Posted on 10/23/2007 1:01:39 PM PDT by J Aguilar
Decision without precedents in the history of Democracy
The Government Bursts into the Supreme Court Challenging Two Conservative Judges
The State Attorneys have formulated in name of the Government the challenge of the Judges of the Supreme Court Roberto García-Calvo and Jorge Rodríguez-Zapata, to cancel their votes in the so-called "Casas amendment" with which the present president is armoured. [This is] a decision without precedents in the history of the Democracy. From the PP, Ignacio Astarloa, described the situation as "scandal" and said that "it rains on wet" because, in his opinion, it is not the first time that it tries to control the high institution.
(Libertad Digital) the Government justifies the appeal alleging that García-Calvo and Rodriguez-Zapata are “contaminated” and they do not keep the appearance of impartiality after having emitted a letter in which they showed their "deep discrepancy" with the reform of the LOTC [Law that regulates the work of the Supreme Court] that automatically prorogued the mandate of president Maria-Emilia Casas a month before the date of her leaving was surpassed.
The first vice-president of the Government Fernández de la Vega, on the other hand, decided, after the Cabinet meeting, to authorize the Attorney General, Joaquin de Fuentes-Bardají, to proceed with the challenge of the judges. According to De la Vega, both members of the Supreme Court prejudged the litigation object and, therefore, they have incurred in a legal cause of challenge.
In addition, she asserted that "as it has said the Supreme Court, the impartiality of the judge is not only guarantee for the parts but for the authority and the prestige of the courts, authority and prestige that in a democratic society rests in the confidence of the citizens that is deposited in the impartiality of the judges".
The [party] secretary of Justice of the PP [right wing Popular Party], Ignacio Astarloa, described as "scandal" the challenge although he considered that "it rains on wet" then it is not the first attempt of the government of Zapatero to control the institution. Astarloa in declarations gathered by EP in Hospitalet (Barcelona) assured that the challenge of the Executive has the objective of annulling the appeal of the PP against the LOTC.
Legal sources consulted by EFE, informed that the Attorney General considers in his appeal that the attitude of García-Calvo and Rodriguez-Zapata is opposite to the "necessary indispensable impartiality" in a magistrate and reveals a "prejudice" on the subject that will be deliberation object. The Legal Services of the State emphasize, in addition, that those public declarations of both magistrates on the content of the law took place when it had not concluded the term in which this one could be appealed.
Nevertheless, other top level legal sources have showed in these days the irregularity of the reform of the LOTC, considering that the executive authority imposes the prorogation of the present president term, invading the field of the High Court. Not in vain, it is the first occasion in democracy in which a Government challenges a judge of the Supreme Court.
View shared by the [party] secretary of Justice of the PP, who judged "opposite to the Constitution" the so-called "Casas amendment". "the Casas amendment was approved with nocturnal condition and treachery, and, with it, the Government imposed its majority so that a person is president “sine die”, he said.
If García-Calvo and Rodriguez-Zapata are separated from the deliberations, the so-called progressive sector of the Supreme Court will recover the majority in the plenary session, lost Monday when the abstentions from Casas and vice-president Guillermo Jiménez were accepted.
[…]
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By J Aguilar,
Watch the video of the discussion, during the October 12th military parade, one week before the challenges, between the “eternal” president of the Supreme Court, by the Grace of the amendment passed by the Socialists and their allies regional nationalists, María-Emilia Casas (left hand side), and the daughter of a Francoist high rank officer, vice-president De la Vega (right hand side),. Look when Mr. Moratinos, Spanish foreign minister, turns his head: My Allah! How can she dare to say that?
“Montesquieu is dead”, said De la Vega predecessor during the 1980’s, Socialist vice-president Alfonso Guerra, meaning that there will be no such separation between the branches of the government and that the entire State should be subordinate to the Executive branch, that is, to himself. Thanks to LDTV, we have now a document of Montesquieu being publicly stabbed.
Outside Spain, 3/11 can be portrayed as an isolated fact; nevertheless, from here, it can be appreciated as a process. In this process, many tasks are running in parallel. I haven’t translated anything about the judicial front of 3/11 yet and why is so important now to keep the control of the Spanish Supreme Court.
From wikipedia, on the Spanish Supreme Court (Constitutional Court):
In addition, this court has the power to preview the constitutionality of texts delineating statutes of autonomy and to settle conflicts of jurisdiction between the central and the autonomous community governments, or between the governments of two or more autonomous communities. Because many of the constitutional provisions pertaining to autonomy questions are ambiguous and sometimes contradictory, this court could play a critical role in Spain's political and social development.
