Alberto Gonzales is arguably our worst attorney general. It is true that he has misled Congress, the courts, and the public, but there is too much attention being paid to political questions such as: Who put together that list of U.S. attorneys to be fired? Was it Gonzales, his chief of staff, or did Karl Rove say something about a U.S. attorney to anyone else in the administration at some point?
Instead, members of Congress investigating Gonzales should focus on these misleading policy statements:
1. Gonzales on Bush’s order creating military tribunals: “The order preserves judicial review in civilian courts.”
This is what the order says: Individuals who are designated “enemy combatants” by President Bush “shall not be privileged to seek any remedy or maintain any proceeding, directly or indirectly, or to have any such remedy or proceeding sought on the individual’s behalf, in (i) any court of the United States, or any State thereof, (ii) any court of any foreign nation, or (iii) any international tribubal.” (Section 7(b)(2) of Bush Military Order, November 13, 2001; emphasis added). This order “preserves” judicial review?
2. In February 2002, President Bush pledged that prisoners in the war on terror would be treated humanely. As White House counsel, Gonzales presumably helped the president with this pledge. When newspaper reports of mistreatment began to appear, members of Congress pressed Gonzales about administration policy. Gonzales then admitted that the administration’s humane policy order did not bind CIA personnel involved in prisoner interrogations. A minor oversight?
3. “National Security Letters” direct recipients to hand certain specified items over to the FBI agents who serve the Letters. When constitutional questions were raised about these Letters, Gonzales argued that citizens would just know that they really didn’t have to comply with the Letter and that they could consult with an attorney and challenge it in court — nothwithstanding the letter’s warning not to discuss the matter with any person.
It is common sense to do the opposite of what FBI agents demand? That’s a curious statement from an Attorney General.
Of course, we should also be alarmed by Gonzales’s straightforward statements of policy:
1. In legal briefs in the Padilla case, this administration argued that Americans can be whisked away to military prison on the say-so of the president.
2. The habeas corpus provision in the Constitution does not guarantee anything.
