Thank you for your comments. I can only say this: the problem is now that illegalities were committed, the problem is that the government of Spain was duplicitous. Politically, it could not publicly oppose the Couso prosecution, so all they did was underhanded while denying any pressure form the US. The Cables do give the impression that the Spanish government considered the Couso case impertinent or at the very least inconvenient. But that was never their public stance. So I am not sure that "Govt. of Spain attorneys had a case challenged or dismissed" ever. I don't think the Spanish government has actually been part in the proceedings - the Attorney General or the Chief Prosecutor at any of the courts are not part of the executive branch in Spain.

El Pais has published a bunch of material and written articles about how the Spanish government grovelled to the US government over the years. There is one cable in which the Embassy staff write that the "carrot and stick" strategy "is working" but shouldn't be overdone due to the risk of frustrating the Spanish government too much. There appears to be nothing the Spanish government would not sacrifice policywise to be best buddies with the US. And, of course, the fact that Obama has refused to visit Spain (even cancelling his attendance to a bilateral EU-US summit) to this date continues to bug the Spanish government, so they will continue to sacrifice policy to make good.

El Pais has just published an op-ed by its director (Editorials are unsigned, this is not). I'll translate some paragraphs of it in a separate comment.

Of all the ways of organizing banking, the worst is the one we have today — Mervyn King, 25 October 2010