Why Gonzales' Resignation Won't Restore Justice

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

By Aziz Huq, The Nation. Posted August 28, 2007.

http://alternet.org/rights/60865/

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Gonzales leaves the Justice Department tarnished in two ways. First are the allegations of politically motivated firings of US Attorneys and concerns that criminal prosecutions and dubious charges of "voter fraud" have been timed to influence the results of close federal and state elections.

Second, less noticed and perhaps more serious, Gonzales has presided over a wrecking of the rule of law. The Gonzales Justice Department has consistently taken the position that bedrock laws enacted to protect Americans' liberty and constitutional rights -- and the nation's standing in the world -- can be shrugged off at a moment's notice -- in secret and without public debate or even notice to Congress.

Thanks to Gonzales and his allies, too many citizens of the world know America as a country that treats international law as "quaint," that recklessly and lawlessly spies on its own citizens and that engages in torture. If we are lucky, that is the America of yesterday; it need not be the America of tomorrow.

Yet, Gonzales's resignation will do nothing to repair the deep wounds inflicted on the Justice Department: It will not repair the harm done by politicization. It will not undo the wildly flawed legal opinions licensing torture and warrantless spying. It will not restore the rule of law. . . .