01:00 AM EDT on Friday, April 8, 2005
Providence Journal
In recent months, Bush-administration critics have lodged disturbing accusations against U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales for his alleged role in authorizing torture in the war on terror.
For example: On Jan. 25, 2002, Mr. Gonzales (then White House counsel) dismissed parts of the Geneva Conventions as "quaint" in advising President Bush that the document did not apply to detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. And on Aug. 1, 2002, Mr. Gonzales requested a Justice Department memo to approve such practices as "water boarding" (simulated drowning) and "open-handed slapping of suspects" as acceptable prisoner treatment.
A long list of similar memos skirting the spirit of both domestic and international law -- documented by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups -- has led such critics as the president of the Alliance for Justice, Nan Aron, to conclude that "Alberto Gonzales was the chief engineer behind the Bush administration's policy justifying the abusive treatment of prisoners of war."
The attorney general may prefer to dismiss such statements as outlandish, while asserting his qualifications with a series of platitudes about the importance of upholding the law and a promise that torture "will not be tolerated by this administration" (as he told the Senate during his recent confirmation hearing). Yet concerns about Mr. Gonzales's role are hard to avoid when he answers tough specific questions with such lawyerspeak as "I don't recall specifically" (again, as he said at his confirmation hearing).
Given the situation, and politics being what it is, Mr. Gonzales's coyness is to be expected. Yet it does not help us get to the bottom of a black mark on the American war on terror: the extensive evidence that the United States, while casting itself as the defender of human rights, has engaged in disturbing treatment of detainees. (One wonders how, exactly, soaking a prisoner's hand in alcohol and setting it afire, putting lit cigarettes in a prisoner's ear, or force-feeding a prisoner with a baseball makes the world safer for democracy.)
Figuring out who did what and who bears responsibility in the torture scandal is crucial, for a simple reason: We cannot be a credible international force for human rights and democracy if we cannot hold ourselves accountable for potential human-rights violations.
We can't say for sure whether Alberto Gonzales bears responsibility for the torture scandal. What we can say is that to find out requires appointing an outside special counsel to investigate. Asking the Gonzales-headed Justice Department to investigate would not provide a satisfactory answer; if the attorney general and other administration figures were absolved of responsibility, few critics would believe it. Mr. Gonzales and his associates are too close to approach the scandal objectively -- or even to appear objective.
-- Lee Drutman
http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/projo_20050408_08lee.1ba6381.html
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