Memo Indicates

[grimm]

Memo reveals Bush OKd torture
by Tim Wheeler

WASHINGTON During confirmation hearings on Alberto Gonzales
nomination as Attorney General, senators should question him about a
recently uncovered memo that George W. Bush ordered the torture of
detainees at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and other military prisons around
the world, several human rights groups suggested last month.

The groups, who joined in an ACLU Freedom of Information (FOIA)
lawsuit, which won release of the memo and other incriminating
documents, are describing it as the smoking gun implicating Bush in
the torture scandal.

ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero released the memo Dec. 20
in New York. That document, a December 2003 FBI internal e-mail,
suggests that Bush issued a secret Executive Order authorizing the
use of extreme coercive measures in interrogation, including sleep
deprivation, stress positions, attack dogs, and use of hoods to
intimidate prisoners. The Geneva Convention Against Torture bans all
of these practices.

These documents raise grave questions about where the blame for
widespread detainee abuse ultimately rests, Romero said. Top
government officials can no longer hide from public scrutiny by
pointing the finger at a few low-ranking soldiers.

The human rights groups statement called on the Senate to scrutinize
Gonzales, the White House Legal Counsel, on a Jan. 25, 2002, memo he
wrote to Bush arguing that the Geneva Conventions outlawing torture
did not apply to the war in Afghanistan. Gonzales described the
conventions as quaint and obsolete.

In August 2002, Gonzales, without consulting military and State
Department experts in the laws of torture and war, according to the
Washington Post, approved a memo from the Justice Department claiming
that unlawful enemy combatants could be detained indefinitely without
criminal charges or the right of due process. The memo, the Post
said, gave CIA interrogators the legal blessings they sought.

Physicians for Human Rights, winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, is
one of the groups in the ACLU lawsuit. PHR sent a letter to the
Senate Judiciary Committee signed by 150 doctors with expertise in
the treatment of torture. There should be no place in the U.S.
government for any official who condones the crime of torture, the
letter stated.

Gretchen Borchelt, a PHR spokesperson, joined in the call for probing
Bushs role in the torture scandal. It would be great to question
Gonzales about that memo, she said. There are a number of documents
the senators have asked for and have not received yet. We think this
is a hugely important issue not just because of the nomination of
Gonzales but also because the questions about torture have not been
resolved. There has been no accountability.

Gonzales asserted Bushs right to order the torture of detainees, a
position that violates U.S. treaty obligations under the Convention
Against Torture and other international agreements, PHR said.

Wilson Woody Powell, executive director of St. Louis-based Veterans
For Peace, another group in the lawsuit, told the World in a
telephone interview that they are now examining the documents, which
they recently received.

Since Gonzales was Bushs legal adviser at the time, it would make
sense to ask him about that memo, Powell said. It would be a good
question: what was Bushs role in the torture?

If our nations highest law enforcement officer is known for
abrogating international law in the treatment of detainees, we are
just confirming to the world that we dont care about human rights. We
would be confirming a criminal, a scofflaw, to be the nations chief
prosecutor.

Powell pointed out that the U.S. is a signatory to the Convention
Against Torture as a matter of self-protection. I fully anticipate
someone is going to capture some American soldiers and do unto them
what we have done unto others. We have a deep concern for how our
soldiers are going to be treated if they are captured given the
record of torture at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and other detention
centers, Powell said. Thousands of detainees have been held without
trial because the administration lacks evidence to try them or even
bring criminal charges.

MoveOn.org, the Internet activist group, has posted a petition on its
website demanding that Gonzales sign a Declaration Against Torture
and renounce his extreme and dangerous position that torture is a
legitimate method of interrogation. The petition calls on Gonzales to
reaffirm American respect for human dignity and the rule of law.

The administration is feeling so much heat on the subject that they
posted, unannounced, on a U.S. government website, a new policy
repudiating the earlier memos and calling torture abhorrent both to
American law and values and to international norms.

On the eve of his confirmation hearings, Gonzales appeared to be
covering his previous actions by releasing a prepared statement
saying he would abide by international treaties prohibiting torture
of prisoners. His Senate testimony was obtained by The Associated
Press.