A “statute of autonomy” is a kind of “State Constitution” that regulates the procedures of the Spanish autonomous community [regional] governments, and now an openly separatist statute of autonomy for the region of Catalonia is to be considered by the Supreme Court.
Check that if a separatist -unconstitutional- Catalonian statute of autonomy is passed by the liberal majority, it will not matter if the right wing Popular Party wins the upcoming National Elections next March, because by then Spain would be sunk in a Constitutional strife, and the country could turn to be ungovernable with contrary laws being considered both correct, and the regional nationalists having an excuse to refuse to fulfil national legislation. Some kind of democracy ala Lebanese?
It seems that many Socialists and their allies, the regional Nationalists, no longer want a political system in which someone such as Aznar is elected (and re-elected), a system in which a Catalonian or Basque nationalist could be considered equal among the other citizens of Spain, a system in which their economic interests (both the Basque and Catalonian regions were the most favoured and developed under Franco’s regime beyond Madrid) are not before everything else and the rest of Spaniards simply play the role of picturesque slaves of a plantation.
And I do not think it was by chance that 3/11 happened when the country was taking a path that hurt their interests, as I do not think it either now when the Socialists are proceeding with the demolition of the Spanish democracy. On the contrary, I suspect that it was the ultimate objective of the coup, a coup that is still progressing, fulfilling stages.
* * *
Now another issue. In my last post, FreeRep tanuki asked about our safety. Unfortunately, I can translate today an example of what it happens when a Spanish citizen dares to publicly oppose the plans of such people:
(Link here)
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For slander against the government
Alcaraz Will Have to Give Testimony in Court For Criticizing the Negotiation Between Zapatero and ETA.
The Fourth Section of the Penal Court of the National High Court has forced investigative judge Ismael Moreno to admit the complaint that rejected on July 3rd against the president of the AVT [Association of Victims of Terrorism], Francisco José Alcaraz, by an ofence of slander and serious calumnies against the Government of the Nation. This complaint was interposed by the Democratic Association of Lawyers for Europe (ADADE) [?] for the declarations in which Alcaraz criticized the negotiation with ETA undertaken by Government and, in particular, by Zapatero.
LD (Agencies) The first consequence of this decision is that judge Moreno will foreseeably call to declare as indicted person the president of the AVT that, in case of being finally found guilty by this crime, would face prison term between 12 and 18 months. Among the phrases to which the complaint makes reference, are the following manifestations:
"The rupture of the dialogue after the T4 attack is a parenthesis that both ETA and the Government have devised to retake the process".
"The dialogue with ETA legitimizes the hundreds of murders and thousands of wounded caused by the terrorist barbarism".
"Zapatero is the ambassador of ETA, since a long time ago the president speaks, feels and suffers like the own terrorists".
These critics have been worth to Alcaraz a complaint, in an attempt to silence the president of the AVT.
The Section Fourth - integrated by [Judges] Fernando Bermúdez de la Fuente, Teresa Palacios and Flor Maria Sanchez argues in their committal that the declarations of the president of the AVT meet "two groups of diverse offences that have in common the protection of the Powers and Institutions of the State against attacks coming from the individuals". In this sense, they consider that the denounced facts could be considered of "a crime of serious insults the Government of the Nation" since "the declarations of the defendant are in their immense majority referred the Government jointly and not referred the personal honour of Zapatero". For that reason they order judge Moreno to reconsider his previous decision and to transact the complaint.
The court of Instruction number 2 of the National High Court, of which Judge Ismael Moreno is titular, misestimated on July 3rd this complaint when considering that the insults and calumnies, for being constituent of an offence, "must go directed against the high organisms of the nation, not against the members that personally comprise the same ones". In that sense, the judge considered that the true addressee of the expressions was the president of the Government and that "in no way they can be considered directed against the Government of the Nation".
However, ADADE presented an appeal before this decision that now has been admitted by the Section Fourth of the Penal Court, reason why it forces judge Ismael Moreno to investigate Alcaraz as indicted person.
“A coward gesture”
Francisco José Alcaraz has described as "a coward gesture" the decision of the Fourth Section of the Penal Court of the National High Court. "This is not a decision of the Justice" affirmed Alcaraz in declarations to Europe Press, and made responsible of the complaint "the lackeys and servants of a Government who has not had the courage to do it and it has been its servants those who have taken the step". "It is a gesture of great cowardice that in this country they complained against me for thinking what millions of Spaniards think and at the same time they are not able to go against mayors who promote monuments to terrorists", the president of the AVT insisted.
Alcaraz defended that those affirmations by which he has been indicted "are gathered in the newspaper “Gara”, the spoke-media of the terrorists and, however, they have not dared to go against it”. "These groups that stand out to defend the freedom of expression and which they have not acted against ETA, now act against a victim of the terrorism", he regretted, and attributed "all this" to "an attempt to intimidate the ones that vindicate firmness against terrorism".
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By J Aguilar,
Alcaraz promoted most of the rallies against the government in the last years. His association, AVT, suffered an infiltration attempt in which he was going to be forced to step down; massive attendance to the AVT general assembly thwarted that operation. The next one was a set-up built on the presence in a demonstration of a disabled person, which was not a victim himself but wanted to attend it on his wheelchair. Therefore, this is the third documented operation against him or the association he represents.
Francisco José Alcaraz lost a brother and two nieces on an ETA attack. Most of victims of 3/11 are associated to AVT, among others, its vice-president, Gabriel Moris, who acted as forensic expert in the analyses of the explosives during the 3/11 trial last spring.
By the way, ETA tells today that was the Socialist government the one that invited the terror organization to present its lists to the last local elections under the acronym ANV (nothing to do with AVT), in order to avoid the more publicly known names of “Batasuna” and “PCTV”, which would have represented a higher political cost to the Socialist government.
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More 3/11 here:
Search @ Freerep
An introduction to the case: Spain’s “Terrorgate”? by Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
More data on 3/11 in Spanish here:
Luis del Pino's blog
Kickjor's blog
The latest Luis del Pino TV program on the case here @ LDTV
CHRONOLOGIC SUMMARY:
1. Well, well, well, what have we here? by Dan Darling (4/5/2005)
2. What I think I know about Huarte by Dan Darling (4/14/2005)
3. Spain’s “Terrorgate”? by Frank J. Gaffney Jr. (5/18/2005)
4. The Mystery of 3/11 - Part 1
5. The Mystery of 3/11 - Part 2
6. The Mystery of 3/11 - Part 3
7. The Overlapping Plots by Luis del Pino, Chapter 1 of his book Los Enigmas del 11-M (translation Rojo4).
8.Did Al-Qaeda participate in the 11-M bombings? by Luis del Pino, Chapter 2 of his book Los Enigmas del 11-M (translation Rojo4).
9. 3/11 Revisited - Part 1, based on Luis del Pino's book Los Enigmas del 11-M, Chapter 11.
10. The Amazing Life and Death of Jamal Ahmidan (I) by Luis del Pino, Chapter 12 of his book Los Enigmas del 11-M, translation and title by J Aguilar (10/5/2005)
11.Trashorras talks to EL MUNDO by Fernando Múgica, EL MUNDO newspaper.
12.Lavandera talks to EL MUNDO
13.Did ETA pay the Jihad? (9/15/2006)
14.The Battle Rages (10/4/2006)
15.ETA Provided False Identifications to the Islamic Terrorists that Attacked the WTC in 1993 by Javier Oyarzábal to City FM radio (10/17/2006)
16.The Scientific Police Had No Access During Hours to the Bodies of the “Suicides” of Leganés (10/17/2006)
17.What the Mass Media Does Not Dare to Tell (11/10/2006)
18.The Explosive Used in the Massacre is Still Unknown by Casimiro García-Abadillo to EL MUNDO newspaper (11/20/2006)
19.Police Officers Investigated on Explosives Trafficking in Madrid by Fernando Lázaro, EL MUNDO newspaper (11/30/2006)
20.Informer Farssaoui Denounces Spanish Police Officers (12/4/2006)
21.Interview with the Investigator and Journalist Luis del Pino by Jorge Hernández to Tribuna de Salamanca newspaper (12/8/2006)
23.Let It Snow by Luis del Pino (12/23/2006)
24.ETA Used Hexogen in the Bombing of Barajas Airport
25.Between Extreme Incompetence and Conspiracy to Obstruct the Action of Justice
27.What the Mass Media Does Not Dare to Tell (II)
28.Three Years On: the Eighth Suicide Gives Testimony before the Court
29.Interview with the Jihadist by Ali Lmrabet to EL MUNDO newspaper (5/25/2005, put into context in 2/2007)
30.Wasn't it ETA? (4/1/2007)
31.-Who Really Lied (4/16/2007)
32.-Experts Will Ask for Authorization for the Exhumation of Corpses (4/30/2007)
