Posted on 02/26/2005 7:48:48 AM PST by kipita
MADRID, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, famous for bringing criminal cases against Latin American military regimes and al Qaeda, now says the spotlight should be turned on Spain's own dictatorial past.
In an interview with Reuters, Garzon called for a "truth commission" to investigate crimes against humanity committed during the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain from the end of civil war in 1939 to his death in 1975.
He also warned that law enforcement must keep close watch on Islamist militant groups in Europe that are linked to Ansar al Islam, one of the main groups attacking U.S. occupation forces in Iraq.
Garzon said Franco-era victims were free to seek criminal charges against survivors of the dictatorship -- whether in Spain or abroad.
"It is obvious there were excesses and real crimes against humanity in the first years of this dictatorship and it is necessary at some time to establish a truth commission, at least, to establish what happened and uncover this part of Spanish history," Garzon said in the interview late on Friday.
Garzon, who shot to international fame while attempting to try former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and has charged Osama bin Laden with mass murder, said victims needed to come forward before any prosecutions could be established.
"There is no problem (with prosecuting a case) just as there is no problem if these events were investigated outside of Spain," said Garzon, who spoke to Reuters shortly before taking a 9-month leave to teach at New York University.
Garzon burst onto the scene in Spain shortly after becoming a High Court judge 17 years ago by investigating a secret, paramilitary unit known as GAL that killed 26 people and kidnapped several others in the 1980s to fight the outlawed Basque separatist group ETA.
ETA is reviled in Spain for killing more than 800 people since 1968 in pursuit of Basque independence, but Garzon was applauded for taking on the anti-ETA death squads, resulting in the conviction of a former interior minister and 11 other officials.
He has been at the centre of Spain's top criminal cases ever since, helping to dismantle support groups for ETA and ordering the arrest of a suspected al Qaeda cell that he has since linked to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
Employing the principle of universal criminal justice -- that the most heinous crimes can be prosecuted anywhere in the world -- Garzon ordered Pinochet's arrest in Britain in 1998, but London freed Pinochet for health reasons in 2000.
ISLAMIST MILITANT THREAT
Garzon, who has been investigating armed Islamist militants in Spain since 1991, said groups that are now active in Europe have ties to the insurgency in Iraq.
He identified the Algeria-based Salafist movement and the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group as two organisations that were particularly dangerous.
"They are groups that have membership inside and outside Europe and in any case we have to keep close watch on the relationship these groups have with others like Ansar al Islam," Garzon said.
Garzon had been following a suspected al Qaeda cell at the time of Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He then ordered the arrest of the suspects for fear they might also attack, and the trial of some two dozen suspects is due to begin within months.
But he is not investigating the March 11 train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people and wounded 1,900 three days before a general election. That fell to another High Court judge -- Juan del Olmo -- who was the judge on duty at the time.
Garzon said it was impossible to measure how serious the Islamist militant threat was at present.
"It's obvious that these type of terror groups are perfectly operative .... The threat from this type of terrorism is real, it's constant, it's current and it will continue to be," he said.
Garzon is a loose cannon. No more.
Well expatriates and tourists are very happy as the culture was preserved for soo long that it's currently very refreshing. Somewhat like living in America during the 50s (I guess).
Having 50's culture would (hands down) beat GULAG culture (i.e. living in GULAG shadow, and it is a very long - by design - shadow, or inside the actual labor camp) every day, I guess.
And for that they ought to be uncommonly grateful, daily and nightly.
Give him credit for toughness on terrorists, he's still a left-wing loose cannon.
Notice how everywhere today the Left sees no way to retain power except by continually whipping up resentment about things that happened half a century ago. If people take present-day, 21st century, problems and events seriously, the Left is doomed. So for the Democrats in the US, it will always be the Great Depression, Birmingham 1964, and Vietnam 1968. Apparently the Spanish Left needs for Franco to never die, otherwise people might notice that Spain, having accepted the Euro "Constitution," has just become a province of the Franco-German Reich.
Wow, I live in Spain and didn't know his politics.
The great thing about reading is that it can take you all over the world without leaving home. Here is what Judge Garzon wrote less than a month after 9/11.
It has been said of terrorism, particularly the Islamic or fundamentalist kind, that it is a widespread threat. But it is a phenomenon that has been helped by the west's rejection of all that is different from its own culture or "civilised religion".
The west and its political, military, social and economic hierarchies have been more preoccupied with the abusive and shameful march of production, speculation and profit than with an adequate redistribution of wealth. It has favoured a policy of social exclusion over integration and progressive immigration. And it has insisted on maintaining - and insisted on payment of - external debt instead of using those funds in the same countries it is now asking for help and understanding. For all those conscious mistakes, the west is suffering the terrible consequences of fanatical religious violence.
I rest my case.
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