Doonesbury this week

Anyone who has read this blog knows that I love my Doonesbury. In particular I'm enjoying this week's story arc regarding the choice of Alberto Gonzales to replace John Ashcroft as U.S. Attorney General.

According to Human Rights Watch
As White House counsel, Gonzales is known to have done the following:

* He drafted the original military commission order signed by President Bush on November 14, 2001, which would have allowed suspects apprehended in the global campaign against terrorism to be secretly charged, tried, and even executed without the most basic due process protections. This week a federal court halted military commissions because they violate the Geneva Conventions and fair-trial standards.

* He provided the legal basis for President Bush’s decision on February 7, 2002, claiming that, as the president, he has the constitutional authority to deny protections of the Geneva Conventions to persons picked up during the war in Afghanistan. In his January 25, 2002 memorandum, Gonzales argued that the Geneva Conventions protections—including its “strict limitations on questioning enemy prisoners”—were rendered “obsolete” and “quaint” by the war on terror. Gonzales ignored the warnings of senior military officers that his position on the Geneva Conventions would undermine respect for law in the U.S. military.

* He solicited the August 2002 torture memo from the Justice Department, which contended that the President has “commander-in-chief authority” to order torture and proposed potential legal defense for U.S. officials accused of torture. Gonzales has never publicly revealed his views about the memo.

U.S.: Attorney General Nominee Undermined Rights

This week regular cast member and CIA intern Jeff Redfern is off to Torture school to learn the intricacies of the modern warfare techniques of negotiation and diplomacy. The story arc starts here on Monday and continues through to Saturday. Today's strip in particular caused me to post this.