Ummagumma66
Active Member
from canoe.ca http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2007/08/27/4449772-ap.html
Gonzales' resignation offers hope for critics who say he eroded civil liberties
By BETH GORHAM
WASHINGTON (CP) - The resignation of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales provided some fresh hope Monday for those who say he presided over a tragic erosion of civil liberties and international respect for American justice.
As legal counsel to President George W. Bush and later in cabinet, Gonzales was a major force behind such contentious anti-terror tactics as the rendition of people like Canadian Maher Arar to third countries and the widely condemned legal system for Guantanamo Bay prisoners, including another Canadian, Omar Khadr.
The first Hispanic in the job, Gonzales, 52, said in a short statement that leading the U.S. Justice Department had been one of his "greatest privilieges" and that he'd lived the American dream.
But he's been under siege almost constantly since arriving in Washington in 2001 after serving as a judge on the Texas Supreme Court and as an adviser to Bush when he was Texas governor.
In a memo to the president the following year, Gonzales appeared to condone some forms of torture for prisoners that many saw as encouragement for abuses at Guantanamo and Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.
He also defended the practice of transferring terror suspects to other countries to face harsh interrogation and prison. It's that policy that allowed U.S. officials to ship Arar from New York to his native Syria, where he was tortured.
Accused of lying to Congress about the warrantless domestic spying program he supported and his role in the firing of several U.S. attorneys last year, allegedly for partisan reasons, politicians from both parties have been trying for months to get him booted from his job.
"This is an opportunity," said Mark Agrast, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress think-tank.
"But it really does depend on their willingness to turn over a new leaf."
Gonzales has consistently pushed for wider presidential powers, earning the emnity of those who regarded him as Bush's crony and not the kind of independent defender who could command respect and uphold the law for Americans.
The president defended him to the end, although he grudgingly accepted his resignation on the weekend.
"After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department, Judge Gonzales decided to resign his position," said Bush.
"It's sad that we live in a time when a talented and honourable person like (him) is impeded from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons."
Gonzales drafted the rules for the military war tribunals at the U.S. prison camp in Cuba, seeking to limit the legal rights of detainees. He famously called the Geneva Conventions that protect prisoners of war "quaint."
Most western countries except Canada have complained about the troubled system, saying it's a haphazard, horrifying process unfairly slanted toward prosecutors.
Now, with Defence Minister Robert Gates openly critical of the prison camp, and a new attorney general coming in, "one at least begins to see the possibility of cooler heads prevailing," said Agrast.
"I can't think of anyone who brought such disgrace on the office. One doesn't like to think our attorney general is a liar or an idiot. People just couldn't take him seriously. It was a travesty."
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, a former appeals court judge and assistant attorney general, has been touted as a successor.
"Many of us have some doubts about (him)," said Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, who notes that Chertoff's department has faced its share of criticism.
"It's possible but it's hardly a slam dunk."
The most important thing, said Schumer, is that the successor put the rule of law above politics.
"Now it will be up to the White House to choose a replacement who is, above all, a professional, not a partisan, not a pal. Unlike the last time, (Bush) needs to pick the best person, not his best friend."
The Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, which spearheaded court challenges for basic legal rights on behalf of Guantanamo detainees, said this resignation is only the beginning.
"Guantanamo continues, as do torture, wiretapping, secret CIA sites, rendition, and illegal trials," the centre said in a release.
"Congress can and should do all of these things, but so far, it has been silent."
The American Civil Liberties Union said the fact that Gonzales is leaving doesn't pardon Bush's "systematic abuse of power."
"Congress must not accept Gonzales as the administration's latest sacrificial lamb. Congress must conduct more oversight and restore our Constitution, our world status and American values," said the union's Caroline Fredrickson.
Bush has lost a steady stream of top loyalists recently as his presidency winds down, incuding adviser Karl Rove earlier this month.
It would help, said Agrast, to appoint someone who served as attorney general in a previous administration and could set the chaotic department in order quickly in the year and a few months that Bush has left.
"You'd have to have somebody that's such a distinguished person the appointment by itself says it's a new day," he said.
