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Spain Weighs Torture Inquiry

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The New York Times

Published: March 29, 2009

LONDON - A high-level Spanish court has taken the first steps toward opening a criminal investigation against six former Bush administration officials, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, on whether they violated international law by providing a legalistic framework to justify the use of torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an official said.

The case was sent to the prosecutor's office for review by Baltasar Garzon, the crusading investigative judge who ordered the arrest of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Some U.S. experts said that even if warrants were issued their significance could be more symbolic than practical.

Spain can claim jurisdiction in the case because five citizens or residents of Spain who were at Guantanamo Bay have said they were tortured there.

The 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 are obliged to investigate torture cases.

UNDER REVIEW

Gonzalo Boye, the Madrid lawyer who filed the complaint, said the six Americans cited had well-documented roles in approving illegal interrogation techniques, redefining torture and abandoning the definition set by the 1984 Torture Convention. They are:

•Alberto Gonzales, former attorney general

•John Yoo, former Justice Department lawyer who wrote secret legal opinions saying the president had the authority to circumvent the Geneva Conventions
•Douglas Feith, former undersecretary of defense for policy

•William Haynes II, former general counsel for the Department of Defense

•Jay Bybee, Yoo's former boss at the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel

•David Addington, who was the chief of staff and legal adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney
The New York Times

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