The Spanish government has pressed charges against six officials of the Bush administration for their role in violating the Geneva Conventions rules against torture. The individuals essentially gave the green light for detainees to be tortured either by CIA agents at "black sites" or by exporting prisoners to custody in nations that allow torture..
background on Spain's criminal investigation into "Bush Six";
"Spanish prosecutors have decided to press forward with a criminal investigation targeting former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and five top associates over their role in the torture of five Spanish citizens held at Guantánamo, several reliable sources close to the investigation have told The Daily Beast. Their decision is expected to be announced on Tuesday before the Spanish central criminal court, the Audencia Nacional, in Madrid. But the decision is likely to raise concerns with the human-rights community on other points: They will seek to have the case referred to a different judge.
Both Washington and Madrid appear determined not to allow the pending criminal investigation to get in the way of improved relations.
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."
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article found @;
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-13/the-bush-six-to-be-indicted/ The challenge seems to be finding a way outside of extraordinary rendition (not so fun when the shoe is on the other foot, EH?) to transport the Bush Six to Spain so that they can stand trial. The crucial point is what actions Obama takes to either help or hinder this pursuit of justice for the six members of the Bush team most responsible for the use of torture on U.S. held detainees..
What we need from Obama is instead of hearing "let bygones be bygones" and urging people to "move forward and forget the past" is a method in which he can help locate and transport these individuals to Spain where they can stand trial for thier role in violating international law. This is the most fair and just way to address the issue of this violation, and would help restore the U.S. credibility with the international community. If the court determines that the six officials did indeed violate the Geneva Conentios, than appropriate punishment must be administered for thier role..
Other options of "duck and cover", "forgive and forget" or other methods of avoiding this needed trial will result in the U.S. leadership being seen as simply "bullies, hypocrites and cowards" who can physically attack weaker nations with impunity, killing large numbers of civilians (and their own soldiers also) in the process, making billions from reconstruction contracts (Halliburton, Bechtel, etc...), then skate away to amnesia never-never land where kind hearted Obama is too busy to remember anything about war crimes and illegal military occupations..
The use of torture is not only cruel, violates international law and makes potential allies into sworn enemies, it often can result in false intel if the torturer has a goal of looking for certain information, and feels the captive has said info but "isn't telling". This could lead to the significant error potential of the captive making up a story that the torturer wants to hear..
This false confession scenario actually happened with the torture of al Libi, and led to false intel that was used along with other deceptions (missing WMDs, uranium shipments, etc...) as justification for the illegal invasion of Iraq where Bush/Cheney and their cohorts profited immensely from winning Halliburton bidding contracts..
Torture of al Libi led to false intel & another "reason" for initial U.S. invasion of Iraq
The torture of senior al Queda opertive al Libi (real name Ali Abdul Aziz al-Fakhiri) led to false intelligence as he was tortured until he made a false confession of links between Saddam and al Queda, two ideological opponents that the GW bush regime needed to somehow link together as justification for their invasion of Iraq..
Then the intel from CIA opertives who used the program of extraordinary rendition to transport al Libi to Egypt where he was subjected to harsh interrogation techniques, including 80 hours confined to small boxes and prolonged beatings upon his release from the small box..
Following the torture, he needed to make up a story about what he felt his interrogators wanted to hear, the link between Saddam and al Queda. however, he claimed he had "difficulty making up a story" of this improbable scenario, and resorted to his tale of three al Queda ops traveling to Iraq to learn about nuclear weapons, and when pressed further he said that Saddam gave nuclear weapons away to al Queda opertives..
Initially al Libi was detained domestically by the FBI, where agents R. Fincher and M. Mahon developed a talking relationship with al Libi without resorting to torture, and actually gained relaible intel about future attacks from him prior to his removal and transfer by CIA agents to Egypt. He told them there were no links between Saddam and al Queda, and the agents felt he was being genuine and true to the reality of al Queda's strong opposition to Saddam's secular ideology..
In January of 2002 Berkeley proffesor John Yoo made his famous "torture memo" support speech where he claimed that it was justifiable for the U.S. to circumvent the Geneva Conventions that outlawed torture as al Queda were "unconventional fighters" and thus noy protected by the Geneva Conventions. Here the slippery slope began that led to the legacy of war crimes charges that these Bush administration officials face in Spain..
On 2/22/02 the Defense Intelligence Agency said that al Libi was likely fabricating his testimony due to unspecified details and his physical location at Khalden training camp would not privilige him to this info anyway. Several FBI agents protested the removal of al Libi from their custody by CIA ops, including Jack Cloonan who questioned FBI Director Mueller and later resigned in protest..
The doubts expressed by DIA were covered up by CIA Director Tenet and a "computer glitch" occurred so that the DIA report could not be accessed prior to the announcement of the U.S. plans to invade Iraq, even Colin Powell expressed doubt at this intel, though was urged by Douglas Feith, Tenet, Addington and others to verbally support their claims of unsubstantiated evidence of Saddam providing al Queda with both "nuclear and biological weapons material" as another false pretext for the illegal U.S. invasion of Iraq..
On 2/04 al Libi recanted his testimony of the connections between Saddam and al Queda, stating " They were killing me. I had to tell them something."
What al Libi told his interragators in Egypt was what the CIA wanted to hear, the "proof" of a link between al Queda and Saddam Hussein, thus giving the green light for bush to illegally invade Iraq..
On 9/8/06 the Senate Select Comitte on Intelligence said that "rendition, torture and ban intel are intertwined.", and had knowledge that detainees like al Libi "lied to avoid torture" since 2002..
Further details on the extraordinary rendition of al Libi is found in
"The Dark Side"
by Jane Mayer
"THE DARK SIDE will chronicle real, specific cases, shown in real time against the larger tableau of what was happening in Washington, looking at the intelligence gained (or not) and the price paid. In some instances, torture worked. In many more, it led to false information, sometimes with devastating results. For instance, there is the stunning admission of one of the detainees, Sheikh Ibn al-Libi, that the confession he gave under duress - which provided a key piece of evidence buttressing congressional support of going to war against Iraq--was in fact fabricated, to make the torture stop."
http://www.buzzflash.com/store/items/1194 Whether torture "worked" or not is oblivious to the fact that use of torture on enemy combatants violates the Geneva Conventions, and the war crimes charges that six Bush officials face in Spain. Since any of the intel gained under torture could be made up, this questions the truth of everything gained under torture, making it overall unreliable intel..
The only way "torture worked" was that the CIA was ordered to obtain intel about links between Saddam and al Queda, and after enough torture al Libi made up his false story to get the torture to cease, than CIA Director Tenet took this prized "intel" to Bush who waved it around to the world as final justification for the invasion of Iraq. The resulting contract awards to Halliburton also "worked" to enrich the Bush/Cheney regime into their retirement, with steak and caviar all the way, and protection from international war crimes charges by the new Obama administration..
If Obama will not voluntarily help the Spanish government with detaining and transporting these six individuals to Spanish soil to face the courts, than a bounty reward can be collected and offered to the team who successfully captures and transports the Bush Six safely to Spain to face their charges..
In addition, the lack of initiaitive Obama is showing in helping with capture and relocation of the six to Spain or pursuit of war crimes charges domestically only shows his possible complicity to war crimes charges for aiding and abetting war criminals from the previous administration..