Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: I Was 'Aware' Of Waterboarding

[seafan]

Ryan J. Reilly at TPM Muckraker reports:





November 22, 2010

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told TPM in an exclusive interview that he was aware of the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques used against suspected terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

He wouldn't say, however, whether he remembered when George W. Bush approved KSM's waterboarding. Bush recalled in his book that he told the CIA "Damn right" when asked whether to waterboard the man accused of planning Sept. 11.

"What I can say is that, yes I was aware of the techniques, I did have knowledge, and I know that a number of lawyers worked to look to see whether it could be administered in a way that was consistent with the anti-torture statute and guidance was given by the Department of Justice while I was in the White House about how these techniques could be implemented to gather important information, in a dangerous period for our nation, to gather information from the enemy that would be in America's favor," Gonzales told me.

I asked if Gonzales remembered when Bush told the CIA that they could waterboard KSM.

"Yeah, I'm not going to comment on that, I'm going to save that for the book," Gonzales said.

.....

So, another admitted war criminal skips merrily on his way, hawking his memoirs, unthreatened by justice and the rule of law.



RIP, President Kennedy. There are many of us who still remember this day, November 22, 1963.


Our country has never been the same since.


And we will not stop until the people responsible for that tragic day, and all of their lawless descendants, both by blood and by action, are finally exposed and punished.

[gratuitous]

1. Well, let's not look backward to the past

Unless there's a book deal and a hefty advance.

Yeah, these are crimes against humanity. And since our dear leaders have opted for change, we're changing the way we deal with crimes against humanity. I'm so old, I remember a time when the United States was perceived as a bulwark against such oppression. Now, we're not only practice it, we reward our high government officials for their complicity. Hard to see how that might ever come back to bite us on the bottom, isn't it?

I suppose if some dead-enders or other malcontents just can't let go of a little harmless (or not so harmless) torture, they might actually do something in righteous retaliation. They'll most likely target the biggest offenders and hit their marks unerringly. If they don't, none of us will really mind, will we, if we or a loved one is maimed or killed due to some "terrorist" attack?