Bush selects evangelical for attorney general post
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
11 November 2004
Alberto Gonzales, the White House counsel who advised that the Geneva
Conventions and international anti-torture treaties did not apply to
terrorist suspects held by the US, was yesterday selected by President
George Bush as his new attorney general.
Officials said that if confirmed by the Senate, Mr Gonzales would succeed
John Ashcroft, whose resignation from the post was announced on Tuesday. Mr
Gonzales, 49, would be the first Hispanic to hold the position.
Mr Gonzales was among several possible replacements widely discussed before
the election when it was thought Mr Ashcroft would not serve in a second
term. Mr Ashcroft actually proffered his resignation to the President in a
five-page handwritten letter on election night but Mr Bush waited until
after the weekend to accept it and decide upon a replacement.
If the right-wing, evangelical Mr Ashcroft was among the most polarising
members of the Bush cabinet, Mr Gonzales is not without considerable
controversy. He was at the centre of the effort to publicly defend the
administration's policy of holding prisoners captured in the so-called "war
on terror" without access to lawyers or the courts, a stance opposed by the
Supreme Court. He also wrote a memo in February 2002 in which the Bush
administration claimed the right to ignore international treaties
prohibiting torture of prisoners. Campaigners said that memo led directly to
the sort of abuses that were uncovered at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and which have
been alleged at Guantanamo Bay.
But the controversy surrounding Mr Gonzales dates back further, to the time
when he worked as general counsel to Mr Bush when he was governor of Texas.
An article last year in Atlantic Monthly examined Mr Gonzales's role in the
preparation of memos to Mr Bush on 57 death penalty cases in which the
governor was required to consider the granting of clemency.
The magazine's investigation found Mr Gonzales "repeatedly failed to apprise
the governor of crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective counsel,
conflict of interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of
innocence". The magazine said Mr Gonzales appeared to exclude factors such
as "mental illness or incompetence, childhood physical or sexual abuse,
remorse, rehabilitation or racial discrimination in jury selection".
Mr Bush allowed the executions to proceed in all but one of the 57 cases,
including that of Terry Washington, a 33-year-old mentally retarded man with
the communications skills of a seven-year-old.
Mr Gonzales had also been considered a possible candidate for the Supreme
Court if an opening should emerge. In recent weeks, his name had been
mentioned increasingly, with the announcement that Chief Justice William
Rehnquist was suffering from thyroid cancer.
Reports suggested that in the end it was decided, somewhat ironically, that
Mr Gonzales was not sufficiently conservative on certain basic issues to
please right-wing Republicans looking for a zealot on the bench.
The replacement of Mr Ashcroft was first of what will likely be several
reshuffles in the cabinet over the coming days and weeks. Mr Bush is already
looking for a replacement for Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, who announced
his resignation on Tuesday.
Yesterday Mr Bush was due to meet the Secretary of State Colin Powell, about
whose future there has been intense speculation. It was generally considered
Mr Powell would not serve in a second term but there has been a flurry of
reports suggesting he might.
Senator John Kerry, the former Democratic presidential candidate, yesterday
offered a statement in which he called Mr Ashcroft "one of the most divisive
faces in this administration". He said: "With the end of the era of John
Ashcroft, the President now has an opportunity to heal those divisions and
make good on his promise of renewed bipartisan co-operation."
But, in an early sign of the increased control held by Republicans, the
Energy Secretary, Spencer Abrams, said he believed the new Congress would
vote next year to permit drilling for oil in the Alaskan wildlife reserve
(ANWR).
Republican Senator Pete Domenicic, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee,
said: "With oil at $50 a barrel, and likely to stay there for months, the
market mandates congressional action. We can develop ANWR without harming
the environment or the wildlife. Now is the time to do that."
THE CV
Born: 4 August 1955, San Antonio, Texas. Raised in Houston with seven
brothers and sisters
Education: Graduated from Rice University, Houston, and from Harvard Law
School
Marital status: Married with three children
1973-75 Served in the US Air Force
1982-95 Joined the Houston law firm, Vinson & Elkins
1992 Assistant legal counsel, Houston Host Committee, Republican National
Convention
1995-97 General counsel to Governor George Bush
1997-99 Secretary of State, State of Texas
1999-2000 Justice, The Supreme Court of Texas
2000-04 White House counsel for George Bush
2004 Nominated as US Attorney General
--
"We are going to fight them and impose our will
on them and we will capture or, if necessary, kill
them until we have imposed law and order upon
this country,"
-- US Viceroy Paul Bremer,
how U$A is going to win 'hearts and minds'
of the subjugated people of Iraq
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