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On the day before Senate hearings begin for Alberto Gonzales, President Bush's nominee for Attorney General, the New York Times reports that the president's chief legal counsel actively pursued a legal justification from the Justice Department to allow torture. This direct intervention provided the basis for Gonzales' now infamous memo claiming that the president "wasn't bound by laws prohibiting torture and that government agents who might torture prisoners at his direction couldn't be prosecuted by the Justice Department."
- Gonzales' memo set the stage for the prisoner abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison. Although the United States ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture—which states "no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability, or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture"—Gonzales' legal memo advised the president he had the authority "to approve almost any physical or psychological action during interrogation, up to and including torture." This ruling paved the way for the abuses at Abu Ghraib.
- Gonzales believes the U.S. government should be able to indefinitely detain American citizens without any proper judicial scrutiny. Gonzales pushed President Bush to argue that as commander-in-chief during a time of war, he has the unilateral power to detain individuals indefinitely without due process of law. The Supreme Court sharply rejected this position last June, ruling that citizens and non-citizens detained by the government – even those deemed "enemy combatants" by the Bush administration – have the right to challenge their detention in front of a neutral arbiter. Justice Sandra Day O'Conner wrote: "A state of war is not a blank check for the president."
- The Senate should heavily scrutinize Gonzales' nomination for Attorney General. Gonzales' recent legal work presents serious threats to core constitutional rights and privileges. His defense of torture and rejection of basic legal representation alone should bar him from becoming the nation's chief law enforcement officer. Senators should take a strong look at a man who has frequently failed to uphold the nation's core judicial philosophy and beliefs.
Daily Talking Points is a product of the American Progress Action Fund.
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Daily Talking Points is a product of the American Progress Action Fund. |
