyone can bring criminal charges, not just state prosecutors. That’s why Boyé, a private attorney, can spearhead the effort against the “Bush Six.”
Boyé argues that not only did the Bush administration’s torture program not result in a safer world, it actually made bringing terrorists to justice more difficult.
“Thanks to Guantánamo, no evidence obtained there can be used in any court of law,” he says. “Bush and his advisers have done a great favor for Islamic terrorists.
“Accountability is the first step toward deterrence,” he adds. “With criminal offenses like this, it is necessary to send a clear message: No one is above the law, no matter their intentions. The security of any country can only exist within the rule of law. The war on terror is no exception.”
Spain’s judiciary came under heavy pressure to limit its ability to prosecute crimes in other countries earlier this year, when prosecutors there launched a war-crimes case against several high-ranking Israeli military officials. That case is now in limbo.
But the reforms won’t affect the case against the Bush Six, because the plaintiffs, who say they are victims of the US’s torture program, are Spanish citizens.
Spain’s universal jurisdiction laws have been on the books for more than a decade, but have had only one successful prosecution thus far: A guilty verdict for an Argentine naval officer, who received 640 years in prison for his role in Argentina’s “Dirty War” in the 1980s. A highly-publicized, years-long case against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet never resulted in a verdict.
(Editor’s note: As some commenters pointed out, Gonzales’ name was accidently excluded from the “Bush six”)
23 comments
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Are you listening Obama, ya gutless wonder:
“Accountability is the first step toward deterrence . . . With criminal offenses like this, it is necessary to send a clear message: No one is above the law, no matter their intentions. The security of any country can only exist within the rule of law.”
This is the best news I’ve heard all day . . . even better than the sanctimonious a-hole in South Carolina getting his comeuppance.
I don’t care where justice comes from-as long as it comes. It’s just a damn shame we can’t take care of it American style…
i am big believer in bounties. i have organized 6 of them in my neighborhood and we have caught and punished our local grafitti artists, kids shooting out windows with paintball guns, and a burglar. it just takes time and cash.
i wonder how long feith, bybee and the rest of them would be walking around the streets of the USA with a million dollar bounty. tax free money for turning them over in spain. i am sure that some unemployed blackwater types would make them disappear.
i am wiling to give up $30 a week to fund an international bounty to get these war criminals. where do i send it?
I’d like to know how we can form our own “citizens” legal system that works Constitutionally and can bring all of these traitors to justice? We all know Bush and Cheney violated buku laws but our Bankster run DOJ won’t prosecute.
There MUST be a way to do this. If we all kicked in maybe we could create our own justice department and bring them all in.
Time to dig into the books I guess.
Interesting- how where you able to do this legally? Were there existing arrest warrents out for these individuals -or were you simply offering money for witnesses and a suspect? Be careful -that’s how most of the Guantanamo detainees were picked up -cash for a story and an individual. You might think its a great idea, but its very possible you are not be getting the actual guilty parties. The perpetrators themselves, knowing all the facts about the crimes could easily act as witnesses and turn in an innocent kid and threaten him and/or his family if he does not confess, all while gleefully pocketing your cash. Easy money.
Cash motivates the dishonest more than it does the honest.
It’s not legal to put up bounties for people who don’t have arrest warrants against them -someone putting up a bounty for a fellow citizen could easily be seen as offering cash to commit a kidnapping -and, like paying for a “hit”, the punishment for the financier is almost as severe as the triggerman’s.
I’d hate to live in your “Stasi ” side of the neighborhood. Someone put a hood over your head and rendered. No rights.
You’re missing the point. We’ve TORTURED! With no accoutability. Supposibly, we’re a nation of laws not of men.
Our morals, vales and National Security have all been comprimised for lack of accountability.
As of now, our once great Nation has lost its soul. Torture, illegal Wiretapping, Posse Commitatus, Outing of a CIA Agent, illegal War the list goes on and on….
So sure. Go ahead. Put a bounty. Just make sure it’s paid in Euro’s cause the Dollar or what’s left of it won’t be worth squat.
Two above,damn straight.
Vincent Bugliosi, was hoping.
They’re going to do it, then they’re not going to do it, then they’re going to do it. I expect to hear next week that they’re not going to do it. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Only five lawyers named in the article. Who is the sixth?
Nice!
“Two notable examples of such countries are Germany and Canada.”
Recently, Rice, and then later, the Clinton/Bush speaking tour (’speaking’ is a bit of a stretch for Bush) both visited Calgary, Alberta, Canada’s Texas, and the human rights group Lawyers Against the War (LAW) organized protests and contacted multiple levels of government insisting that they act in accordance with the nation’s laws and refuse entry or prosecute known and self-admitted war criminals, which they did not, of course, as they are theocrat RWA’s with noses firmly implanted in Bushco’s ass for the past decade.
Good on Spain.
Perhaps PBS could have a series called “Trials That Never Were”, using retired lawyers and judges and all documented evidence to try cases that were not or will not, in all probability be tried in a U.S. court. That way, if convicted, the accused will have at least gone through the humiliation of being found guilty in a public forum, and our Govt. will also be admonished for their refusal to try a case where guilt was found.
Exactly!
“Accountability is the first step toward deterrence . . . With criminal offenses like this, it is necessary to send a clear message: No one is above the law, no matter their intentions. The security of any country can only exist within the rule of law.”
Don’t give up people. Continue the fight for justice.
Push President Obama to Enforce Our Federal Anti-Torture Laws.
SIGN THE PETITION
To Prosecute Them For Torture AT ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
Over 250,000 have signed
Join them and call yourself a Patriot
Will Obama stand for Justice or just get in the way of it?
.
While it disappoints me (REALLY disappoints me), that our government has seen fit to have Spain do it’s job, it gives me the warm and fuzzies that Spain is pursuing these fucking criminals.
Good on ya, Spain.
Nice job there, Raw. You only named five lawyers in your article. Who is the last one?
yuvbinduped
Yeah, sort of like living in the days of Deadwood. Or you could just join the “klan.”
Good.
For the person who was attacking Obama above . . . he’s really not the person with the final say-so on this. It would be the Justice Department’s decision. I realize that Justice is part of the Executive branch, but unless you want the same sort of political mess which created the mess we are wanted investigated, you probably don’t want Mr. Obama to order the investigation.
Obama has not only failed his duty to protect our country and the constitution, he has hindered others ability to do so. He is worse than inaction.
Haynes? Thats new -what about Bradbury -why isn’t he on the list anymore?
Haynes? Thats new -why isn’t Bradbury on the list anymore?
There was a crop of criminals who were not prosecuted or punished for Watergate, they came back during Reagan & Bush. If this new crop of criminals go unpunished, Kiss the republic goodby. As the apathy and disdain will be so great as to collapse the government from within.
If only we in America had the balls being shown by the Iranians to take our “fight” to the streets!
What fight do you ask? Bush War Crimes,Torture,911,the biggest bank heist in the history of our country(Bailouts!),the outing of a covert CIA agent(Valerie Plame Wilson),750 constitutional breaches by Bushco, dismantling of Habeas Corpus!
Now add the Judicial “cajones” of the Spanish and we might be able to get OUR country back! Remember “We The People”??
We really need to get back to being a nation of the rule of law and the constitution, not the rules of “rulers”…
I’m sure the wingnuts will rationalize the Spanish doing this and its timing as “payback” for the U.S. beating them in soccer or something else equally as nonsensical in logic, and the M$M will find some way to support those lines in their efforts to be “balanced” (or some other lame excuse)..
Thank you Spain for standing up for doing what we should be doing to “look forward” to a future of democracy, and not fascism…
Spain will get threatened and/or paid off and this will fade into obscurity.