Article

2009-03-29 Europe

In which Judge Baltasar Garzon breaks my heart

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Posted by Seafarious 2009-03-29 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 So Obama being a Tranzi will he extradite the ex-Bush officials to Spain?

Just want to be clear about his position. American or Tranzi? Which is it?

Posted by 3dc 2009-03-29 00:46|| 2009-03-29 00:46|| Front Page Top

#2 My only surprise is that someone beat Henry Waxman to the punch.

Posted by Raj 2009-03-29 08:17|| 2009-03-29 08:17|| Front Page Top

#3 perhaps someone can explain to this tool that he's a minor-league figure in a second-ranked country on their way to the economic shitpile? Take him hunting with Darth Cheney

Posted by Frank G 2009-03-29 08:57|| 2009-03-29 08:57|| Front Page Top

#4 "So Obama being a Tranzi will he extradite the ex-Bush officials to Spain?"

Secret Service* still protects Bush - it would be interesting to see Bambi try....

*and a sh*tload of Texans and other assorted Americans - all armed to the teeth

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2009-03-29 09:54|| 2009-03-29 09:54|| Front Page Top

#5 Reminds me of when some bus stop in Vermont declares a nuclear freeze or an Iraqi "journalist" throws a shoe.

Posted by regular joe 2009-03-29 10:16|| 2009-03-29 10:16|| Front Page Top

#6 *and a sh*tload of Texans and other assorted Americans - all armed to the teeth

Count me as one.

Posted by Redneck Jim">Redneck Jim 2009-03-29 11:27|| 2009-03-29 11:27|| Front Page Top

#7 First of all: Garzon is what the european judiciaries calls an instruction judge, that is he leads and coordinates investigations on crimes but he is not supposed to try to indict suspects but to look for elements both favourable and unfavourable to the suspect. That is why he is called a "juez" (judge) and not a fiscal (Prosecution Attorney).

Garzon has been the man who

-Tried to indict Pinochet

-Was number 2 od the Socialist Party (you could think this should have been incompatible with his job).

-Has time and again neglected the cases he was invetigating reslting in criminals habing been released because he didn't sign the prolongations to their preventive jail

-Decided to investigate the crimes perpetrated by the victorious side during the Spanish Civil War. That is 70 years ago. Of course they have prescribed. So he requalified them as genocide. Of course he wasn't interested in the crimes perpetrated by the losing side (Spain became a virtual Sovit Republic with NKVD agents openly arresting and killing people). He asked for the death certificate of Franco in order no to summon him. At one point the adults in Spanish judiciary forced him to desist.

-He is suspected to have warned Basque terrorists of an operation against them.

-He strted an uinvestigaqtion against the opposition party just before regional elections. He had zero as zilch nada elements, it was pure fluff to influence election outcome. During the investigation he was seen dining and hunting with the Justice Minister and the high ranked cop leading the investigation. The Minister had no hunting licence and was forced to resign (BTW, Garzon's official income does not allow him to spend the thoudaqns of dollars it was supposed to cost). Minister was forced to resign and the adult superviors forced Garzon to desist from the investigation (who anyway was out of his jurisdiction).

-It loooks like he is a tax cheat.

The truth is that in the last five years he hasn't had a single success and all his investigations haéd been either forcefully closed or taken to other judges who closed them after noting there was no clues and/or nothing to prosecute.

In fact the only thing who has prevented him being expelled from the judiciary and possibly jailed for violating the law and using its attributions for illegitimate goals (like proppiong the Socialist Party friom which he is a member) had been the caste spirit of his peers. But this caste spirit hasn't gone far enough to prevent him from time and again having his cases removed from his hands.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2009-03-29 13:19|| 2009-03-29 13:19|| Front Page Top

#8 The US has, IIRC, three military bases in Spain. One is Rota Naval Base, and the other two are Zaragoza AB and Torrejon AB. Each of the air bases has a fighter wing assigned to NATO. ROTA provides both a port and an airfield where P-3C Orions are based for ASW work. It would inconvenience us a bit, but I'm sure those facilities can be closed and all US military personnel transferred elsewhere with little loss of capability. Spain needs to understand that Mutual Assistance treaties mean that both parties are responsible for assuring the assistance of the other, including squashing stupid cases like this at the earliest opportunity and punishing those that do stupid things.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2009-03-29 16:53|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2009-03-29 16:53|| Front Page Top

#9 "It looks like he is a tax cheat."

Well, then, JFM - that settles it.

Garzon is qualified for a position in Bambi's Administration.

Lucky us.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2009-03-29 17:02|| 2009-03-29 17:02|| Front Page Top

#10 "Human rights lawyers brought the case before leading ~~anti~~ pro-terror judge Baltasar Garzon..."

There we go.

Posted by Parabellum 2009-03-29 18:41|| 2009-03-29 18:41|| Front Page Top

23:10 GirlThursday
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