spain

Byron York reports that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is blocking the all-important nomination of Alan Solomont, the president’s nominee for ambassador to Spain. The reason: “retaliation for what Grassley says is the administration’s stonewalling of Congress over documents relating to the firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin.”

From The Associated Press:
Spain’s top investigative magistrate has opened an investigation into the Bush administration over alleged torture of terror suspects at the Guantanamo prison.
Baltasar Garzon’s move on Wednesday is separate from a complaint by human rights lawyers that seeks charges against six specific Bush administration officials.
(Via Andrew Sullivan)
Update: Also from the AP:
Meeting with reporters [...]

Despite recent reports to the contrary, Spain’s attorney general has now reportedly decided not to prosecute the Bush Six — the top legal officials in the Bush administration who allegedly approved the torture of terror suspects.  Attorney General Candido Conde-Pumpio said that the United States would be the proper forum for such a case.
“If there [...]

We’ve been speculating that Sen. Pat Leahy’s (D-Vt.) proposed truth commission to investigate alleged lawbreaking during the Bush administration may not be going anywhere, but now it seems Leahy is saying that himself.
Charlotte Dennett, a journalist and former candidate for Vermont attorney general, writes in Consortiumnews.com that in a meeting with Leahy on Monday, the [...]

According to news reports over the weekend, the relentless Spanish judge and human rights prosecutor, Baltasar Garzon, who first came to international attention for prosecuting Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, will likely soon charge former high-level Bush administration lawyers for violating international law by providing the legal framework to allow the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo [...]

If the American blogosphere is having a field day with Sen. John McCain’s Zapatero gaffe, imagine what the Spanish press is up to. Every major newspaper in Spain has jumped on this story, and while some take a measured, if somewhat puzzled, approach, others are downright terrified of a McCain presidency.
The conservative newspaper ABC, no [...]