Decide the fate of Alberto Gonzales

[gottaB]

[gottaB]

1. The opinion of Neal Katyal

Appoint a special counsel to investigate Geneva violations

[TexasMexican]

2. Who?

[Stephanie]

4. WH Counsel

Wrote a memo to Bush in support of ignoring the Geneva Conventions in Iraq.

[Stephanie]

5. Here:

_________________________________________

<snip>


There have been many Gonzales missteps, but attention has focused recently on a memorandum he wrote to Bush on Jan. 25, 2002, in which he said that the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War should not apply to al-Qaida or Taliban prisoners. Gonzales said the war on terrorism "in my judgment renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners."


While he raises the possible downsides, including provoking "widespread condemnation among our allies," and potentially undermining "U.S. military culture, which emphasizes maintaining the highest standards of conduct," Gonzales nonetheless recommends dumping the Convention in order to preserve "flexibility."


The memo could be titled "do as we say, not as we do." With unexplained logic, it states that anyone who mistreats U.S. personnel could still be charged with war crimes, yet says the Convention -- the international law from which the definition of war crimes is derived -- should not apply to the actions of the United States.


This loophole lawyering, from the man whose former law firm in Houston represented Enron, was an invitation to torture anyone labeled an enemy combatant. He gave legal cover to ungoverned interrogations, resulting in the abuse reports that are now streaming out of Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo.


http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jun/06042004/commenta/commenta.asp

_________________________________________

[Zinfandel]

3. Obviously some freepers around.

[UTUSN]

6. Alberto Is a Lackey. John YOO Is Seminal

GONZALEZ is just in the B.F.E.E. tradition of showcasing minorities who happen to be wingnuts (puppets), first to be window dressing of wingnut "diversity", then, later, to take the blame and heat for the true movers and shakers.

Think Clarence THOMAS (Poppy's creation), Condi, POWELL, Miguel ESTRADA, NEGROPONTE, Otto REICH, the Orrin HATCH computer thief (MIRANDA?), big and little.

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.petitiononline.com/bh2004/petition.html

.... According to a recent report in Newsweek Magazine entitled “The Roots of Torture”, Prof. Yoo authored a memorandum in January, 2002 advising the Bush Administration that the protections of the Geneva Conventions would not apply to prisoners held by the United States in its execution of the war in Afghanistan. While Secretary of State Colin Powell and lawyers for the State Department vigorously sought to repudiate Prof. Yoo’s flawed legal analysis, subsequent actions taken by the Bush Administration and the military demonstrate that our government has taken Prof. Yoo’s advice to heart.

We believe that the actions taken by Prof. Yoo contributed directly to the reprehensible violations of human rights recently witnessed in Iraq and elsewhere. By seeking to exploit and magnify any technical ambiguities in the Geneva Conventions and the laws of war, Prof. Yoo and the Bush Administration have created a climate of disdain and hostility towards international law, effectively opening the door to the acts of outright torture, rape and murder that we now know were committed by United States soldiers and civilian interrogators. Such abuses, if not explicitly ordered by the Administration or military commanders, were at the very least a foreseeable consequence of crippling the protections of the Geneva Conventions in the context of the “war on terror”.


http://george.loper.org/~george/archives/2003/Dec/968.html

.... One of the four, law professor John Yoo, helped write the Patriot Act as a deputy assistant attorney general. He told a University of Virginia conference that most of the law’s provisions are common-sense amendments to previous laws allowing the government to easily adapt to new communications technologies in surveillance techniques.

“There is no constitutional right to privacy of records not in your possession,” said Yoo, a University of California law professor who questioned why librarians “are all upset about” the law’s provisions allowing the seizure of business records, including library business records, under a cloak of secrecy. He said terrorists have used public library computer terminals for research and have the ability to send e-mails and change e-mail addresses every two to three minutes.

“It seems to me a very modest bill. There is no revolutionary change,” said Yoo, the staunchest defender of the law among the scholars who outlined legal history and constitutional law at the Miller Center of Public Affairs conference. About 130 people attended the four-hour event, some spilling into overflow rooms with large television monitors. ....