33.-The Incompetence Theory (5/20/2007)
34.-EL MUNDO finishes off the Official Version (6/3/2007)
35.-ETA Ends the So-Called “Cease Fire” Tonight (6/5/2007)
36.-Calls from the Dead (7/20/2007)
37.- More Hot Air (And More, And More...) (7/29/2007)
38.-Police Chatting with Suspects and Their Relatives Hidden to the Judge (8/6/2007)
40.-Mahmoud Slimane Released From Prison
41.-The Disinformation Campaign
42.-Bikers and Jews (9/18/2007)
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SUMMARY OF ARTICLES BY THEME:
0. An Introduction to the Case:
Spain’s “Terrorgate”? by Frank J. Gaffney Jr. (5/18/2005)
1. The Alleged Conception of the Coup:
Spain Acquits Sept 11 Suspect of Conspiracy Charge
2. The Previous Disinformation Campaign:
The Disinformation Campaign (9/18/2007)
3. The Attack Itself:
4. The Cover-Up
4.1. Cover-Up Regarding The Explosives
The Explosive Used in the Massacre is Still Unknown
Between Extreme Incompetence and Conspiracy to Obstruct the Action of Justice
4.2. The Building of an Alternative Version Blaming Islamists
4.2.1 Alleged Fabricated Evidence Planted to Divert the Investigations
Police Officers Investigated on Explosives Trafficking in Madrid by Fernando Lázaro, EL MUNDO newspaper (11/30/2006)
4.2.2 The Big Lie Began to Be Inoculated
Who Really Lied (4/16/2007)
4.2.3 Alleged New Source of the New Explosives
Trashorras talks to EL MUNDO by Fernando Múgica, EL MUNDO newspaper.
4.2.4 Alleged Transport of the New Explosives to Madrid
The Amazing Life and Death of Jamal Ahmidan (I) by Luis del Pino, Chapter 12 of his book Los Enigmas del 11-M, translation and title by J Aguilar (10/5/2005)
Let It Snow by Luis del Pino (12/23/2006)
4.2.5 How the Usual Suspects were framed using SIM cards and mobile phones
More Hot Air (And More, And More...) (7/29/2007)
Police Chatting with Suspects and Their Relatives Hidden to the Judge
4.2.6 How the Usual Suspects were also framed using Police Informers
Informer Farssaoui Denounces Spanish Police Officers (12/4/2006)
Between Extreme Incompetence and Conspiracy to Obstruct the Action of Justice
Three Years On: the Eighth Suicide Gives Testimony before the Court
4.2.7 Other Ways the Usual Suspects Were Framed
4.3 The End of the Usual Suspects
The Scientific Police Had No Access During Hours to the Bodies of the “Suicides” of Leganés (10/17/2006)
5. There is a New Guy in Town
The Overlapping Plots by Luis del Pino, Chapter 1 of his book Los Enigmas del 11-M (translation Rojo4).
Did Al-Qaeda participate in the 11-M bombings? by Luis del Pino, Chapter 2 of his book Los Enigmas del 11-M (translation Rojo4).
3/11 Revisited - Part 1, based on Luis del Pino's book Los Enigmas del 11-M, Chapter 11.
The Amazing Life and Death of Jamal Ahmidan (I) by Luis del Pino, Chapter 12 of his book Los Enigmas del 11-M, translation and title by J Aguilar (10/5/2005)
Let's Talk About Al Qaeda by Luis del Pino, Chapter 13 of his book Los Enigmas del 11-M.
Interview with the Investigator and Journalist Luis del Pino by Jorge Hernández to Tribuna de Salamanca newspaper (12/8/2006)
6. The Smoke Screen Begins to Fall
6.1. The Boric Acid Case
Did ETA pay the Jihad? (9/15/2006)
The Battle Rages (10/4/2006)
What the Mass Media Does Not Dare to Tell (11/10/2006)
6.2. It wasn't Goma-2 ECO
What the Mass Media Does Not Dare to Tell (II)
Experts Will Ask for Authorization for the Exhumation of Corpses (4/30/2007)
The Incompetence Theory (5/20/2007)
6.3. It wasn't Goma-2 EC either
Bump for reading later. Lots of stuff here that I wasn’t aware of.
for later
Today in the 3/11 case, the Judicial front.
Things are heating up here, Elections are coming and the Socialist and Nationalist allies won’t spare anything to avoid a right wing victory.
Good luck in the next elections. I’m afraid Americans have a long history of ignoring such problems in other countries, unless they directly strike home in some way.
The only real solution is to vote the Socialists back out of power.
I only hope they don’t have such a grip on things that they cannot be voted out. As I’ve said in earlier threads, Spanish Socialism is worst than most, with a long history of totalitarianism and violence in its past.
J,
Is there a summary of this article?
