The Clipboard: Spanish anti-terror judge criticizes U.S. tactics

From an article¹:

Terrorism is a crime to be pursued through international cooperation rather than a movement to be targeted in a war waged by individual nations, a veteran Spanish anti-terrorist investigator said on Thursday in an apparent slap at the United States.

"Terrorism is a crime, it's not a movement ... In a war, we have to defend ourselves, and this is today distorting the effectiveness of the fight against terrorism," said Baltasar Garzon, an investigating judge for Spain's National Court.

"The only way to combat terrorism in any of its manifestations is with the strength of law and reason and not the reason of force," he said.

Washington has been accused of torture and abusing detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in a quest for intelligence in a war on terrorism rather than for evidence to prove crimes.

Garzon said such tactics meant going down a dangerous road as illegally obtained evidence could not be used in a court of law.

Garzon, who has been investigating Islamic militants since 1991, is best known for a failed attempt to extradite former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet from Britain in 1998 and put him on trial in Spain for human rights abuses committed in Chile. (link)

A voice of reason - and experience - but is anybody listening?

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Complete text of the article, Spanish anti-terror judge criticizes U.S. tactics, by Irwin Arieff

Terrorism is a crime to be pursued through international cooperation rather than a movement to be targeted in a war waged by individual nations, a veteran Spanish anti-terrorist investigator said on Thursday in an apparent slap at the United States.

"Terrorism is a crime, it's not a movement ... In a war, we have to defend ourselves, and this is today distorting the effectiveness of the fight against terrorism," said Baltasar Garzon, an investigating judge for Spain's National Court.

"The only way to combat terrorism in any of its manifestations is with the strength of law and reason and not the reason of force," he said.

Washington has been accused of torture and abusing detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in a quest for intelligence in a war on terrorism rather than for evidence to prove crimes.

Garzon said such tactics meant going down a dangerous road as illegally obtained evidence could not be used in a court of law.

Garzon, who has been investigating Islamic militants since 1991, is best known for a failed attempt to extradite former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet from Britain in 1998 and put him on trial in Spain for human rights abuses committed in Chile.

Britain put Pinochet under house arrest for two years while courts heard details of atrocities under his rule, prompting Chile to examine his legacy and hear human rights cases.

Without mentioning Washington by name, Garzon said Spain had recently received no response when it sought to extradite three Spaniards charged with crimes in Spain and being held at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"It is not because they don't want to cooperate, but the different point of view in the fight against terrorism from one area to the other produces a practical result such as this, where three people who are not charged in one country are not delivered to another country where they are sought so they can be brought to justice," he said.

Addressing the same session, Barry Sabin, chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Counter-Terrorism Section, said Washington agreed the terrorist threat must be pursued through law enforcement, using only legal tactics and in close cooperation with other governments.

Garzon also criticized the United Nations for maintaining a list of groups linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban, Afghanistan's former rulers, while refusing to track the names of guerrilla groups in Algeria, Morocco and elsewhere.

The list, maintained by a Security Council committee, "has not evolved quickly and flexibly enough to include all the groups and movements that have sprung up since (Sept. 11, 2001) and are carrying out violent and terrorist action throughout the world," he said.

"According to this committee's standards, the perpetrators of the (March 2004) Madrid attacks cannot be considered as Islamic terrorists because they have no clear ties to al Qaeda and the Taliban," he said. "This is not logical."

reference=http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09619663.htm