as I am by the news this morning that more infighting and withheld evidence have forced Attorney General Eric Holder not only to waver on releasing more Bush-era interrogation memos but to drop all charges against the doubly villainous Ted Stevens, take heart: the Spaniards are here.

Lost in the tabloidy drumbeat of "the Obamas' vacation to London" (also known as the most important economic meeting of the millennium) was Saturday's buried headline that a Spanish judge would finally — finally — take Bush administration lawyers to task for justifying the horrors at Guantánamo. But this wasn't just any judge; this was Baltasar Garzón, a man who is not only extremely well dressed and an extremely diligent professor but a fucking hero — the kind of legal mind that should show up in high school textbooks here, the kind of man only rivaled on this side of the pond by Patrick Fitzgerald.

Garzón understands what justice means. It means you don't let Pinochet, bin Laden, poet killers, genocidal Argentine military men, or money laundering bankers live on as untried enemies of the state, even if that state is not your own. And it certainly means you don't let the U.S. Justice Department sit on its hands while six prominent enablers of America as Torturer sign book deals. That's why you should become a fan of Garzón, despite the sad reality that the most he can hope to achieve in the coming months is to keep Alberto Gonzales from taking a European vacation (if he ever finds a job), to put more pressure on John Yoo (if Jose Padilla's lawsuit doesn't finish him first) and to discourage Doug Feith from whining to Bill O'Reilly. And it's possible he may not even be around to do this much longer: his own country is investigating him for misconduct... for getting paid by NYU to enlighten America to its own ideals for a couple semesters. It seems we're not the only country trying to sweep the dirt of the last eight years under the carpet.

RELATED LINKS:

GUANTÁNAMO LAWYER SPEAKS OUT: The American Way of Justice

BUSH ADMINISTRATION LAWYER SPEAKS OUT: Is John Yoo a Monster?

WHAT IT FEELS LIKE: ...to Be a Prison Guard at Guantánamo Bay

BOOK EXCERPT: An Innocent Man in Guantánamo

PLUS: How The Attorney General Became Saddam Hussein's Lawyer

TIMELINE: Breaking Down the Bush Years

RICHARDSON REPORT: Can Obama Really Ease Up on Torture?

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