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For Immediate Release
April, 29 2009, 04:00pm EDT
Contact:
CCR Applauds Spanish Judge's Decision to Open New Criminal Investigation Into US Torture Program
Human Rights Group with Multiple Cases Against Bush Officials Calls on Obama Administration to Appoint Special Prosecutor in U.S.
NEW YORK
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which represents many of
the men detained by the U.S. government at Guantanamo, praised Spanish
judge Baltazar Garzon's decision today to pursue a new criminal
investigation into the torture conspiracy and the torture program at
the base where five Spanish nationals were tortured and abused. and
abuse of five men at the base.
The writ did not name specific officials as defendants but speaks of
investigating the roles of those responsible for authorizing, planning
and executing the torture program, particularly in light of the newly
release torture memos and the Senate Armed Services Committee report.
The case could lead to arrest warrants in Europe and, according to CCR
attorneys, places new pressure on the Obama administration to appoint
its own special prosecutor to investigate the crimes committed by
former officials.
Last month, Spain moved to begin criminal investigation into the role
of six Bush administration lawyers responsible for creating the legal
justification and framework for the torture program. The brief history
of that case is as follows: Judge Garzon accepted the initial
complaint; the Spanish prosecutors were set to recommend pursuing it;
in an effort to stop the case, the Spanish attorney general intervened
to recommend against it; a lottery reassigned the lawyers case to Judge
Eloy Velasco, who now has the authority to decide whether to open the
investigation..
CCR attorneys hailed the decision as an important step in holding these
officials and others accountable for their crimes. The new case could
also include the lawyers and may well lead to investigations of top
officials, including Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.
Spain, like many other countries in Europe, has a special interest in
these cases since five of its citizens and residents were tortured or
abused at Guantanamo. The Spanish link to the case is strong: four of
the Spanish nationals who were tortured have intervened in the case.
They currently live in Spain, which gives extra legitimacy to the
investigation and jurisdiction of the judge. These cases can lead to
arrest warrants being issued that could apply throughout Europe. CCR
expressed hope that other countries in Europe whose citizens and
residents were subjected to torture and cruel treatment at Guantanamo
and elsewhere will likewise initiate such investigations.
CCR President Michael Ratner and Executive Director Vincent Warren are available for comment.
Michael Ratner, author of the book, The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld
and president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said, "The
torture conspirators are in deep trouble. Even if the U.S. fails in
its obligation to criminally investigate, Spain will. The conspirators
can run, but they can't hide. It is conceivable that arrest warrants
have already been issued or will be soon. Indictments will almost
surely follow. The torture team's travel options are narrowing." For
more information on the book, click here.
CCR Executive Director Vincent Warren said, "The Obama administration
should not need pressure from abroad to uphold our own laws and
initiate a criminal investigation in the U.S., but I hope the Spanish
cases will impress on the president and Attorney General Eric Holder
how seriously the rest of the world takes these crimes and show them
the issue will not go away."
Since the first days of the public revelations regarding the Bush
administration's torture program, the Center for Constitutional Rights
has made efforts to hold high level officials and their lawyers
accountable for their crimes. CCR, along with the European Center for
Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and the International
Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), has tried three times, twice in
Germany and once in France, to bring criminal cases in Europe against
former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and former White House Counsel/Former
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, as well as many of the other lawyers
and officials who were part of the conspiracy that authorized the
torture program in Guantanamo, Iraq, secret CIA sites, and elsewhere.
Ten other co-plaintiffs signed on to the case in Germany, including the
National Lawyers' Guild (NLG), European Democratic Jurists , and
Veterans for Peace. The German case is still pending. CCR also has
torture cases representing former Guantanamo detainees pending in U.S.
courts.
For more information on the German case, click here. For a fact sheet on prosecutions and accountability for torture and other war crimes, click here.
Attached Files
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. CCR is committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.
(212) 614-6464LATEST NEWS
Renowned Genocide Scholar Says 'I Know It When I See It'—And He Sees It in Israel's Assault on Gaza
"My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people."
Jul 15, 2025
A leading scholar of the Holocaust and genocide warned Tuesday the continued "silence" of many in his field of study regarding Israel's massacre of Palestinians in Gaza "has made a mockery of the slogan 'never again''" as he outlined in a New York Times opinion piece how he came to conclude that Israel is committing genocide in the besieged enclave.
"I'm a Genocide Scholar," reads the essay's headline. "I Know It When I See It."
Like a number of other experts who were at first reluctant to designate the assault on Gaza a genocide—the term coined by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944—Brown University professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies Omer Bartov gradually came to recognize Israel's campaign of targeted starvation, bombings on civilian infrastructure, forced displacement, and other attacks as genocidal violence as he watched the early months of the war in late 2023 and early 2024.
By May 2024, he wrote at the Times, "it appeared no longer possible to deny that the pattern of [Israel Defense Forces] operations was consistent with the statements denoting genocidal intent made by Israeli leaders in the days after the Hamas attack," including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's threat to turn Gaza into "rubble" and his call for Israeli citizens to remember "what Amalek did to you"—a reference to the biblical passage calling on the Israelites to "kill alike men and women, infants and sucklings" in their fight against an ancient enemy.
