VARIOUS: PRESIDENT BUSH'S NOMINEE FOR US. ATTORNEY GENERAL JUDGE ALBERTO GONZALES EXPECTED TO FACE TOUGH QUESTIONS ON U.S. TORTURE POLICY DURING SENATE JUDICIARY HEARINGS

Record ID: 677747

  • Title: VARIOUS: PRESIDENT BUSH'S NOMINEE FOR US. ATTORNEY GENERAL JUDGE ALBERTO GONZALES EXPECTED TO FACE TOUGH QUESTIONS ON U.S. TORTURE POLICY DURING SENATE JUDICIARY HEARINGS
  • Date: 5th January 2005
  • Summary: (U7) WASHINGTON, D.C. UNITED STATES (JANUARY 5, 2005) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) HENDERSON, SAYING: "You can have safety and protection and make sure that we are not subjected to the kinds of terrorism that we all fear, and at the same time still protect the rights of individuals who might be detained. General Ashcroft couldn't strike that balance. We hope the new Attorney General whether its judge Gonzales or whether its someone else, will have a different approach one that sends the kind of signal consistent with who the American people are."
  • Embargoed: 20th January 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: WASHINGTON,D.C. UNITED STATES/BAGHDAD, IRAQ/DAVOS, SWITZERLAND/GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1RGD110UUCEULUJDYFVLP4TH2
  • Story Text: President Bush's nominee for top cop will face tough
    questions on the U.S. tourture policy.


    Bush administration memos on interrogating Iraqi
    prisoners that critics said opened the way for torture in
    Abu Ghraib will be highlighted this week at confirmation
    hearings for his designated attorney general.

    Democratic senators plan to grill Alberto Gonzales, the
    White House legal counsel, during Senate Judiciary
    Committee hearings on Thursday, particularly about legal
    memos to the administration discussing policy on
    interrogation and torture.

    On Wednesday (January 5) a group of civil right groups
    sent a letter to members of the Senate committee tasked
    with confirming Gonzales, offering their concerns about the
    nominee. "Aspects of Judge Gonzales' record are extremely
    troubling. We are particularly concerned about reports
    that we have seen and read and documented, About the role
    Judge Gonzales played in the development of policy
    regarding torture, detention and the interrogation of
    detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo and
    elsewhere, " said Wade Henderson, Executive Director of the
    Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

    Twelve retired military leaders, including a former
    chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the former leader
    of the U.S. Central Command, have also taken the unusual
    step of sending a letter to the committee expressing "deep
    concern" about the nomination of Gonzales, who is expected
    to be confirmed to replace John Ashcroft.

    They urged the senators to question Gonzales in
    particular about a January 25, 2002, memo he wrote to Bush
    calling parts of the Geneva Conventions on prisoner
    treatment "quaint" and obsolete and saying they should not
    be applied to the conflict in Afghanistan.

    They also suggested asking Gonzales if he believes
    torture or other forms of inhuman treatment may lawfully be
    used by U.S. authorities as long as the detainee is an
    "unlawful combatant."
    An August 2002 memo addressed to Gonzales, who approved
    it and gave it to President Bush, said that only the most
    severe types of torture were not permissible under U.S. and
    international agreements against torture.

    This was replaced without fanfare just last week, on
    the New Year's holiday, with a memo that gave a broader
    definition of what could be considered torture and was
    therefore unacceptable under U.S. and international law.

    Democratic senators are expected to ask about the
    August memo and its replacement, and other documents that
    were made public over the summer amid an outcry over
    prisoner abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and
    interrogation techniques on Taliban and al Qaeda detainees
    at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

    Republican senators, like committee chairman Sen. Arlen
    Specter of Pennsylvania and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, will
    focus on Gonzales' successes as a son of migrant workers
    who was the first in his family to go to college and who
    eventually became a Bush confidant and top legal adviser.
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