Elephant In Exile

Architect of Torture?

Don't know what to make of Bush's selection of Alberto Gonzalez for AG. Although he's widely credited with writing the dubios legal memoranda that said Bush could legally indefinitely hold terrorist suspects (including U.S. citizens) without trial, charges or access to lawyers. The Supreme court didn't agree.

For instance, Gonzales publicly defended the administration's policy - essentially repudiated by the Supreme Court and now being fought out in the lower courts - of detaining certain terrorism suspects for extended periods without access to lawyers or courts.

He also wrote a controversial February 2002 memo in which Bush claimed the right to waive anti-torture law and international treaties providing protections to prisoners of war. That position drew fire from human rights groups, which said it helped led to the type of abuses uncovered in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041110/D8694G201.html

Meanwhile, Ashcroft's requiem paints him as not being fully on board with the torture, detention issues. Interesting.