Gonzales Gone for Wrong Reasons (Juan Cole)

[kpete]

Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Gonzales Gone for Wrong Reasons

The great shame of it all is that Alberto Gonzales was confirmed as Attorney General despite it being widely known that he had played a central role in attempting to authorize the use of torture on prisoners in US custody. He had tossed aside the US Constitution's own prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishment" (such a wimpy bleeding-heart liberal document). It is an index of the corruption of the Republican Party, which then controlled Congress, that they made this man attorney general in the first place.

The great shame of it all is that Gonzales was hounded out of office not because he authorized torture and assaulted the basic principles of the US constitution, but because he fired US attorneys who wanted to investigate both Republican and Democratic voter fraud. Torture people all you like, is the message he sent, but if you're even-handed as between Republicans and Democrats, you are fired.

He tossed aside the Geneva Conventions, which were crafted to prevent any reemergence of Nazism in the post-war period. While Gonzales is not a Nazi, if you get rid of an anti-Nazi legal instrument you are in effect aiding and abetting potential fascism.

MSNBC wrote at the height of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, which Gonzales had implicitly encouraged:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/dojinterrogationmemo20020801.pdf



more at:
http://www.juancole.com/2007/08/great-shame-of-it-all-is-that-alberto.html

From Salon today:

Gonzales was not the prime mover behind the torture, disappearance, enemy combatant and warrantless wiretapping policies of the Bush administration — by most accounts, Vice President Dick Cheney takes those honors. But he was a key player. In each instance, instead of invoking the law to curtail the proposed abuses, Gonzales facilitated them by reading the law to OK whatever the vice president and president wanted.

http://salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/08/28/gonzales_record/

[terip64]

1. Juan Cole in Chelsea, MI at the train depot tomorrow night @ 7:30pm.

August 29th.

[Jack Rabbit]

2. Dissenting in part

I would like to dissent a bit from Professor Cole's thesis.

It was necessary that Gonzales be removed from office and continues to be even more necessary to remove Bush and Cheney. The reasons are less important than the act of removal. Removing from office merely stops the bleeding.

Were Gonzales to continue in office, he would continue to occupy his time obfuscating, distorting, misleading and lying Congress down a rabbit hole. He would also continue to advise Mr. Bush on why the law doesn't apply to him or to Mr. Cheney or why the Geneva Conventions don't apply to war on terror.

That's nothing compared to what Bush and Cheney could do if they continue in office for much longer. Seventeen months is plenty of time to start a war against Iran, which may include nuclear weapons, use their illegal domestic surveillance for partisan political purposes and continue to torture "enemy combatants."

Those are the real reasons Bush and Cheney should be removed from office. It doesn't matter whether Congress votes to impeach and remove over an unpaid ticket for jaywalking or even a tacky tryst with an intern. Just get them out, now. Any reason that will gain support of a majority of the House and two-thirds of the Senate is reason enough.

Once the criminals are removed, We, the people, must not simply congratulate ourselves. We must make certain that these criminals face justice for their crimes, which include war crimes. It would be preferable if members of the Bush Junta were prosecuted in federal court, but if the US justice system is unable or unwilling to bring these people to account, then an international tribunal for war crimes in Iraq and crimes against humanity arising out of the so-called war on terror should be convened for that purpose. An international tribunal might be made necessary should the criminal receive blanket pardons from a crooked president on his way out the door in one final and spectacular abuse of power.

[Jack Rabbit]

3. Up!!

:bounce:

[terip64]

4. kick

[havocmom]

5. K & R

[Generator]

6. It is an outrage

and one reason I will never see America as that great bastion of liberty ever again. We ARE just as bad as "them". That it wasn't an outrage by many (except on DU-thank you!) is a lasting memory.

Also-on Democracy NOW this morning it was discussed that Mr. Chertoff is a big fan of torture too.

THIS is why Bush/Cheney love him. All I could think of is that we are lead by those that are best described as scum.

With the Bush administration it's always the scum that rises to the top.

[KoKo]

7. He needs to be hunted down for War Crimes like the Nazi's were.

What these people have done will have to be pursued for decades. It wont be Congress that will do it, but people who are determined that they be brought to justice for their deeds.

[Jack Rabbit]

9. The whole lot of them should face that fate

Book 'em, Interpol.

[Solly Mack]

8. Gonzales is a war criminal

k/r

[KoKo]

10. Yes...and he looks "in face" as innocent as those who enabled Hitler

if anyone has watched Nuremberg Trials or remembers the aftermath of WWII. They all fell on their swords and pleaded it was "Orders from the Top" or came out fighting like Larry Craig's horrendous performance in his Presser this afternoon.

It DOESN'T MATTER....No matter how Kind they look...how nice they appear or how much they love their dogs & cats and their FAMILY.....CRIMINALS of ALL STRIPES have many of those characteristics.

Evil is ...as Evil Does. It's one's actions that affect people that are the only way we can have some understanding of our fellow people.

Those who "cloak evil" under the guise of either Religion or Politics and are "CAUGHT RED HANDED" in HYPOCRACY and are REPEAT OFFENDERS deserve worse than those who steal a loaf of bread or a smoke or two.

:-(

[DemReadingDU]

11. afternoon kick

[cui bono]

12. Juan Cole gets this one slightly wrong...

While I agree with the sentiment of his piece it's not entirely accurate in its depiction of the USA scandal. Iglesias, for one, said he was being urged to follow through on investigations where he didn't see anything substantial. That's not the same as being even handed. They wanted him to pursue bogus accusations against Dems. That's corruption. And when he wouldn't do that they fired him. The way Cole describes it is that the USA scandal is about nothing but people doing their jobs correctly. He leaves out the DoJ pursuing those bogus charges which is indicative of a politicization and subversion of our entire justice system which I think are just as important as, and in fact, related to, Cole's reasons.