A MESSAGE FROM THE GOOD FOLK AT MOVEON.ORG

We hate to start the New Year with bad news, but on Thursday, January 6th, the Senate will consider Alberto Gonzales' nomination to become Attorney General, replacing John Ashcroft. Gonzales is the White House counsel notorious for opening the door to torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay prisons. Senators should view the Gonzales nomination very skeptically, given this radical history. As part of the upcoming hearings, we're calling on Senators to ask Gonzales to unequivocally renounce torture as an instrument of American policy. You can ask Gonzales and Senators to prohibit torture by clicking here:
http://www.moveon.org/gonzales/

We're working with a strong coalition -- including Amnesty International, FaithfulAmerica, TrueMajority, and Win Without War -- to ask Gonzales to sign our Declaration Against Torture. Gonzales should renounce his extreme and dangerous position, and reaffirm American respect for human dignity and the rule of law. Gonzales' record is appalling. Prisoners of war from all nations have long been protected by the Geneva Conventions. In 2002, Gonzales wrote a memo to President Bush arguing the war on terror renders the Geneva Conventions "quaint" and "obsolete."
1] His radical legal reasoning opened the door to the terrible abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
2] Even in light of this atrocity, Gonzales has never retracted or clarified what has come to be known as the secret "Torture Memo."

For more than a century, the U.S. has opposed the torture of prisoners through the Geneva Conventions and the U.N. Convention Against Torture. American law prohibits torture, allowing no exceptions whatsoever. Gonzales' argument gives President Bush, as commander in chief, the authority to sidestep laws passed by Congress. In so doing, he replaced the traditional notion of checks and balances with a presidential power more akin to that of a king. Torture isn't just immoral and illegal -- it's a strategic mistake that makes us all less safe. Responding to Gonzales' torture memo, Secretary of State Colin Powell wrote that ignoring the Geneva Conventions will "undermine the protections of the law of war for our troops." And by inciting anti-American hatred, torture bolsters the position of extremists and boosts terrorist recruitment, making the world less secure. Torture doesn't even work to find out about attacks before they happen, since people usually give falsified information to escape the pain.

As President Bush's chief legal adviser, Gonzales crafted means of evading the founding principle that the U.S. is a nation of laws, not of men. His infamous "Torture Memo" paved the way to Abu Ghraib, robbing America of international respect. Together, we can demand Gonzales renounce torture if he wishes to uphold the law as Attorney General of the United States.
Sign the petition at:
http://www.moveon.org/gonzales/

P.S. Thanks for your immense generosity to victims of the tsunami disaster. MoveOn members have raised over $2.6 million for Oxfam America's work in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India. By giving, you became part of a worldwide groundswell that compelled governments to increase their giving -- resulting in a record total $2 billion pledged.

Footnotes:
1] Former Military Leaders Oppose Gonzales Nomination, Bloomberg News, January 3, 2005
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=632

2] Fresh Details Emerge on Harsh Methods at Guantanamo, New York Times, January 1, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/01/national/01gitmo.html