"You'd have to be crazy to want the job. Crazy, but also a patriot."
Gonzales' resignation offers hope for critics who say he eroded civil liberties
By BETH GORHAM
WASHINGTON (CP) - The resignation of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales provided some fresh hope Monday for those who say he presided over a tragic erosion of civil liberties and international respect for American justice.
As legal counsel to President George W. Bush and later in cabinet, Gonzales was a major force behind such contentious anti-terror tactics as the rendition of people like Canadian Maher Arar to third countries and the widely condemned legal system for Guantanamo Bay prisoners, including another Canadian, Omar Khadr.
The first Hispanic in the job, Gonzales, 52, said in a short statement that leading the U.S. Justice Department had been one of his "greatest privilieges" and that he'd lived the American dream.
But he's been under siege almost constantly since arriving in Washington in 2001 after serving as a judge on the Texas Supreme Court and as an adviser to Bush when he was Texas governor.
In a memo to the president the following year, Gonzales appeared to condone some forms of torture for prisoners that many saw as encouragement for abuses at Guantanamo and Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.
He also defended the practice of transferring terror suspects to other countries to face harsh interrogation and prison. It's that policy that allowed U.S. officials to ship Arar from New York to his native Syria, where he was tortured.
Accused of lying to Congress about the warrantless domestic spying program he supported and his role in the firing of several U.S. attorneys last year, allegedly for partisan reasons, politicians from both parties have been trying for months to get him booted from his job.
"This is an opportunity," said Mark Agrast, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress think-tank.
"But it really does depend on their willingness to turn over a new leaf."
Gonzales has consistently pushed for wider presidential powers, earning the emnity of those who regarded him as Bush's crony and not the kind of independent defender who could command respect and uphold the law for Americans.
The president defended him to the end, although he grudgingly accepted his resignation on the weekend.
"After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department, Judge Gonzales decided to resign his position," said Bush.
"It's sad that we live in a time when a talented and honourable person like (him) is impeded from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons."
Gonzales drafted the rules for the military war tribunals at the U.S. prison camp in Cuba, seeking to limit the legal rights of detainees. He famously called the Geneva Conventions that protect prisoners of war "quaint."
Most western countries except Canada have complained about the troubled system, saying it's a haphazard, horrifying process unfairly slanted toward prosecutors.
Now, with Defence Minister Robert Gates openly critical of the prison camp, and a new attorney general coming in, "one at least begins to see the possibility of cooler heads prevailing," said Agrast.
"I can't think of anyone who brought such disgrace on the office. One doesn't like to think our attorney general is a liar or an idiot. People just couldn't take him seriously. It was a travesty."
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, a former appeals court judge and assistant attorney general, has been touted as a successor.
"Many of us have some doubts about (him)," said Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, who notes that Chertoff's department has faced its share of criticism.
"It's possible but it's hardly a slam dunk."
The most important thing, said Schumer, is that the successor put the rule of law above politics.
"Now it will be up to the White House to choose a replacement who is, above all, a professional, not a partisan, not a pal. Unlike the last time, (Bush) needs to pick the best person, not his best friend."
The Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, which spearheaded court challenges for basic legal rights on behalf of Guantanamo detainees, said this resignation is only the beginning.
"Guantanamo continues, as do torture, wiretapping, secret CIA sites, rendition, and illegal trials," the centre said in a release.
"Congress can and should do all of these things, but so far, it has been silent."
The American Civil Liberties Union said the fact that Gonzales is leaving doesn't pardon Bush's "systematic abuse of power."
"Congress must not accept Gonzales as the administration's latest sacrificial lamb. Congress must conduct more oversight and restore our Constitution, our world status and American values," said the union's Caroline Fredrickson.
Bush has lost a steady stream of top loyalists recently as his presidency winds down, incuding adviser Karl Rove earlier this month.
It would help, said Agrast, to appoint someone who served as attorney general in a previous administration and could set the chaotic department in order quickly in the year and a few months that Bush has left.
"You'd have to have somebody that's such a distinguished person the appointment by itself says it's a new day," he said.
"You'd have to be crazy to want the job. Crazy, but also a patriot."
