WASHINGTON – Attorney general-nominee Alberto Gonzales, under scorching criticism from senators, condemned torture as an interrogation tactic Thursday and promised to prosecute abusers of terror suspects. He also disclosed the White House was looking at trying to change the Geneva Convention that protects prisoner rights.
Pressed by both Democratic and Republican senators at his confirmation hearing, Gonzales defended his advice as President Bush’s White House counsel that al-Qaida and other terror suspects were not entitled to the treaty’s protections. But he said there was more to the issue than that.
“Torture and abuse will not be tolerated by this administration,” Gonzales told Judiciary Committee senators. “I will ensure the Department of Justice aggressively pursues those responsible for such abhorrent actions.”
Gonzales promised that as attorney general he would abide by the 1949 Geneva treaty but also said the White House was looking at the possibility of seeking revisions.
Democrats at Gonzales’ hearing repeatedly criticized Bush administration policies on aggressive interrogation of terrorism suspects, and Republicans sometimes joined in, too.
Gonzales, as President Bush’s White House counsel, was at the center of decisions about “the legality of detention and interrogation methods that have been seen as tantamount to torture,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
Despite the criticism, Gonzales is expected to win confirmation when Congress returns after Bush’s inauguration. He would be the nation’s first Hispanic attorney general.
Democrats said it was Gonzales’ January 2002 memo as White House counsel that led to the stripping, mocking and threatening of suspects with dogs. He had argued in his memo that the war on terrorism “renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.”
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