----- Original Message ----- From: Chuck Grimes To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 11:53 AM Subject: [lbo-talk] Ashcroft was too liberal?
``President Bush has chosen White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to succeed Attorney General John Ashcroft, sources close to Bush have told The Associated Press...''
------------- Alberto Gonzales of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and US Patriot Act fame.. So does this mean Ashcroft was too liberal? I don't get it.
CG =========
CQ noted the "enemy combatant" memos, but the opinions in regard to "Torture-Lite (tm)" were written by Jay S. Bybee. Gonzales was just the apologist/point man for DOJ/White House interests.
Complicit, but not the "great" legal mind... just like Ashcroft.
The hearings should be hilarious, unless the dems fold up just to get Ashcroft outta there. ~~~~~~~~~~~
CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE Published by Congressional Quarterly and CQ Today www.CQ.com
Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 2:07 p.m.
[...] BUSH EXPECTED TO TAP GONZALES TO SUCCEED ASHCROFT AT JUSTICE
President Bush is expected to nominate White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales to succeed John Ashcroft as attorney general, likely touching off the administration's second bitter fight with Senate Democrats over who should serve as the nation's top law enforcement officer. Ashcroft's resignation was announced yesterday, but he will not step down until the Senate confirms his successor. Senate GOP and Democratic aides said confirmation hearings probably would not begin until after the 109th Congress convenes in January. Gonzales, 49, is a longtime friend and adviser to Bush. He previously served as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court and as Texas secretary of state. If confirmed, he would be the first Hispanic to serve as attorney general. But Gonzales has been targeted as the legal strategist behind many of the Justice Department's controversial anti-terrorism decisions, including the administration's determination to treat detained terror suspects as enemy combatants and deny them legal protections afforded by the Geneva Conventions. =========
washingtonpost.com Bush Administration Documents on Interrogation
Wednesday, June 23, 2004; 3:30 AM
The following is a summary of White House, Pentagon and Justice Department documents about interrogation policies. The documents were released by the Bush administration on June 22. Some files are presented as PDF files, which require the Adobe Acrobat Reader, and may require high-speed Internet connections to download.
Jan. 22, 2002: Justice Department Memo to the White House and Pentagon Counsels (3.3MB) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/012202bybee.pdf A 37-page memo written by Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee and addressed to White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales and the Pentagon's general counsel, William J. Haynes II. Bybee argued that that the War Crimes Act and the Geneva Convention did not apply to al Qaeda prisoners and that President Bush had constitutional authority to "suspend our treaty obligations toward Afghanistan" because it was a "failed state." Bybee, then head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, has since become a federal judge.
Feb. 1, 2002: Letter to President Bush From the Attorney General (49KB; from FindLaw) http://news.findlaw.com/wp/docs/torture/jash20102ltr.html The memo by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft summarized the Justice Department's position on why the Geneva Convention did not apply to al Qaeda and Taliban detainees. The memo was Ashcroft's personal response to the State Department position that, as a matter of law, the Geneva Conventions protected Taliban soldiers. Ashcroft warned that if the president sided with the State Department, American officials might wind up going to jail for violating U.S. and international laws.
Feb. 7, 2002: Justice Department Memo to the White House Counsel (49KB; from FindLaw) http://news.findlaw.com/wp/docs/torture/bybee20702mem.html A memo written by Jay S. Bybee, then head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, advised White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales that the president had "reasonable factual grounds" to determine that Taliban fighters captured in Afghanistan were not entitled to prisoner of war status.
Feb. 7, 2002: Memo Signed by President Bush (130KB) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/020702bush.pdf Bush's presidential memorandum to members of his national security team said he believed he had "the authority under the Constitution" to deny protections of the Geneva Conventions to combatants picked up during the war in Afghanistan, but that he would "decline to exercise that authority at this time." The memo settled the dispute between the State and Justice departments over the issue.
Feb. 26, 2002: Justice Department Memo to the Pentagon's General Counsel (2.5MB) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/022602bybee.pdf A memo to the Pentagon's general counsel, William J. Haynes II, written by Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee examined constitutional questions related to detainees captured in Afghanistan, including the admissibility of statements made in interrogations.
Aug. 1, 2002: Justice Department Memo to the White House Counsel (864KB; from FindLaw) http://news.findlaw.com/wp/docs/doj/bybee80102ltr.html A memo to White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales from Jay S. Bybee of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that techniques used to interrogate al Qaeda operatives would not violate a 1984 international treaty prohibiting torture. Bybee also concluded that the interrogation of al Qaeda members was outside the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, but warned that a "rogue prosecutor" could choose to investigate U.S. interrogation techniques because the international court "is not checked by any other international body, not to mention any democratically-elected or accountable one."
Aug. 1, 2002: Justice Department Memo to the White House Counsel (27.5MB; from FindLaw) http://news.findlaw.com/wp/docs/doj/bybee80102mem.pdf The memo from Jay S. Bybee, head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, to White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales found that torturing terrorism suspects might be legally defensible. Bush administration officials said on June 22, 2004 -- when the document was publicly released -- that the memo's conclusions were overbroad and would be rewritten.
Dec. 2, 2002: Defense Department Memo Regarding "Counter-Resistance Techniques" (780KB) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/dodmemos.pdf A memo written by the Pentagon's general counsel, William J. Haynes II, on Nov. 27 and approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Dec. 2 summarized specific interrogation techniques that could be used at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; this document also includes a series of related memos on interrogation techniques.
A related one-page summary document (56KB) issued to reporters by Bush aides on June 22, 2004, reviewed which specific techniques were approved and used. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/062204GTMOslide.pdf
Jan. 15, 2003: Rumsfeld Memo to the Head of U.S. Southern Command (47KB) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/011503rumsfeld.pdf Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's memo rescinded his approval for some interrogation techniques for Guantanamo Bay. The memo allowed commanders to seek Rumsfeld's direct approval to use the tougher techniques if they are "warranted in an individual case" but would require a "thorough justification."
Jan. 15, 2003: Rumsfeld Memo to the Pentagon Counsel (53KB) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/011503rumsfelda.pdf The defense secretary's memo to William J. Haynes II, the Pentagon's general counsel, asked Haynes to convene a working group to examine all aspects of interrogation policies. The memo also was referenced in Rumsfeld's memo to the head of U.S. Southern Command dated the same day.
Jan. 17, 2003: Memo From the Pentagon Counsel to the General Counsel for the Air Force (56KB) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/011703haynes.pdf Pentagon general counsel William J. Haynes II designated Mary L. Walker, the general counsel for the Air Force, to head the working group Rumsfeld requested in his Jan. 15 memo.
April 4, 2003: Report of the Pentagon Working Group (6.7MB) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/040403dod.pdf The 85-page report requested by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in January reviewed "legal, historical, police and operational considerations" and made recommendations to the Pentagon on what techniques should be approved.
April 16, 2003: Rumsfeld Memo to the Head of U.S. Southern Command (1.6MB) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/041603rumsfeld.pdf The defense secretary, acting on the working groups' recommendation, restates which specific interrogation techniques are approved for Guantanamo Bay and which require his direct approval. The document also includes excerpts from the Army Field Manual.
Compiled by Mark Stencel, The Washington Post, and Ryan Thornburg, washingtonpost.com
© 2004 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive ~~~~~~
Seymour Hersh Monday September 13, 2004 The Guardian
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, there had been much debate inside the administration about what was permissible in the treatment of prisoners and what was not. The most suggestive document, in terms of what was really going on inside military prisons and detention centres, was written in early August 2002 by Jay S Bybee, head of the justice department's office of legal counsel. "Certain acts may be cruel, inhuman, or degrading, but still not produce pain and suffering of the requisite intensity to fall within [a legal] proscription against torture," Bybee wrote to Alberto R Gonzales, the White House counsel. "We conclude that for an act to constitute torture, it must inflict pain that is difficult to endure. Physical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." (Bush later nominated Bybee to be a federal judge.)
"We face an enemy that targets innocent civilians," Gonzales, in turn, would tell journalists two years later, at the height of the furore over the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. "We face an enemy that lies in the shadows, an enemy that doesn't sign treaties."
Gonzales added that Bush bore no responsibility for the wrongdoing. "The president has not authorised, ordered or directed in any way any activity that would transgress the standards of the torture conventions or the torture statute, or other applicable laws," Gonzales said. In fact, a secret statement of the president's views, which he signed on February 7, 2002 contained a loophole that applied worldwide: "I determine that none of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with al-Qaida in Afghanistan or elsewhere throughout the world," the president asserted.
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