Spain attorney general against Guantanamo probe

By Jason Webb

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's attorney general said on Thursday he would not recommend a criminal investigation into six former Bush administration officials over torture at Guantanamo Bay, reducing the chances the probe will go ahead.

High Court Judge Baltasar Garzon, who came to world prominence when he issued an arrest warrant for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, had requested the attorney general's advice on whether to probe former officials including former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales over the U.S. base in Cuba.

"We cannot support that action," Attorney General Candido Conde-Pumpido told reporters.

"If you investigate the crime of abuse of prisoners, the people probed have to be those who were materially responsible."

A group of Spanish human rights lawyers had lodged a request in Garzon's court for an investigation to determine whether the former U.S. officials had provided legal arguments allowing torture to proceed at the prison camp.

Asked about the case, U.S. President Barack Obama told CNN en Espanol: "I'm a strong believer that it's important to look forward and not backwards, and to remind ourselves that we do have very real security threats out there."

Obama stressed that since taking office in January he had ordered the closing of the Guantanamo camp and halted interrogation methods used on terrorism suspects under his predecessor George W. Bush.

Obama said he had not had direct contact with the Spanish government about the case but "my team has been in communications with them."

While the recommendation of Conde-Pumpido, one of Spain's most senior legal voices, reduces the chances Garzon will push ahead with the investigation, he could still do so anyway.

The attorney general's office had advised him not to try to extradite Pinochet, but that did not stop him going ahead and almost succeeding.

SPAIN-BASED PRISONERS SAY TORTURED

Under Spanish law, jurisdiction can be claimed in the case because five Spanish citizens or residents who were prisoners at Guantanamo Bay say they were tortured there.

"The attorney general (Conde-Pumpido) is taking a political stance on a subject which is absolutely a legal matter," human rights lawyer Gonzalo Boye told Reuters.

A member of the Association for the Dignity of Prisoners which lodged the investigation request, Boye said he hoped Garzon would proceed and the case might even lead U.S. courts to take action themselves.

"According to the (United Nations) Convention Against Torture, the United States will have to take a position on this. Either hand these people over or put them on trial themselves," said Boye.