The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is urging senators on both sides of the aisle to insist that Attorney General-designate Alberto Gonzales commit to immediately appoint a special counsel to investigate and prosecute any criminal acts in the torture and abuse of detainees held by the U.S. government.
According to the ACLU, senators should hold up his confirmation until he makes such a commitment in order to ensure that those complicit in criminal abuse and torture – as documented in thousands of files recently handed over to the ACLU and other human rights groups in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit – are held accountable.
“In America, no one is above the law, even those at the highest level of government,” said Christopher E. Anders, legislative counsel for the group.
“Senators should demand now that Gonzales show the American people that he is beholden not to the political sways of the White House, but to the interests of truth and justice, by committing to the immediate appointment of an outside special counsel to investigate any and all criminal conduct by civilians in the use of torture and abuse against prisoners,” he said.
Gonzales’ nomination – which was narrowly approved in a 10-8 party-line vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee last week – is expected be voted on by the full Senate this week. With a 55-vote majority in the upper chamber, Republicans – none of whom have come out against him – can ensure his confirmation.
But his responses to oral and written questions submitted by members of the Judiciary Committee, as well as mounting details of the systematic abuse of detainees in U.S. custody disclosed by the ACLU’s lawsuit, have clearly weakened enthusiasm for Gonzales’ nomination, even among some Republicans.
In an unprecedented action, two major U.S.-based human rights groups, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Human Rights First (HRF), announced their opposition to Gonzales’ confirmation for the same reasons. The two groups had never before opposed a cabinet level nominee.
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) – a coalition of more than 180 national civil rights groups – also announced its opposition to the nomination in a statement last week.
“LCCR cannot ignore Mr. Gonzales’ questionable commitment to the rule of law, his refusal to answer key questions, and his failure during the confirmation process to clearly explain his positions on critical civil and human rights issues,” said Wade Henderson, LCCR’s executive director.
As White House Counsel, Gonzales was at the center of the Bush administration’s internal deliberations about whether – and to what extent – the U.S. would comply with the Geneva Conventions, the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT), and domestic legislation banning torture and inhumane treatment.
He signed or approved memos that, among other things, declared the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war “obsolete” or “quaint”; that redefined torture so narrowly that most of the abuses that have come to light from Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere would not be covered; and that asserted that the president as commander-in-chief was permitted to ignore international and domestic law, and even the U.S. Constitution.
When senators tried to explore how these positions evolved and whether he still held them during his confirmation hearing, Gonzales provided virtually no new information.
At the same time, the White House has ignored appeals by senators and rights groups to release other internal documents that would provide greater insight into how and why the administration reached its conclusions, and whether they were then applied in the field. It has also refused to appoint an independent commission to look into the abuses, as the American Bar Association and other groups have demanded.
The administration claims that the abuses that took place are being investigated by the military and were perpetrated by low-ranking personnel – some of whom have been prosecuted or discharged – acting on their own and without the authority or knowledge of high-ranking Pentagon or other administration officials.
But critics argue that the similarity in the kinds of abuse committed in different geographical areas – from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Iraq – over a two-year period constitutes a pattern that points to authorization – in some cases, of specific techniques – by senior officials.
“A small number of enlisted men and women in the military and a few low-ranking military officers should not be the only individuals held responsible for the torture and abuse that repulsed all Americans, if civilians were also engaged in criminal conduct,” said Anders. “The American people deserve to know the truth and justice must be served.”
(OneWorld)
