Shouldn't We Be Doing This Ourselves?

SIX BUSH OFFICIALS TO BE INDICTED BY SPANISH PROSECUTORS: Human Rights lawyer and Daily Beast contributor Scott Horton reports that Spanish prosecutors will announce today that they are moving forward with the indictment of six top Bush officials who are charged with providing legal cover for torture.

The investigation deals specifically with the case of five Spanish citizens who were detained at Guantanamo Bay and allegedly tortured there. The Bush 6, as Horton calls them, are former attorney general Alberto Gonzales, former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, former Cheney chief of staff David Addington, Justice Department officials John Yoo and Jay S. Bybee, and Pentagon lawyer William Haynes. The State Department has been in constant contact with the Spanish government since the case was initially filed on March 17. During a meeting at the American embassy in Madrid, "Spanish prosecutors advised the Americans that they would suspend their investigation if at any point the United States were to undertake an investigation of its own into these matters." Horton reports, however, that when "pressed to know whether any such investigation was pending," they received no answer. Still, Obama faces the ongoing issue of Republicans "promising to 'go nuclear' and filibuster" his legal appointments if he authorizes the Justice Department to release the torture memos written by the Bush 6.
-- citing an article by Scott Horton

All we have to do is announce a US investigation and the Spanish courts will drop this case. But we can't even agree to investigate this stuff. The Bush 6 worked very hard to "legally" define a black box where normal rules of justice and due process do not apply, a place where torture is legal and soldiers and operatives of the US government can hold any person identified by the President for any length of time with no review or consequence. I guess it worked. Because even the new administration doesn't seem willing to investigate these charges.
If Americans won't investigate torture and war crimes, then I guess it is a good thing that some other countries will.