********UNQUOTE*******

[gottaB]

10. Yoo is scum, I agree

But Gonzales has long been rumored to be on *'s shortlist, and even if he now says it was only a rough draft, in fact he did circulate memo which concluded, "In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions." (See The Roots of Torture and Memos Reveal War Crimes Warnings).

The Yoo-Delahunty memo is linked here, under More War Crimes Memos: Double Standards?

[UTUSN]

12. Oh, I Agree That Beto Is Scum, Too, But Not Original

YOO's memo came first and was the basis for GONZALEZ's. And talk about "fine Conservative wine," TAFT IV (below) opposed YOO, like with Teddy ROOSEVELT IV endorsing JK. This underscores the difference between old Conservatism and the current crop of crap. But GONZALEZ's chances for SCotUS ought to be nil now, no?

*******QUOTE*******

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4989436/

.... When State Department lawyers first saw the Yoo memo, "we were horrified," said one. As State saw it, the Justice position would place the United States outside the orbit of international treaties it had championed for years. Two days after the Yoo memo circulated, the State Department's chief legal adviser, William Howard Taft IV, fired a memo to Yoo calling his analysis "seriously flawed." State's most immediate concern was the unilateral conclusion that all captured Taliban were not covered by the Geneva Conventions. "In previous conflicts, the United States has dealt with tens of thousands of detainees without repudiating its obligations under the Conventions," Taft wrote. "I have no doubt we can do so here, where a relative handful of persons is involved." ....

********UNQUOTE*******

[gottaB]

13. "ought to be nil"-- yeah, but 5 votes here at DU?

Maybe Zinfandel is right, maybe we have some freepers visiting us. Or maybe some people, Democrats no less, don't care much about BushCo's war crimes. Maybe they think that in order to be judicious, one must seriously consider removing legal protections from the "enemy." I just don't know.

So while Gonzalez' chances for a SCOTUS appointment ought to be nil, I'll rest easier when Bush* is out of office.

[UTUSN]

11. Manuel Miranda

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/03/04/judiciary.memos.ap/

.... A report released by the Judiciary Committee and authored by Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle's office faults two former GOP aides: Manuel Miranda, who worked for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, before resigning, and Jason Lundell, a clerk who worked on nominations for Hatch before leaving last year. ....

Lundell "continued to provide Democratic -- and also Republican _ documents to Mr. Miranda after he left the Judiciary Committee," the report said.

Miranda worked for Hatch from December 2001 to January 2003 and worked for Frist until he resigned in February. Lundell, the report said, was accepted into graduate school in Texas and left in January.

In addition to the thousands of documents that Democrats say were breached, Hatch said more than 100 of his computer files were "improperly accessed and transmitted outside the Senate." ....

********UNQUOTE*******

[MessiahRp]

7. The scales are really unfairly tipped in these...

It's like asking, "What would you rather do? Re-elect Bush and have a national holiday named after him, or elect a true Progressive Democrat who would restore fiscal and social equality to the country?"

Any questions about Bush and staff versus Liberal ways are a slam dunk on DU.

So guess what I voted... War Crimes. Duh! :)

Rp

[gottaB]

9. Yeah, it wasn't meant to be fair

But to encourage people to oppose BushCo.

And yet.... Conservatives Want Alberto Gonzales Kept Off Supreme Court

[gottaB]

8. The Texas Execution Memoranda

Texas Execution Memos, "White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales's Texas Execution Memos:
How They Reflect on the President, And May Affect Gonzales's Supreme Court Chances," by John Dean, June 20, 2003. Dean works from Alan Berlow's The Texas Clemency Memos.

[salin]

14. Neither

he has blown up all his chances for his top aspiration (to be appointed to the SC). But I don't think he will be indicted for war crimes. Even if we get these bafoons out in november and regain one part of the houses of congress (allowing the power of calling investigative committees)- there are simply so many egregious acts from members of this administration that many will never be fully investigated let alone prosecuted.

He will land a cushy right wing law firm job and make millions at the goverment trough.

[gottaB]

15. kick

:kick: