[Peace] WP on Gonzales

[C. G. Estabrook]

[It may be worthwhile to call our senators today and demand a vote against
Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General.  As (even) the Washington Post
editorial below makes clear, a rejection of Gonzales would be a
condemnation of the US torture policy -- and enough senators are nervous
about the matter that it looks possible. (The vote will be another test of
Obama's shaky "progressivism.") You can contact our senators as follows:
Durbin -- phone 202.224.2152, fax 202.228.0400, email
<http://durbin.senate.gov/sitepages/contact.htm>; Obama -- phone
202.224.2854, fax 202.228.5417, email <http://obama.senate.gov/contact/>.]

A Degrading Policy

ALBERTO R. GONZALES was vague, unresponsive and misleading in his
testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the Bush
administration's detention of foreign prisoners. In his written answers to
questions from the committee, prepared in anticipation of today's vote on
his nomination as attorney general, Mr. Gonzales was clearer --
disturbingly so, as it turns out. According to President Bush's closest
legal adviser, this administration continues to assert its right to
indefinitely hold foreigners in secret locations without any legal
process; to deny them access to the International Red Cross; to transport
them to countries where torture is practiced; and to subject them to
treatment that is "cruel, inhumane or degrading," even though such abuse
is banned by an international treaty that the United States has ratified.
In effect, Mr. Gonzales has confirmed that the Bush administration is
violating human rights as a matter of policy.

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