| christian grantham | |||
| Christian Grantham was a student activist in the late 90s and later was a consultant to domestic policy forums for the Clinton Administration as well as events for HRC and GLAAD. | |||
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latest posts
January 05, 2005
I can't find a single quote from any Bush Administration officials who praised the now notorious interrogation techniques used at Abu Gharib, yet those very techniques fit perfectly within the guidelines that Alberto R. Gonzales helped approve.
The Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and President of the United States George Bush all found the interrogation techniques at Abu Gharib degrading and dishonorable. Yet President Bush based a February 7, 2002 Executive Order allowing such techniques on a memo from Gonzales dated January 25, 2002 that said the war on terrorism "renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners." Is this the kind of man we want running the United States Department of Justice?
White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales chaired the meetings on this issue, which included detailed descriptions of interrogation techniques such as "waterboarding," a tactic intended to make detainees feel as if they are drowning. He raised no objections and, without consulting military and State Department experts in the laws of torture and war, approved an August 2002 memo that gave CIA interrogators the legal blessings they sought.Gonzales, working closely with a small group of conservative legal officials at the White House, the Justice Department and the Defense Department -- and overseeing deliberations that generally excluded potential dissenters -- helped chart other legal paths in the handling and imprisonment of suspected terrorists and the applicability of international conventions to U.S. military and law enforcement activities.
[Gonzales Helped Set the Course for Detainees - Washington Post - 01-05-05]
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