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The Unfair Vilification of Alberto Gonzales
Newly released Justice Department memos on torture show that the Democrats and the media were wrong to pin blame on the former attorney general.
This can’t be right. For the last several weeks, we’ve heard a lot about previously secret internal Justice Department memos and legal opinions authored by the Bush administration — documents that define the legal limits of government power in combating terrorism, including what could be done to skirt U.S. prohibitions against torture.
Here’s the part that doesn’t make sense. Those torture memos from the Bush Justice Department mention three lawyers, and not one of them is named Alberto Gonzales. Their names: John Yoo, Steven Bradbury, and Jay Bybee. All were formerly assigned to the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. Yoo. Bradbury. Bybee. But no Gonzales.
That’s weird. According to the narrative spun by the Bush haters, Alberto Gonzales — the former White House counsel and U.S. attorney general — was the mastermind and majordomo of the Bush administration’s torture policy. He was Bush’s stooge, a loyal flunky who had hitched his wagon to Bush’s star. Afraid to anger his benefactor, Gonzales was unable or unwilling to tell the president “no” when he should have. He wiped his feet on the Constitution and personally orchestrated the administration’s torture policy.
The narrative took hold soon after the Sept. 11th attacks. Back then, Gonzales was White House counsel and John Ashcroft was attorney general. By any measure, the attorney general — a cabinet official, no less — has much more power than a White House counsel. But according to the storyline advanced by the Bush haters, in that administration, it was the other way around. It was Gonzales who had all the power. He had the strength to bend the will of dozens of administration lawyers. It was Al Gonzales’ world, and all the other barristers who worked for President Bush just lived in it.
And what does Gonzales think of the media’s caricature?
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Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union Tribune, a nationally syndicated columnist, a frequent lecturer, and a regular contributor to CNN.com.
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18 Comments
1. Dave:Any interrogation technique that produces accurate results is certain to be called “torture”.
I was an interrogator. I knew my business. I always remembered three things: (1) red is positive, (2) black is negative, and (3) be sure his balls are wet.
Any objections? Keep them to yourself.
Mar 9, 2009 - 11:49 pm 2. Martin Owens:Gonzalez did nothing wrong.
Mar 10, 2009 - 12:19 am 3. cfbleachers:The Congressional rat pack knew that.
They didn’t care.
This is, of course, Ruben… a rhetorical question.
If you are black or Hispanic and you dare to accept a position outside of the Victim Vacuum, you have painted a giant bullseye on your back.
The real “torturing” has been of the truth for the last 40 years by those denizens of the deadwood forest who have stolen our information stream. But Alberto should not feel all alone, he is in great company.
The Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame story to this day has a narrative that is more fiction than fact. The smear job inverted the truth and turned facts on their heads in order to create a fiction that was better suited to the “message”. To this day, Americans still have a bastardized version of what actually took place planted in their collective subconscious.
My favorite ploy of “planted memories” comes in the form of the “totally erased recollection” of how William Cohen, Madelaine Albright, Sandy Berger, Al Gore and President Clinton ALL went on a media tear…filling up the deadwood pages and “planted news airwaves”…going on and on and on about what a danger Saddam was…FOR HAVING WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION AND FOR BEING THE GRAVEST THREAT TO MANKIND…BECAUSE HE WOULD PASS THEM OFF TO GLOBAL TERRORISTS.
Every…every…nation on earth with an international security network believed that the same thing.
That memory was systematically erased from the public mindset and replaced with the “message” that Saddam was no threat at all. And every fact, from that day to this…has been corrupted to replace the “old” memory with the new planted one.
The answer, Ruben…is that ANYONE who dares to cross the leftist gang raping of our information stream is going to be crushed in its wake. And ESPECIALLY…blacks and Hispanics who dare to “cross over” to the “enemy”.
Blacks and Hispanics have a clear choice. But not an easy one.
It was much easier for a Jew in Germany to be a Nazi collaborator…than a concentration camp statistic. Being tortured last, living for a while in relative peace only commanded that you give up your soul, your honor…to save your body.
Blacks and Hispanics have a very similar choice. They can play “victim” for their leftist “masters”. They can roll over and be left alone. Who would want such a target on their backs? Who needs the headache and indigestion of being a Republican…in a nation where doing so invites the inevitable shoddy treatment, slander and gang rape of your reputation? It would take a special man…and even moreso…a special people to not want to curry favor and avoid being subjected to the kangaroo court of planted perjury against them.
The modern Republican party is helpless to defend them. In fact, they DESPERATELY need blacks and Hispanics with a fierce combination of machismo and honor to spit in the face of leftist slander…and openly defy tainted path of least resistance…which is filled with dishonor. America needs them. Now more than ever.
