Thursday, November 11, 2004

Gonzales from Enron to the "Quaint" Geneva Convention

Alberto Gonzales, Mr Bush’s White House legal counsel and longtime confidant, is to take over from John Ashcroft who resigned on Tuesday.
...In one memo to Mr Bush, Mr Gonzales said the realities of the War on Terror superceded the “quaint” demands of the Geneva Convention. Republicans hold an effective 55-45 majority in the Senate and Mr Gonzales’s eventual appointment is not necessarily in doubt. But he faces a grilling as tough as the four-day showdown Mr Ashcroft suffered at the hands of senators before he was approved four years ago.
Most at issue is a January 2002 memo written by Mr Gonzales to Mr Bush in which he argued that Mr Bush could waive the protections of anti-torture laws and international treaties when it came to Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters.In one memo to Mr Bush, Mr Gonzales said the realities of the War on Terror superceded the “quaint” demands of the Geneva Convention. Republicans hold an effective 55-45 majority in the Senate and Mr Gonzales’s eventual appointment is not necessarily in doubt. But he faces a grilling as tough as the four-day showdown Mr Ashcroft suffered at the hands of senators before he was approved four years ago.
Most at issue is a January 2002 memo written by Mr Gonzales to Mr Bush in which he argued that Mr Bush could waive the protections of anti-torture laws and international treaties when it came to Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters.

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