Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Gonzales' work expanded power of the presidency

Gonzales' work expanded power of the presidency
Roberto J. González
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Printable VersionEmail This Article 
del.icio.us
 Digg
 Technorati
 Reddit   Slashdot
 Fark
 Newsvine
 Google Bookmarks  
 (0) Georgia (default)
 Verdana
 Times New Roman
 Arial
 
Main Opinion Page
Chronicle Sunday Insight
Chronicle Campaigns
SF Chronicle Submissions
Letters to the Editor
Open Forum
Sunday Insight
 
In the aftermath of Alberto Gonzales' resignation and the U.S. attorney
firings scandal, many have forgotten about the role he played in creating
policies profoundly more troubling from a global perspective - policies
that violate international law. They warrant not only Gonzales'
resignation, but an independent investigation into his involvement in war
crimes.
These policies are best exemplified by the "torture memos" Gonzales
prepared from 2001 to 2003 while serving as President Bush's legal
counsel. The documents, written by him and other administration lawyers,
led to grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and the U.N. Convention
against Torture at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and overseas secret prisons.
The most infamous memo was a Jan. 25, 2002, letter from Gonzales to Bush,
which argued that "the war against terrorism is a new kind of war ... this
new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning
of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions" regarding
treatment of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members. Days later, Bush made
it official policy.
During 2002, Gonzales chaired meetings with CIA and Pentagon advisers
regarding the limits of interrogation and torture. The meetings included
discussion of the relative merits of handcuffing, sleep deprivation,
exposure to near-freezing temperatures and "water boarding" (simulated
drowning). The advisers eventually relayed new policies down the chain of
command, paving the way for ghastly abuses at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib
and the CIA's secret prisons.
As early as January 2005, a dozen retired generals and admirals publicly
opposed Gonzales' nomination for the post of U.S. attorney general,
declaring that "U.S. detention and interrogation operations in
Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and elsewhere ... have fostered greater
animosity toward the United States, undermined our intelligence-gathering
efforts, and added to the risks facing our troops serving around the
world."
Jordan Paust, a former member of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate 
General Corps, recently wrote that "not since the Nazi era have so many
lawyers been so clearly involved in international crimes concerning the 
treatment and interrogation of persons detained during war."
Gonzales and his colleagues represent a radical fringe that has come under
extraordinary criticism from prominent conservative lawyers Bruce Fein,
Bob Barr, David Keene and Richard Viguerie, who recently founded the
American Freedom Agenda to restore "an enlightened equilibrium among the
three branches of government." The president's counselors - including
Gonzales - attempted to put into practice a controversial legal concept
known as the "unitary executive" theory, which maintains that
congressional and judicial power over the executive branch should be
strictly limited and that the president should retain complete control
over all Cabinet-level agencies.
The 9/11 terrorist attacks led to a series of events that helped to hasten
the development of the "unitary executive:" Congress passed the Use of
Force Resolution on Sept. 14 (ceding war power to the president) and the
PATRIOT Act on Oct. 26 (restricting civil liberties); and the president
issued an executive order on Nov. 16 (proclaiming a state of extraordinary
emergency, announcing rules for defining enemy combatants and forming
military commissions not subject to congressional or judicial review).
Taken together, these and subsequent changes mean that (in the words of
AFA) "since 9/11, the executive branch has chronically usurped legislative
or judicial power, and has repeatedly claimed that the president is the
law."
The attorney firings scandal should be seen within the broader context of
an executive power grab that has expanded extraordinary renditions,
created a global prison network, attacked habeas corpus rights, engaged in
warrantless surveillance, invaded and occupied Iraq without U.N. approval
and disregarded international law.
As discussion begins about Gonzales' replacement, we should bear in mind
the damage that he and other "unitary executive" theorists have done to
the reputations of the eight fired attorneys - and to many others harmed
by their reckless legalistic maneuvers. Gonzales and his colleagues must
be held accountable for their crimes.
Roberto J. González is associate professor of anthropology at San Jose
State University. He is the author of "Anthropologists in the Public
Sphere: Speaking Out on War, Peace, and American Power" (2004). E-mail him
at 
roberto_...@netzero.net
. 
-- 
questo articolo e` stato inviato via web dal servizio gratuito 
http://www.newsland.it/news
 segnala gli abusi ad 
ab...@newsland.it

  Arial
LOL
Tb
-- 
Libertà per i comunisti siriani in carcere: Fateh Jamus, 'Isam Dimashqi,
Basel Hurani, 'Abd al-Halim Rumieh, Ratib Sha'bu, and Doha 'Ashur
al-'Askari 
http://snipurl.com/1oqtm

Gonzales' work expanded power of the presidency
Roberto J. González
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
 
