Ironic, that Spain of all countries will be investigating us for torture! The Bush administration is experiencing some instant karma, methinks:

LONDON — A Spanish court has taken the first steps toward opening a criminal investigation into allegations that six former high-level Bush administration officials violated international law by providing the legal framework to justify the torture of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, an official close to the case said.

The case, against former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and others, was sent to the prosecutor’s office for review by Baltasar Garzón, the crusading investigative judge who ordered the arrest of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The official said that it was “highly probable” that the case would go forward and that it could lead to arrest warrants.

The move represents a step toward ascertaining the legal accountability of top Bush administration officials for allegations of torture and mistreatment of prisoners in the campaign against terrorism. But some American experts said that even if warrants were issued their significance could be more symbolic than practical, and that it was a near certainty that the warrants would not lead to arrests if the officials did not leave the United States.

The complaint under review also names John C. Yoo, the former Justice Department lawyer who wrote secret legal opinions saying the president had the authority to circumvent the Geneva Conventions, and Douglas J. Feith, the former under secretary of defense for policy.

[...] The court case was not entirely unexpected, as several human rights groups have been asking judges in different countries to indict Bush administration officials. One group, the Center for Constitutional Rights, had asked a German prosecutor for such an indictment, but the prosecutor declined.

Seeing the Forest: The voters are smarter than the media.

Newshoggers: They're also wiser than the high-ranking officials who feel the American public lacks "the maturity to recognize the seriousness of the threats" to our national security and that "the correction for that… is an attack." Hmm, maybe a domestic propaganda campaign would aid that agenda.

Glenn Greenwald: It's also easier to deceive the public when "actual journalists" serve as uncritical, dismissive government spokespeople.

Amygdala: The New, New Colossus, in a cruel, mocking land where decency knows no home.

Human Rights Watch: Is waterboarding more like swimming freestyle, or the backstroke? Have these officials no shame about widespread and systemic abuse authorized straight from the top? Let's put Jack Bauer on it, because when you're secretly, radically overturning constitutional and international law, who needs expert advice or historical fact when you have specious reasoning and fantasy on your side?

Guest roundup by Batocchio. Please e-mail submissions and tips to Batocchio9 at yahoo dot com. Thanks!

The Non Sequitur: A "belief" based on testable science is not the same as having faith.

Threading Water: Emergency contraception is still MIA.

Balkinization: Accountability for military contractors. "When we talk about the “Geneva Conventions” and the “law of war,” we frequently lose sight of the fact that this entire body of international law is a distinctively American contribution."

PR Watch:Check in on "The Spin of the Day."

Think Tank Watch: There is no such thing as a conservative think tank. But then, "scholarship" is much easier when it doesn't need to be accurate. False comparisons are a favorite technique, as is outright bunkum. If all else fails, one can just buy an opinion.

Guest round up by Batocchio (batocchio9 AT yahoo DOT com).

Yahoo News: (h/t E)

Switzerland on Wednesday followed Italy and Germany in raising the threat of criminal prosecution of CIA operatives involved in anti-terrorism operations in Europe.

The Swiss Cabinet authorized the start of criminal proceedings against those responsible for the abduction in Italy of an Egyptian Muslim preacher allegedly taken on CIA flights through Swiss airspace.

Switzerland, which has cooperated closely in U.S. investigations and attempts to shut down terrorists' funding networks, has generally avoided open disputes with the U.S. government. But the wording of the seven-member Cabinet's statement was sharp.

"In the view of the Federal Council, the use of Swiss airspace for an abduction cannot be tolerated," the statement said. "There is evidence that basic norms of international law were violated."

It breaks my heart that they're talking about our country that way. In other news to be ashamed of, NPR discusses the inclusion of the US in UNICEF's list of Worst Countries for Kids. Truly, I think decades from now, historians are going to ask what was wrong with all of us for allowing this country to fall so spectacularly on a global level.

Matt Lauer went after Bush over his secret prisons and the use of torture on the captured terrorists via The Today Show this morning. He was uncommonly strong and didn't back down when Bush gave his pet answer. He hits the right note because if what we've been doing is legal then why was there the need for secret prisons? When Bush gets cornered--he starts saying he's not going to talk about it anymore...(Glenn Greenwald has a post up now about John Yoo--Bush's torture man.)

Download | play -WMP Download | play -QT

Matt Lauer: And yet you admitted that there were these CIA secret facilities. OK?

President Bush: So what? Why is that not within the law?

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We've got Justice Kennedy writing decisions based upon international law, not the Constitution of the United States? That's just outrageous," DeLay told Fox News Radio. "And not only that, but he said in session that he does his own research on the Internet? That is just incredibly outrageous."

This man is seriously disturbed. Keep opening your mouth Tom, you are becoming more and more an embarrassment each day you speak. If anything ,Justice Kennedy shows just how hard he is working to do his job. As far as I know, every college student, professor, Corporate CEO, lobbyist, and most of the Senate uses the internets.
AmericaBlog has some of the fallout over the attacks on our judicial system: Man arrested in NYC for threatening to kill judge, bomb courthouse.

Talk Left: Words of advice for DeLay: Zip it. You've become a caricature and a laughing stock. You are making a mockery both of the office you hold and your party. You're on your last leg. Is it too much to ask that you go out with a little dignity?

Supreme Court Update The Spitfire's Grill