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Shyster Lawyer Fronts for Bush Domestic and Imperial Adventures Comment by Larry Ross, November 25, 2004
The record of Albert Gonzales, the new US Attorney General, indicates he will help smooth the way for Bush to continue and extend his illegal war agenda. The UN Charter, International law, the Nuremberg Conventions, the American Constitution, and prohibitions on the use of torture, are now extensively violated in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars with the approval of Albert Gonzales. While displaying a phoney patriotic fervour, religious piety, and ersatz morality, Bush is likely to proceed with his crusade of slaughter and conquest under the guise of "introducing freedom and democracy" in the Middle East. With the Gonzales appointment, Bush has taken a big step toward remaking America in his own image. In Iraq it's very much like how the Spanish Inquisition introduced Christianity to those they decided were unbelievers. They were tortured to force confessions, then burned alive in order to save their souls. Like Iraqis, bombed to death and maiming, in order to see the benefits and freedoms of American Democracy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why The
USA Must Reject Bush's Evil "Marquis de Sade" Nominee For Attorney General:
Alberto Gonzales Wrote by Evan Augustine Peterson III, J.D., November 22, 2004
"There are a thousand
hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."
-Henry David Thoreau,
Walden (1854)
There was a bipartisan consensus on last
Sunday's televised political talk-shows that the US Senate will confirm,
with relative ease, Mr. Bush's appointment of Alberto R. Gonzales as the
next Attorney General ("AG"). However, if our Senators retain any
respect for universal human rights and the rule of constitutional and
international law, they will vigorously oppose Mr. Gonzales' appointment
as our new AG. [1] [2] Furthermore, it's imperative that our Senators,
both left and right, defeat this unwise appointment for the following
five reasons.
1. Mr. Gonzales Knew, Or Should Have Known,
That He Was Dispensing Disastrously False Legal Advice. While functioning
as Mr. Bush's White House Counsel, Mr. Gonzales wrote his infamous "torture
memo" in August of 2002, entitled "Standards Of conduct For Interrogations
Under 18 U.S.C. 2340-2340A." In that legally-meritless 50-page opinion,
Mr. Gonzales: (A) falsely argued that the US government's interrogators
would be legally justified in torturing -- even unto death -- war prisoners
who were captured in the USA's so-called "war on terror"; and (B) falsely
advised President Bush that his subfunction as commander-in-chief somehow
magically empowered him with the authority to (i) override the US Constitution
and the federal War Crimes Act, (ii) ignore the Geneva Conventions and
the United Nations Convention On Torture, (iii) flout international human-rights
law, and (iv) therefore authorize those acts of torture. "Taking
his cue from the Nazis' 'führer principle,' Gonzales posits that Bush,
by virtue of his 'commander-in-chief authority,' can authorize torture.
But American law doesn't include any such concept." [3]
2. Mr. Gonzales Has Been Egregiously Complicit
In War Crimes. The entire world knows that Mr. Gonzales' 2002 legal memorandum
paved the way for the perpetration of heinous war crimes, like the illegal
torture of war prisoners inside the US military prisons in Guantanamo
Bay, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Even worse, the Pentagon now admits
that there have been 127 recent homicides of war prisoners, of whom at
least 40 were tortured to death. [4] And according to the highly-respected
International Committee of the Red Cross, almost all of the Iraqi prisoners
who managed to survive their torture inside Abu Ghraib prison were released
because they proved to be innocent civilian noncombatants. [5] Hence,
it's certainly possible that Mr. Gonzales could be indicted for his complicity
in war crimes under Nüremberg Principle VII, among others. [6] [7]
3. Mr. Gonzales Has An Ominous History
Of Unethical Practice. Americans should consider themselves to have been
doubly forewarned by Mr. Gonzales' record as both a lawyer and a jurist
in Texas. Before he became Mr. Bush's White House Counsel, Mr. Gonzales:
(A) represented CEO Ken Lay's fraudulent-predator corporation, Enron;
and (B) then earned a reputation from the bench for unsound legal rulings
which contravened the rule of law and underscored his lack of common sense,
as well as for sleazy acts of corruption which violated legal ethics and
basic morality. [8]
4. Consenting To His Appointment Would
Discredit The US Senate. If the Senate foolishly rubber-stamps Mr.
Gonzales' appointment as AG, the Senators then will have proven that they're
so ethically irresponsible as to be undeserving of re-election. Moreover,
they will have heaped insult upon injury by sending this morally-depraved
message to the world: "The United States Senate not only has condoned
Mr. Gonzales' outrageously-unjust 'torture memo' misconduct, but also
has chosen to reward it by elevating this monstrous shyster into the nation's
top law-enforcement position!"
5. We Must Avoid Unnecessarily Exacerbating
Global Tensions And Fears. Of course, the Senate's craven capitulation
to an utterly-indefensible appointment would further alienate the international
community and inflame Islamic anti-Americanism. Finally, Mr. Bush's
successful appointment of Mr. Gonzales would buttress a widely-held dystopic
theory about the USA, the main thesis of which is: (A) that Americans
are collectively suffering from a 9/11-induced mass psychosis; (B) which
caused them to re-elect their thinly-veiled neofascist dictator, "Reichsführer
Bush"; and (C) whose regime has been incrementally luring them down the
antidemocratic rabbit-hole, from whence the USA will emerge as the world's
most dangerous rogue state -- the "American Fourth Reich." [9]
Overarching Conclusions: Don't be fooled
by the fact that Mr. Gonzales neither has a wicked scar under one monocle-bedecked
eye, nor foams at the mouth psychotically, nor clicks his boot-heels fascistically.
