Obama Unleashes The Spanish Inquisition

It was revealed today that Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón has opened an investigation into allegations of torture at Guantánamo Bay. What inspired Garzón to open his investigation less than two weeks after Spanish Attorney General Candido Conde-Pumpido announced his opposition to such a move? Well, it appears precisely to have been the additional memos on harsh interrogation techniques released by the Department of Justice on April 16. As so happens, this was the very day on which Conde-Pumpido expressed his opposition to a Spanish investigation of six former Bush administration legal advisors.

In a court document dated April 27 [available here as a Word doc], Garzón writes:

According to what appears to be shown in the documents declassified by the American administration that have been mentioned in various media…, what was previously merely inferred has now been revealed: [the existence of] an authorized and systematic plan of torture and mistreatment of persons who were deprived of their liberty without charge…

Incidentally, Conde-Pumpido’s opposition to a Spanish investigation was never as unambiguous as some in the American media wanted to believe. According to the Spanish news agency EFE’s account of his April 16 news conference, Conde-Pumpido found the initial Guantánamo complaint to be “artificial,” since the plaintiffs had merely filed a complaint against the Bush administration advisors: “they do not dare to file one against the persons who could appear in principle to be directly responsible for the acts in question.” The latter formulation is presumably a round-about way of saying Bush, Rumsfeld and other administration officials had executive authority. According to the EFE report, Conde-Pumpido also referred less roundaboutly to the “material authors” of the acts.

Garzón appears indeed to have taken Conde-Pumpido’s criticisms to heart. The six advisors that were the object of the original complaint are not named in the document initiating proceedings. Instead, Garzón’s investigation into torture at Guantánamo is directed more broadly against “the possible material authors and instigators [los…inductores], and the necessary collaborators and accomplices of the same.”