At that point, about 1 million Palestinians had been ordered to the so-called "safe zone" of al-Mawasi—which was then targeted in numerous attacks.
Months after one top Israeli official called for the "total annihilation" of Gaza—home to more than 2 million people—Bartov concluded that the government's "actions could be understood only as the implementation of the expressed intent to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable for its Palestinian population."
He wrote that his interpretation of Israel's actions is now that Netanyahu's government wants "to force the population to leave the strip altogether" and "debilitate the enclave through bombings and severe deprivation of food, clean water, sanitation, and medical aid to such an extent that it is impossible for Palestinians in Gaza to maintain or reconstitute their existence as a group."
"My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people," wrote Bartov, noting that his assessment is that of an expert who grew up in a Zionist home, spent the first half of his life in Israel, and served in the IDF as well as researching the Holocaust and other war crimes.
"This was a painful conclusion to reach, and one that I resisted as long as I could," wrote Bartov. "But I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognize one when I see one."
He added that his conclusion is supported by the destruction of an estimated 174,000 buildings, or 70% of those in Gaza; the killing of more than 58,000 people, nearly a third of whom have been children and nearly 900 of whom were under one year old; and the extermination of more than 2,000 families in their entirety.
CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour noted that Bartov spoke to her last December about his conclusion that Israel is committing genocide.
"If you look at the pattern of what the IDF has been doing, not only has it been moving the population around, every safe zone... tends to get also bombed and shelled," he said at the time. "But also systematically destroying universities, schools, mosques, museums, and hospitals, of course—anything that makes for the health and also the culture of a group, and therefore, by now we have a population that is being completely debilitated."
Bartov published his essay as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said it had recorded the deaths of 875 Palestinians who were killed while seeking aid, with the vast majority killed at or around aid hubs set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S.- and Israel-backed privatized aid group that has been rejected by the U.N. due to its lack of neutrality.
"The latest deadly incident happened at around 9:00 am on Monday, July 14, when reports indicated that the Israeli military shelled and fired towards Palestinians seeking food at the GHF site in As Shakoush area, northwestern Rafah," said the OHCHR on Monday of an attack that killed at least two people and injured nine others—days after a hospital in Rafah received more than 130 patients, the majority of whom suffered gunshot wounds they'd sustained while trying to access food distribution sites.
Last May, former Human Rights Watch executive director Aryeh Neier—who was also reluctant to apply the term "genocide" to Israel's attack on Gaza—said Israel's "sustained policy of obstructing the movement of humanitarian assistance into the territory" was what finally convinced him the assault is a genocide.
While backing the militarized GHF aid operation, Israel has continued to block humanitarian assistance from entering Gaza through crossings and has prevented experienced aid groups from distributing food to starving Palestinians.
Israel "has always insisted that any threat to its security must be seen as potentially leading to another Auschwitz" and has portrayed its attack on Gaza—which it and its allies in the U.S. and other Western countries have persistently claimed it is targeting Hamas—as a fight against an enemy comparable to the Nazis.
"The daily scenes of horror in Gaza, from which the Israeli public is shielded by its own media's self-censorship, expose the lies of Israeli propaganda that this is a war of defense against a Nazi-like enemy," wrote Bartov.
Progressive political strategist Waleed Shahid suggested Bartov's conclusions flew in the face of recent comments by U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who in March said the term "genocide" as it related to Gaza should be rejected as antisemitism.
Bartov warned that the refusal of many Holocaust scholars and the political establishment in the U.S.—the largest international funder of the IDF—to confront the reality of Israel's attack on Gaza could ultimately make it impossible "to continue teaching and researching the Holocaust in the same manner we did before."
"Just as worrisome is the prospect that the study of genocide as a whole will not survive the accusations of antisemitism, leaving us without the crucial community of scholars and international jurists to stand in the breach at a time when the rise of intolerance, racial hatred, populism, and authoritarianism is threatening the values that were at the core of these scholarly, cultural, and political endeavors of the 20th century," wrote Bartov.
He expressed hope that "a new generation of Israelis will face their future without sheltering in the shadow of the Holocaust, even as they will have to bear the stain of the genocide in Gaza perpetrated in their name."
"Israel," he added, "will have to learn to live without falling back on the Holocaust as justification for inhumanity."
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First Confirmed Judge of Second Trump Term Called a 'Direct Threat' to Fundamental Freedoms
"Whitney Hermandorfer has a clear record of putting her loyalty to Donald Trump over the Constitution," said one watchdog.
Jul 15, 2025
Civil rights organizations and anti-corruption groups voiced alarm Monday after the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate confirmed the first federal judge of President Donald Trump's second term, granting 38-year-old Whitney Hermandorfer a lifetime position on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.
"Her limited legal career shows a demonstrated hostility towards the protection of civil and human rights—including a disturbing and unacceptable record on reproductive rights, LGBTQ equality, birthright citizenship, labor and employment, environmental protections, and the expansion of executive power—which should be disqualifying for any judicial nominee," Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said following Hermandorfer's confirmation via a party-line vote.
