Reed Brody is a veteran war crimes prosecutor. His latest book is To Catch a Dictator: The Pursuit and Trial of Hissène Habré (Columbia University Press).
The former Liberian dictator abetted the atrocities of a proxy army. Henry Kissinger did the same in Indonesia/East Timor.
The Spanish Supreme Court has effectively ended the career of the judge who dared to revisit the crimes of the Franco era. But the real losers are those who relied on him to defend human rights, from Spain to Guantánamo.
As the war on terrorism gears up, governments around the world are already justifying repression in the name of that cause, while the Bush Administration and its allies send signals that they may look the other way.