Thus far, he's slipped under the vetting radar-screen only because he
embodies the banality of evil. Nevertheless, it's all-too-clear
that he's unfit to become our nation's top law-enforcement officer because:
(1) he's really nothing more than Mr. Bush's bumbling personal consiglieré,
which is to state that he's a toadying yes-man; and (2) his professional
history is that of a pettifogging shyster who obviously lacks the requisite
intellectual integrity, law-abiding temperament, and ethical judgment.
Hence, he must be rejected, as in: "Fool me once, shame on Messrs. Gonzales
and Bush; fool me twice, shame on every Senator and the entire USA!"
The Bottom Line: Mr. Bush is somewhat analogous
to Michael Corleone -- the potentially-honest son who allowed himself
to become a bloodthirsty Mafia godfather in Mario Puzo's crime-family
novels -- because he's attempting to consolidate his stranglehold upon
American justice by elevating his loyal-but-sadistic scofflaw consiglieré
into the AG's office, instead of appointing an honest attorney who has
a history of upholding the rule of law; therefore, it is the duty of every
American to insist that our US Senators vigorously oppose Alberto R. Gonzales
until they've prevented this disgustingly-evil, Marquis-de-Sade-like man
from eclipsing John Ashcroft as an even worse AG! [10]
ENDNOTES
[1] Read "The Universal Declaration of
Human Rights" now, at:
[2] Read "Principles Of The Nüremberg Tribunal,
1950" -- and please pay special attention to Nüremberg Principle VII,
which addresses complicity in war crimes -- at:
[3] Read Ted Rall's 11-18-04 CD essay,
"Monster Of A Lawyer: Nominee For Attorney General Even Worse than Ashcroft,"
at:
[4] Read Michael Ratner's 11-18-04 CD essay,
"The Road To Abu Ghraib: Paved With The Legal Opinion Of Alberto R. Gonzales,"
at:
[5] Read Evan Augustine Peterson III's
8-10-04 Eklektikos essay, "The American Torture Doctors," at: http://www.geocities.com/thechristiandigest/19.html
[6] Read Grant McCool's 1-28-03 GPF article,
"US Lawyers Warn Bush On War Crimes," at:
[7] Read Colin Hallinan's 11-4-04 GPF/FPIF
article, "J'accuse: War Crimes & Iraq," at:
[8] Watch Mark Fiore's insightful 11-17-04
animation about Alberto Gonzales, " Attorney Extraordinare," at:
http://www.markfiore.com/animation/alberto.html
[9] For one example of the innumerable
essays about America's swift descent into a neofascist dystopia, see the
8-10-04 TTS essay, "FEMA and Rex 84 Program," which contends through illustrative
photos that the Bushites have prepared concentration camps across the
USA for their coming purge of America's antifascist dissenters, at:
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=2344
[10] Finally, consider this retrospective admonition by Lutheran pastor Dr. Martin Niemöller, a pacifist who survived incarceration in a Nazi concentration camp from 1937 through 1945, and upon his release was responsible for drafting the "Declaration of Guilt" by the German Churches for not opposing Hitler more strenuously:
"In Germany, first they
came for the Communists;
I wasn't Communist, so I
didn't speak up.
Then they came for the Trade
Unionists;
I wasn't a Trade Unionist,
so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the Jews;
but I was a Christian, so
I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the Catholics;
but I was a Protestant,
so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for me;
and there was no one left
to speak up."
©2004EAPIII
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"Gonzales Added To War Crimes Complaint In Germany: CCR Says US Attorney General Designate's Testimony Before Senate Confirms His Role In Abu Ghraib Torture"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Other articles on this topic: Why The USA Must Reject Bush's Evil "Marquis de Sade" Nominee For Attorney General: Alberto Gonzales Wrote "Torture Memo" That Laid Groundwork For Abu Ghraib November 25, 2004 WAR CRIMINAL FOR US ATTORNEY-GENERAL? January 6, 2005 Action Alert: The Gonzales Appointment As Our Next Attorney General January 7, 2005 Converting America to Fascism January 11, 2005 A Global Gulag to Hide the War on Terror's Dirty Secrets January 14, 2005 Shredding The Law Ushers in US Fascism January 16, 2005 Action Alert: Call Today To Stop Gonzales For Attorney General! January 26, 2005 Last Action Alert: The Full Senate Will Debate, And Then Vote On, Alberto January 31, 2005 Life under the Bombs in Iraq February 3, 2005
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Did Anyone Oppose Alberto Gonzales' Confirmation As Attorney General? |
by
Evan Augustine Peterson III, J.D.
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February 4, 2005
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...At the end of the day, six turncoat Democrats did vote WITH the Republicans to confirm Mr. Gonzales (see their infamous names in Appendix B below ). However, 35 Democrats and one Independent voted AGAINST this terrible appointment (see Appendix A below). Perhaps the worst act of betrayal came when Democrat-in-name-only Joseph Lieberman (CT) chose to quote a Biblical passage about doing justice, but then perversely ignored Mr. Gonzales' recent complicity in grave injustices, while advocating his confirmation. |
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