How sad. I remember traveling in Spain in about ‘79, right after the end of the Franco era. Everyone then wanted a change and the Socialists were touted as the best possible alternative to the Falange. Little did anyone suspect, I guess, that in many ways the Spanish were simply exchanging a black boss for a red one. The disregard for the norms of representative government by the Socialists that is evident in these writings is shocking.
And now their ‘big brothers’ in the EU have a hand in the Spanish legal system? This whole situation looks less and less like what the voters of ‘80 wanted and more like what the Hungarians in ‘56 got.
Sure, you can use this one:
In a decision without precedents in the history of the Democracy, the Socialist government is challenging two judges of the Supreme Court in order to regain a liberal majority just weeks before the vote of the new Regional Statute of Catalonia.
The conservative judges challenged openly opposed the “Casas amendment”, which prorogued the term of María-Emilia Casas as president of the High Court. This amendment to its procedures was approved by the Socialists and their regional Nationalists allies, and appealed by the right wing PP.
If passed, the separatist Regional Statute of Catalonia would trigger a major Constitutional strife and could render Spain ungovernable since there will be an excuse for not fulfilling National laws.
In conservative sectors of the Spanish public opinion, such Statute is seen as another stage in a hidden agenda that began on 3/11, in order to give the Nationalists of Catalonia and the Basque country and the economic interests they represent predominance over the rest of Spaniards.
I was familiar with the basic history of the Spanish Civil War (not the Lincoln Brigade Version) at an early age, and my sympathies were with the Catholics who were murdered by the “progressive” Socialists and Communists.
Franco got a bad press, to say the least.
So it was not surprising when the Socialists rode into power in reaction to him. What was surprising and gratifying was that they did not stay in power. But now they have a second shot at it, and will surely try to arrange things so they don’t leave a second time.
That’s always the risk with Communists. Once in power, they stay in power, and can only be thrown out by popular uprisings, because they bend the laws and the communications media to their own desires.
I just hope it hasn’t got that far again.
No, of course, neither side was perfect. I understand the idealism of some leftists, but I have always tended to think that leftist dictatorships are more dangerous than right wing dictatorships, for the very reason that they are usually more populist. Hitler, of course, is dubiously characterized as a rightist; he was a national socialist, and occupied the same niche as his Communist rivals.
If Franco did nothing else—and in fact he did a good deal—he managed to keep Hitler out of Spain and to give shelter to a lot of exiles who failed to find it in France and elsewhere.
When I studied classical history, I was taught that Athens was good and Sparta was bad. True, to some extent. But the disease represented by Alcibiades was more dangerous than any other, IMHO, and as Xenophon recognized, Sparta had some things that Athens lacked. The Macedonians only came to power and took over Greece after Sparta had been weakened.
Indeed, for instance, Franco defended private property, which was a key element in the economic development of Spain in the 1950’s and 1960’s. During this last decade, Spanish growing was only surpased by Japan among the developed nations.
It is also true that in the WWII, willing it or not, Franco carried out the task which Britain had endowed Spain since the treaty of Algeciras (1906), that is, to keep any other powers far away from the Gibraltar strait, turning Gibraltar effectively in an island which could be easily defended by the far superior Royal Navy. During the WWII Franco played for the allies, no matter what the Left says about him as a lackey of Hitler.
It is true that under the dictatorship, Spain evolved more rapidly than a democracy. For instance, Franco could force children of rural, poor areas to study far away from their homes, avoiding them to be employed from an early age in agriculture, hindering their potential. He could broke by force such poverty circle and turn rural poor men and women into prepared workers of an industrial economy. That cannot be done in a democracy.
However, a big problem remainded, which can be seen reflected in 3/11. That is, that under Franco regime, Spaniards could not mature politically. They wanted to become a democracy, as the rest of western Europe, but it seems a majority of the population is not willing to assume the responsibility. For many Spaniards, democracy seems to be some kind of Franco’s regime with political parties (for instance, Civil Rights are a dim idea for many of us), an aesthetic democracy, as we say. That is the niche the Socialists cleverly occupied: they were free to develop many Francoist policies since they found a moral justification to all its acts saying that they had been the opposition to Franco and that they had suffered much during the dictatorship, which is simply not true, as I have explained above, because they were nurtured and protected by the Spanish security corps even before Franco’s death, in order to be a firewall against Communism.
Spaniards felt well buying that product, because that is simply a well designed political one. Spaniards had what they used to have, an authoritarian government with Montesquieu dead, a Socialist economy... but they did not have to bother about responsibility and the moral side of the issue.
That is the reason, no matter we’ve been deceived, that I think the ultimate responsible of 3/11 is all of us.
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