Caroline Ciccone, president of the watchdog group Accountable.US, said that "Hermandorfer has a clear record of putting her loyalty to Donald Trump over the Constitution, and her confirmation is a direct threat to Americans' fundamental freedoms."
"She has stood in lockstep with the president as he pursued blatantly unconstitutional actions and worked to expand executive power," Ciccone added. "Given that, it's no wonder Trump picked her for a lifetime appointment to the bench."
"Hermandorfer's lack of experience, extreme agenda, history of advocacy for the wealthy and powerful, and loyalty to Trump make her an ominous bellwether of what's to come for our courts."
Opponents of Hermandorfer's confirmation pointed specifically to her record as director of the Tennessee attorney general's Strategic Litigation Unit, where she argued in support of the state's near-total abortion ban and filed amicus briefs backing Trump administration actions, including its effort to end birthright citizenship through executive order and seize control of independent federal agencies.
In a letter to senators ahead of Monday's vote, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights also highlighted Hermandorfer's history of "undermining union and labor protections."
"As a researcher for the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, she frequently wrote about supporting the corporatization of public education and busting teachers unions as a way for principals and superintendents to make 'necessary' changes," the group observed. "Ms. Hermandorfer has submitted amicus briefs in many cases that undermine fair labor practices and the right of workers to unionize. She submitted a brief on behalf of Tennessee to the U.S. Supreme Court in Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney, a case brought in 2024 after several employees at Starbucks were fired after attempting to unionize."
Rachel Rossi, president of Alliance for Justice, warned Monday that "Hermandorfer's lack of experience, extreme agenda, history of advocacy for the wealthy and powerful, and loyalty to Trump make her an ominous bellwether of what's to come for our courts."
In addition to becoming the first judicial confirmation of Trump's second White House term, Hermandorfer is the first federal judge pick in years who was not formally vetted by the American Bar Association (ABA). In May, Attorney General Pam Bondi restricted the ABA's access to judicial nominees, heightening concerns about the president's efforts to fill court vacancies with inexperienced ideologues and sycophants.
Hermandorfer is part of a slate of far-right judicial nominees that includes Trump loyalist Emil Bove, who is currently the principal associate deputy attorney general. The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to consider Bove's nomination to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit on Thursday.
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'What Are They Hiding?': Republicans Block Vote to Release Epstein Files
"We won't stop until the files are released," Rep. Ro Khanna said after the GOP shot down his amendment. "This may have been our first attempt, but the public will not be gaslit. We will keep fighting for transparency."
Jul 15, 2025
Republicans on the House Rules Committee have blocked an amendment that would force the Department of Justice to release the full Jeffrey Epstein files to the public.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced the amendment to a cryptocurrency bill on Monday, seizing on the controversy that erupted after the Trump administration said it would not release any more documents related to the sex-trafficking billionaire.
Had the measure passed out of committee, it would have required the entire House to vote on whether to force Attorney General Pam Bondi to publish all documents related to Epstein to a "publicly accessible website."
"Trump promised that his administration would release the Epstein files to the public," Khanna said before the amendment's introduction. "Now, the Department of Justice is shielding Trump's rich and powerful friends by refusing to release additional files."
All four Democrats on the committee voted for Khanna's amendment. They were joined by Republican Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.). Seven other Republicans voted the measure down, while Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) did not vote.
Explaining why he joined Democrats, Norman said: "The public's been asking for it. I think there are files. All of a sudden not to have files is a little strange. We'll see how it plays out… I think the president will do the right thing."
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), the chair of the Rules Committee, defended her colleagues' decision to vote down the amendment.
"I think most of us believe what's appropriate will be released when it is time for the president to release it," Foxx said.
The administration's back-track on the Epstein files has ripped apart the MAGA coalition in recent days, with prominent Trump allies issuing some of their fiercest criticisms of the president's entire second term after he told the public to "not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein."
Trump himself is also potentially implicated in the release of the files. He has a well-documented history with Epstein, who once referred to himself on tape as "Donald Trump's closest friend."
In June, amid a public falling-out with the president, billionaire Elon Musk said that the Trump administration, which he'd just departed, was covering up the files to protect Trump.
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.), who voted in favor of the amendment, said before the vote that it was of particular interest to her as the chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus.
"The Epstein files concern the abuse of women and the abuse of children," Fernández said to her Republican colleagues. "Why are they not just releasing them?"
"What are they hiding?" she asked on Instagram after the vote failed.
Khanna said this will not be the last attempt to get a vote to the House floor for a release of the files.
"We should see whose side are you on. That's really what this Epstein file issue has become," he told MSNBC. "It's not just about knowing who's being protected, the rich and the powerful...who had interactions with Jeffrey Epstein. It's the sense that people have that the government is too beholden to certain interests who have their thumb on the scale."
He mentioned other Democratic congresspeople who are pushing for the release of the files, including Marc Veasey (D-Texas) who introduced his own resolution calling for their release this weekend.
"We won't stop until the files are released," Khanna wrote on X. "This may have been our first attempt, but the public will not be gaslit. We will keep fighting for transparency."
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