[NYTr] Alberto Gonzales and the Coup Against Democracy

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Information Clearing House - Aug 3, 2007
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18117.htm


Alberto Gonzales and Coup Against Democracy

By Ramzy Baroud

The name of Alberto Gonzales is rapidly becoming synonymous with all
that has gone wrong under the Bush administration. Repeated media
discussions of the US Secretary of State in the most contentious tones
have served to lay the blame for all the ailments that infected
American democracy under Bush squarely on one man's shoulders.

President Bush himself, Gonzales' loyal boss, friend and the hand
behind all the stunts and tricks that Gonzales so indefatigably
performed to defend and justify the unjustifiable, remains immune to
any meaningful criticism.

Bush is well known for his habit of awarding sensitive posts to old
friends, as if the prime objective of the president of the United
States is to protect the administration's secrets and rubber stamp
whatever compulsive policies he and his self-serving neoconservative
associates concoct. Although appointed to the post in February 2005,
Gonzales has been a member of Bush's team for years; he served as
Bush's General Counsel from 1994 to 1997, when the president was
governor of Texas. Then, he served as Secretary of State for Texas for
two years, before going on to join the state's Supreme Court. Finally
he worked with Bush again for five consecutive years as White House
Counsel. Considering the president's reputation of favouritism and
staunch loyalty to those faithful to him, Gonzales' ascension to the
80th Attorney General of the United States, replacing John Ashcroft,
only seemed a natural progression.

True, Bush's loyalty cannot be contested; however, it is really the
only attitude that can be expected of him towards individuals with too
much knowledge of sensitive matters that he wouldn't desire to become
public. Gonzales' successful, albeit illegal, efforts to help Governor
Bush be excused from jury duty in 1996 (made possible by the convenient
overlooking of the 1976 misdemeanour drunk driving case) is merely the
tip of the iceberg. While the latter was exposed during the 2000
presidential campaign, there are many facts which can easily be deduced
to fall in the realm of 'known unknowns', to borrow a favourite term of
former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

While the Bush administration had innumerable spin doctors, Gonzales
was the man who knew the law well and thus knew how to manipulate it
well. He played a major role in abusing the same laws that he once
vowed to safeguard; the total politicization of the Justice Department
and the dismissal of the eight attorneys who had the courage to
question the constitutionality of the administration's conduct in
December 2006.

Perhaps Gonzales' unwarranted acts have generated a lot more attention
in the last a few months as both Democrats and Republicans are in need
of a punching bag, where Bush and Cheney have proved untouchable.
Another reason could be that Gonzales' past legal concoctions were
justified as part of the administration's 'war on terror': so what if
Gonzales had to circumvent national and international law - repeatedly
and unabashedly - to 'save American lives'?

And circumvent the law Gonzales most certainly did. Starting with the
drafting of Executive Order 13233 in November 1, 2001, which restricted
the Freedom of Information Act, and thus access to records of former
presidents - to his arguments that effectively cancelled Article III of
the Geneva Convention, denying suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban militants
held in Camp X-Ray the right to be treated as combatants - to his
re-interpretation of the principles of the Geneva Convention that made
possible the case for the torture and humiliation of Iraqis and others.
Gonzales' role in the Bush administration's war on democracy at home,
and his imperial war abroad, is unquestionable.

Gonzales is still around precisely because of this role, not inspite of
it.

Gonzales' July 24 appearance before the Senate's Judiciary Committee
was a disgrace by any standards. Even Republican members of the
committee rightly doubted the man's integrity, and the testimony made
by a Gonzales subordinate, FBI Director Robert Mueller, contradicted
his boss' own accounts. Members of both parties are now up in arms;
Republicans fear that Gonzales' sinking reputation will harm their
political positions further, and Democrats, not daring to take on the
President himself, are instead confronting a man who was merely
responsible for providing the legal wrapping for the administration's
illegal acts.

Tom Raum, an analyst with the Associated Press, reasoned that Bush
continues to stand by discredited Gonzales because his advisors "are
mindful of the fact that it could be next to impossible to win Senate
confirmation this late in his term for any possible replacement."
Indeed, the department's No. 2, Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty
has just resigned; his decision is attributed to his role in the
dismissal of the dissenting attorneys; another, William Mercer,
withdrew his nomination for the department's third-highest job in June,
knowing fully that his nomination would be rejected by the Senate,
according to the New York Times' Philip Shenon and Jim Rutenberg. They
quote Rich Galen, a GOP consultant: "There is a body of thought among
Republicans that gives Gonzales great credit for drawing fire and
putting up with it so the others in the Bush Cabinet can do their jobs.
Because, if Gonzales is gone, they (Democrats) will just look for a new
guy to go after."

Whether or not Democrats find their "new guy", the horrific violations
of international human rights and of the US constitution will continue
unabated, further ravaging the standing of the oldest Republic, and
turning into shreds a democratic system that was once a torch of hope
to aspiring democracies everywhere.

[Ramzy Baroud is a Palestinian-American author and editor of
www.PalestineChronicle.com  . His work has been published in numerous
newspapers and journals worldwide, including the Washington Post, Al
Ahram Weekly, Le Monde Diplomatique and Japan Times. His latest book is
The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle
(Pluto Press, London). Read more about him on his website:
www.ramzybaroud.net ]