Gonzales Secretly Authorized CIA Torture

[WillyT]

<snip>

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.

But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on “combined effects” over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion’s overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be “ashamed” when the world eventually learned of it.

Later that year, as Congress moved toward outlawing “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret opinion, one most lawmakers did not know existed, current and former officials said. The Justice Department document declared that none of the C.I.A. interrogation methods violated that standard.

The classified opinions, never previously disclosed, are a hidden legacy of President Bush’s second term and Mr. Gonzales’s tenure at the Justice Department, where he moved quickly to align it with the White House after a 2004 rebellion by staff lawyers that had thrown policies on surveillance and detention into turmoil.

<snip>

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/washington/04interrogate.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Time to finish the job of investigating this little prick, eh... Democrats???

:shrug:

[PDJane]

1. I'm still for sending the whole lot to the World Court.

[tekisui]

3. To the ICC, the whole lot!!!

[Maat]

2. No one will ever convince me the torture idea didn't come from Cheney.

Gonzales just approved of what Cheney wanted, in my humble opinion (his NeoCon bullying and creating terror everywhere).

[EFerrari]

8. I agree. Cheney went to work on Yu and Torquemada

and they found a way to make it happen.

[Maat]

9. He did (n/t).

[BurtWorm]

4. Associates at DOJ said Gonzales rarely resisted pressure from Cheney and Addington

...

When he stepped down as attorney general in September after widespread criticism of the firing of federal prosecutors and withering attacks on his credibility, Mr. Gonzales talked proudly in a farewell speech of how his department was “a place of inspiration” that had balanced the necessary flexibility to conduct the war on terrorism with the need to uphold the law.

Associates at the Justice Department said Mr. Gonzales seldom resisted pressure from Vice President Dick Cheney and David S. Addington, Mr. Cheney’s counsel, to endorse policies that they saw as effective in safeguarding Americans, even though the practices brought the condemnation of other governments, human rights groups and Democrats in Congress. Critics say Mr. Gonzales turned his agency into an arm of the Bush White House, undermining the department’s independence.

The interrogation opinions were signed by Steven G. Bradbury, who since 2005 has headed the elite Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department. He has become a frequent public defender of the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program and detention policies at Congressional hearings and press briefings, a role that some legal scholars say is at odds with the office’s tradition of avoiding political advocacy.

Mr. Bradbury defended the work of his office as the government’s most authoritative interpreter of the law. “In my experience, the White House has not told me how an opinion should come out,” he said in an interview. “The White House has accepted and respected our opinions, even when they didn’t like the advice being given.”

The debate over how terrorism suspects should be held and questioned began shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when the Bush administration adopted secret detention and coercive interrogation, both practices the United States had previously denounced when used by other countries. It adopted the new measures without public debate or Congressional vote, choosing to rely instead on the confidential legal advice of a handful of appointees.

The policies set off bruising internal battles, pitting administration moderates against hard-liners, military lawyers against Pentagon chiefs and, most surprising, a handful of conservative lawyers at the Justice Department against the White House in the stunning mutiny of 2004. But under Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Bradbury, the Justice Department was wrenched back into line with the White House.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/washington/04interrogate.html?_r=2&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

12. He set his conscience and morals aside to serve those who would advantage him.

I swear, it IS a cult thing. If Cheney told him he had to drink poison to save his career, he would do it.

[BurtWorm]

5. kick

[WillyT]

6. And Once Again... Props For James Comey !!!

Mr. Comey strongly objected and told associates that he advised Mr. Gonzales not to endorse the opinion. But the attorney general made clear that the White House was adamant about it, and that he would do nothing to resist.

Under Mr. Ashcroft, Mr. Comey’s opposition might have killed the opinion. An imposing former prosecutor and self-described conservative who stands 6-foot-8, he was the rare administration official who was willing to confront Mr. Addington. At one testy 2004 White House meeting, when Mr. Comey stated that “no lawyer” would endorse Mr. Yoo’s justification for the N.S.A. program, Mr. Addington demurred, saying he was a lawyer and found it convincing. Mr. Comey shot back: “No good lawyer,” according to someone present.

:rofl:

Mr. Comey... :yourock:

[WillyT]

7. Kick !!!

:kick:

[Solly Mack]

10. kick

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

11. Yah! SO!!! How does it feel to be a citizen of a country that engages in torture and runs,...

,...secret gulags all over the world and denies human beings the most basic of human rights?

The RW brain-dead "patriots" would respond, "we're not as bad as (fill in blank)" and "we are talking about terrorists who want to kill you and me".

It's pitiful, really. Just pitiful.

[Solly Mack]

13. kick