Laying Charges

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.

So high officials of the Bush regime will never again be able to safely step outside the borders of the United States? That seems a bit more than symbolism to me.

This also helps make the case I and several hundred other people were trying to make when we protested outside the Telus Convention Center in Calgary as a war criminal our government welcomed with open arms spoke inside.

There is an overwhelming preponderance of evidence that George W. Bush ordered that crimes against humanity be committed. Torture. Kidnapping. Murder.

But at least Canadians are safe from British MPs who deliver medical supplies to victims of horrific suffering.