During the Bush administration the term "torture" was narrowly defined so that pretty much nothing could be considered torture. During Bush's reign as president, there were a lot of international grievances with the way in which the United States treated its terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Now, the United States never really faced opposition with teeth behind it until recently when a few Spanish attorneys attempted to use the Universal Justice clause in their court system to extend their jurisdiction beyond their national borders and file suit against the bush six. The Bush six are Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, ex-Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith; former Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, David Addington; Justice Department officials John Yoo and Jay S. Bybee; and Pentagon lawyer William Haynes. The Spanish lawyers are trying to bring suit against those six men for the authorization of torture of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. This is a bold move to say the least as one asks the question, who the hell is Spain to be trying to prosecute high ranking U.S officials? I agree with what Feith had to say on the issue, which was that it is a huge national insult with harmful implications. Whether or not the six men cleared the path for torture by claiming in advice and legal opinions that the president could ignore the Geneva Conventions, it is just not these Spanish lawyers place to be getting involved. Luckily, Spanish prosecutors will be advising against this ridiculous suit so most likely nothing will come of it. I just don't understand what these lawyers were thinking in the first place. It is just one of those situations where you step away with your head cocked and just utter, "really? really Spain? are you serious?" I guess it is admirable to try and take a stand against torture, but we have our own court system that is independent of our executive branch. This whole situation is just baffling to me.
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