Gonzales Says He Backs Geneva Treaties

WASHINGTON – Attorney general nominee Alberto Gonzales plans to promise senators today that he would abide by treaties prohibiting torture of prisoners, despite deriding the restraints as outdated relics two years ago.In prepared testimony obtained by the Associated Press yesterday, Mr. Gonzales tells the Senate Judiciary Committee he will abide by all American treaty obligations if he confirmed.Mr. Gonzales, who would be the first Hispanic attorney general, had a hand in much of the White House’s post-September 11 terrorism policies as President Bush’s top lawyer. He faces criticism from Democrats at yesterday’s confirmation hearing, especially concerning a January 2002 memo he wrote arguing that the war on terrorism “renders obsolete” the Geneva Conventions’ strict prohibitions against torture.A month later, Mr. Bush signed an order declaring he had the authority to bypass the accords “in this or future conflicts.” Mr. Bush’s order also said the Geneva treaty’s references to prisoners of war did not apply to Al Qaeda or “unlawful combatants” from the Taliban.Some Gonzales critics say that decision and his memo justifying it helped lead to the torture scandal at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and prisoner abuses in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.Mr. Bush has made clear that the government will defend Americans from terrorists “in a manner consistent with our nation’s values and applicable law, including our treaty obligations,” Mr. Gonzales said in testimony prepared for his confirmation hearing. “I pledge that, if I am confirmed as attorney general, I will abide by those commitments.”Last June, the Justice Department withdrew its 2002 memos arguing that the president’s wartime authority supersedes laws and treaties governing treatment of prisoners.Mr. Gonzales has repudiated torture before. “The president has stated that this administration does not condone torture. If anyone engages in such conduct, he or she will be held accountable,” Mr. Gonzales said in a White House online event on July 7.Democrats aren’t satisfied with just those statements and say they plan to question Mr. Gonzales extensively about his paper trail in crafting the government’s policies on questioning foreign prisoners.“It is clear he was in the chain receiving this critical documentation relative to changing American standards on the treatment of prisoners, so he was not a bystander, he was part of it,” said Senator Durbin, a Democrat of Illinois.Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Bush firmly backs Mr. Gonzales’s nomination.“Judge Gonzales is a very trusted adviser to the president (and is) doing an outstanding job,” Mr. McClellan told reporters traveling yesterday with the president aboard Air Force One.Even Democrats say they expect Mr. Gonzales to be confirmed. Republicans control a Senate split between 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats, and one independent.“I have found him someone I could work with when he wasn’t simply pursuing an agenda that was thrust upon him,” said Senator Schumer, a Democrat of New York.Senator Salazar of Colorado, one of the first Hispanics elected to the Senate in more than 20 years and one of only two newly elected Democrats in November, plans to join Senator Cornyn, a Republican of Texas, in introducing Mr. Gonzales at yesterday’s hearing. Mr. Salazar has said he intends to vote for Mr. Gonzales.Civil rights and humanitarian groups have waged a campaign portraying Mr. Gonzales as the person responsible for abuses by Americans against terrorism suspects held as prisoners.“Mr. Gonzales bears much of the responsibility for creating the legal framework and permissive atmosphere that led to the torture and abuse at Guantanamo and elsewhere,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.Mr. Gonzales’s January 25, 2002, memo to Mr. Bush argued that the war on terrorism “renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.”In his prepared Senate testimony, he repeats the argument that terrorists are not soldiers, so are not covered by the Geneva treaty. Nonetheless, he says in his written testimony, “we must be committed to preserving civil rights and civil liberties.”

Gonzales Says He Backs Geneva Treaties

Gonzales Says He Backs Geneva Treaties

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