The Imperial Reach of Barack Obama: Spain, Guantanamo, and Beyond

President Barack Obama's friendship with Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero seems to be saving face for the American centrist who wants to "look forward as opposed to looking backwards." Once again, politics take priority as human rights and international law take a back seat as Guantanamo and Bagram remain open and its architects enjoy the privileges of the power elite.

Spain's Attorney General, Candido Conde-Pumpido, announced that the case against six former Bush Administration officials is a "plaything." Conde-Pumpido, in an AP article, said that prosecutions for torture should only proceed with people who were actually present at the time of the torture. The American men who were facing possible indictment by Spanish investigative judges are considered the architects of torture, not the torturers themselves. Read the BBC story here.

The weak argument put forth by Spain's top law-enforcement official wreaks of political pressure and back-door dealings. The best justification that the Spanish polity can muster to avoid a political quandary with the United States is nonsequitur, illogical, immoral and inconsistent with past human rights violations and war crime tribunals that prosecuted and convicted policymakers as perpetrators. Consider Israel's case against Adolf Eichmann, the "architect of the Holocaust." This is not to compare Nazi crimes against the Jews and humanity with the Bush Administration's war on terror, but that there is international legal precedent for pursuing the masterminds of war crimes, not just those who carried them through. How can there ever be a lasting peace and if those most responsible for creating systems of oppression and machines of torture and indefinite detention in dark prisons are considered innocent?
For a comprehensive understanding of how the U.S. torture regime came to life, check out "Anatomy of Bush's Torture 'Paradigm.'"

While there is a new president in Washington, many of the faces from the Bush Administration remain the same. Let us not be naive enough to think that the Spanish government is not bowing to pressures from its long-time ally. Finally, Glen Greenwald breaks down the Spanish law that makes such investigations possible: "The Differing Views of the "Rule of Law." Maybe former law professor Obama could use a refresher course himself as a reminder of what the great Dr. King said: "justice too long delayed is justice denied."

Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor

by Luke Hansen, SJ

America

March 24, 2009

http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=11551

In her theological and moral reflection, Maryann Cusimano Love (“Accounting for Torture,” 3/30) has “hit the mark.” We are disciples of a tortured God, and this means that we have strong moral obligations to never torture, to investigate and prosecute such violations, and to stand in solidarity with torture victims.

However, she assumes too easily that President Obama has returned us to full compliance with the Geneva Conventions. Several realities challenge this assumption. President Obama decided not to extend habeas rights to detainees at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, so over 600 men continue to be held there illegally without charges or trial. At Guantánamo, instead of allowing independent human rights organizations to review conditions and the treatment of prisoners, President Obama curiously assigned this task to the Department of Defense—the department responsible for operating the facility. Should we trust the architects and perpetrators of torture to investigate themselves? And finally, the illegal and immoral practice of force-feeding continues under the Obama administration. Currently, there are at least 30 hunger striking prisoners at Guantánamo, 25 of which are being force-fed—a practice that “definitely amounted to torture” when reviewed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 2006.

One of these torture victims is Ahmed Zaid Salim Zuhair, a Saudi Arabian national who enters his eighth year at Guantánamo despite being cleared for release by the U.S. government in December 2008. In 2005, Zuhair began a hunger strike (that continues today) to protest his indefinite detention without charges or trial. As a result of being force-fed, Zuhair has experienced intense stomach pain, repeated vomiting, and the related side effect of chronic malnutrition. Lasting wounds have been inflicted on Ahmed Zuhair’s humanity. As disciples of a tortured God, how are we called to respond to this? Will our debates about accountability continue to exclusively focus on past abuses, national reputation and policy, or will we also address these present realities—with a special attentiveness to the victims’ stories and their demand for justice?