Last week the Bush administration was publicly rebuked by Richard Lugar for a reported U.S. plan to keep some suspected terrorists imprisoned for a lifetime even if the government lacks evidence to charge them.
Lugar said, “It’s a bad idea. So we ought to get over it and we ought to have a very careful, constitutional look at this."
But why should anyone be surprised by this, coming from this administration?
This is the administration that puts Alberto Gonzales up for appointment to Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales has shown his disdain for the rule of law with a memo he drafted concerning the torture of "enemy combatants."
His memo states, "The war against terrorism is a new kind of war…. The nature of the new war places a high premium on other factors, such as the ability to quickly obtain information from captured terrorists and their sponsors…. In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners." (Read the entire memo here)
So if the administration condones the use of torture, why are the Abu Ghraib guards on trial? These soldiers were merely executing the directives set forth by the Gonzales memo. They used the means they deemed necessary to extract information from their prisoners as the Gonzales memo clearly advocates.
These methods were clearly okayed by higher ups in the administration as recent FBI memos have corroborated that the use of torture techniques were being implemented at Guantanamo for some time.
"FBI agents also reported seeing detainees at Abu Ghraib subjected to sleep deprivation, humiliation and forced nudity between October and December 2003."—CNN
Senator Arlen Specter asked Gonzales today at his confirmation, “Do you approve of torture?”
Mr. Gonzales replied. “Absolutely not, Senator.”
You did in 2002 Mr. Gonzales, when you wrote, the war on terrorism “renders obsolete [the Geneva Convention’s] strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.”
Clearly Mr. Gonzales’ statement gives tacit approval of torturing prisoners. The orders came down the chain of command and the soldiers executed them perfectly and now they are labeled "bad apples."
More than anything else this illustrates the duplicity of the Bush administration. Walk tall with a Texas swagger, kicking ass and taking names until the heat gets on, and then pass the buck onto underlings and scapegoats.
Gonzales and his cohorts went to excruciating lengths to subvert the Geneva Convention and Bush approved it. Now that Gonzales’ confirmation draws near, they come out with a new document redefining the prior memo, to provide political cover for Gonzales.
The irony in all of this is, the Bush administration has been shown beyond a shadow of a doubt as having given approval to its operatives to operate outside of the dictates of the Geneva Convention, and when enlisted personnel follow those directives they are punished. And yet the author of the policy is slated to become the head of the U.S. Department of Justice. Where’s the justice?
