Alberto Gonzales's Views on Torture

[PSU84]

Alberto Gonzales's Views on the Question of Torture

NEW YORK, Nov. 14 - The confirmation hearings of White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to replace John Ashcroft as attorney general will spotlight long-running disputes within the president's legal team over the conduct of the war on terror. Gonzales ultimately signed off on all of the administration's most controversial legal moves -- including declaring U.S. citizens "enemy combatants" without permitting them to see lawyers and authorizing unorthodox interrogation techniques that critics say set the stage for the Abu Ghraib scandal.

One legal issue that worried Gonzales from the start, sources tell NEWSWEEK, was that U.S. officials -- even those inside the White House -- might one day be charged with "war crimes" as a result of some of the new measures. Gonzales first raised the issue in a Jan. 25, 2002, memo to President George W. Bush arguing against granting Geneva Convention protections to Taliban and Qaeda prisoners captured in Afghanistan. He noted that a 1996 U.S. law permitted prosecution for violating Geneva Convention bans on "inhumane treatment." A determination by Bush that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to the Afghan prisoners "substantially reduces the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act" by future "prosecutors and independent counsels" who might view administration actions in a different light, Gonzales wrote.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6479334/site/newsweek /

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041114/nysu009_1.html

[H2O Man]

1. He is perhaps

the last human being on earth that should be considered for the job.

[UTUSN]

2. Like Master, Like Houseboy

But it looks like the Dem leadership and the Hispanic groups are just rolling over. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1351296

[H2O Man]

3. It makes it hard to respect

any of the democrats in the congress that are putting their tails between their legs. A week ago, I posted the start of a thread about the need for democrats to behave in the manner of an Opposition Party. My goodness, even without taking into account the massive voter fraud, the Kerry/Edwards ticket had a huge number of supporters.

We are being betrayed.

[Warpy]

5. Exactly, which is why the GOP will rubberstamp the appointment

Fitness for the job is not considered. Party and ideological purity are the only things under consideration, and Gonzales qualifies under both.

It makes me want to believe in hell.

[RBHam]

4. How else can they get false confessions?

Come on, guys. Remember, Stalin's KGB had it down to a science.
I'll bet they've improved on it.

[central scrutinizer]

6. As Joshua Micah Marshall points out, the hidden issue

is whether Gonzales will pursue all of the ongoing investigations or be the loyal soldier and keep the lid on. Most notable is the Plame affair. While his stand on torture is reprehensible, the Dems need to keep his feet to the fire. Ashcroft tried to keep the lid on for months, then had to recuse himself from the investigation. What will Gonzales do, if he is not forced to put himself on the record? <edited for spelling>

[UTUSN]

7. My Media Blast E-ltr

The supposed Liberal half of the pundits on CNN’s The Capital Gang have already sounded the retreat regarding the nomination of Alberto Gonzalez for Attorney General with the words, “He’s got a great personal story, only one of eight siblings to go to college, and he maintains contact with them!”

While the Republican majority makes it unlikely that the nomination can be blocked, Gonzalez’s record, ideology, and role as Bush waterboy need thorough exposure and opposition. But the Democrats have to stay focused on those things and not allow the process to be framed on the basis of “ethnicity,” as in, “the first Hispanic, blah blah…”

During the ESTRADA hearings the beleaguered Democratic leaders actually stood firm and eventually won a rare victory, perhaps surprising even themselves, although the deciding factor might have been Estrada’s possible personal baggage instead of ideology. And almost all of the Hispanic organizations joined in opposing him based on his ideology.

With Gonzalez, the Republicans are springing yet again their “ethnic“ or “racial” trap that started with George I’s use of Clarence Thomas: Nominating a member of a minority group, perhaps not too bright or accomplished, but who toes the Conservative line, and, most of all, stymies the Democrats by their having to oppose somebody from one of their traditional constituencies. The payload of the “ethnic” gambit is to derail the vetting process, keeping attention away from the nominee’s record and ideological fanaticism.

During the Estrada hearings, Orrin Hatch was all over the media with a Shirley Temple pout, saying innocently, “How can the Democrats oppose this well qualified Hispanic?”

The answer then should have been, as now, “It is NOT about the ethnicity. That would be racism and quotas. It’s about the ideology and his record.”

This link covers his whole career: http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=246536

This link covers his role in the torture policy: http://lawofwar.org/Torture_Memos_analysis.htm (Home Page: http://lawofwar.org / )