If we are to be saved from open sedition and slander, it must come from former leftists who see the truth and dare to speak it. And from those who are treated as “pets”, patted on their heads and told to just “take the treats for tricks” performed when they bark on cue in the victim tent.
Your question, of course, Ruben…was a rhetorical one. And, the answer depends on which Roberto Duran we can hope for or expect. The “Hands of Stone”…or “No Mas”.
Mar 10, 2009 - 1:21 am 4. Class Clown:The answer to this one is simple. Gonzales is hispanic, and therefore a class traitor to the identity politics obsessed Left.
Mar 10, 2009 - 2:12 am 5. Craig:Someone call a scribe. Someone call the Washington Post. Everybody put this down with indelible ink. Never before in the history of journalism, have I done this:
I agree with Mr. Navarrette.
As I gaze outside my window, pigs are flying.
Mar 10, 2009 - 4:12 am 6. Tolbert:“I blame the media for much of it.”
What’s that Ruben? You dare question the truthfulness of the fourth estate? That makes you a right wing nutbag.
Off to the gulag for you.
Mar 10, 2009 - 5:27 am 7. Cybergeezer:Not surprising, since the Democrat Party seeks to sensationalize rather than deal with truth. When will people wake up to this constant “sky is falling” vitriol?
Mar 10, 2009 - 7:09 am 8. the willies:1 – Dave . . . spoken like a true psychopath. Tell me, how do you feel about shooting people in the back? How bout cheating on your boyfriend?
Mar 10, 2009 - 7:11 am 9. Meryl:Isn’t it interesting how many facts and realities are being dragged in to the light these days.
The media (a portion of) has apparently finally gotten shaken enough that some are starting to put in print what many have known for a very long time.
So that’s good, I suppose.
However, it may be way too late to do any good, because the liars are in power. And one of the sparkling truths about committed liars is that exposure of the truth does not effect them, either in the short run or long run, especially when they are in power and are no longer compelled to twist the truth. Once in power, they can literally look at the truthteller and say,”SO?”
Thanks a lot, media.
Mar 10, 2009 - 7:28 am 10. Daniel:George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, James Baker, and Karl Rove = should ALL be tried for WAR CRIMES in the Hague!
Mar 10, 2009 - 8:02 am 11. jerryofva:Daniel:
I actually agree with you. It is a time honored tradition in the military for an officer to request a court martial to clear his name. I think it would be grand for President Bush et. al. to request, no demand, a trial at the Hague. They would call the people of Iraq and Afghanistan as defense witness to lay out the crimes of the Baathists and the Taliban. I am sure that the President would be vindicated and those who opposed his actions be seen for what they are: apologists for fanatics and mass murders.
Mar 10, 2009 - 10:46 am 12. Pete:So, in summary:
1. America doesn’t torture
Mar 10, 2009 - 10:58 am 13. Lynn B.:2. Even though we don’t torture, we should torture if we have a really good reason?
3. Such a good reason should be described as a “ticking time bomb”, like they have on 24.
4. EVERY prisoner should be treated as a “ticking time bomb”
5. Even though we released some prisoners without charging them with anything, it was probably good that we tortured them (even though we don’t torture), because they were a “ticking time bomb”. That is, until we decided that they weren’t.
Daniel @ #10;
Mar 10, 2009 - 1:08 pm 14. locomotivebreath1901:I actually feel sorry for you. You still don’t have a clue. There was a ship filled with yellowcake uranium taken from Iraq to Canada for safe keeping, 500 tons to be exact, in 2008. Proves what the Bush White House said all along. Also, Gonzales was railroaded into resigning. Anyone who bought into the Dem lies should be sent to a re-education facility due to their complete lack of intellect. Don’t bother calling me a neo-con, I’m a Democrat and disgusted with my party at this moment in time. the only war crimes I saw committed was by Saddam Hussein and his minions. HE was the monster, not Bush or his staff.
“According to the narrative spun by the Bush haters, Alberto Gonzales — the former White House counsel and U.S. attorney general — was the mastermind and majordomo of the Bush administration’s torture policy.”
It’s been my experience with liberals that they can’t particularly be bother with facts. The ‘narrative’ is the center of their community based reality.
That includes such misrepresented terms as ‘the Bush administration’s torture policy’, as well.
Mr. Gonzales is an honorable man. He’s a 2nd generation Hispanic American, a Harvard graduate, a successful private attorney & conservative Republican who’s industrious intelligence paid off at the highest levels in a president’s administration.
But he’s a brown skin who didn’t march lock step with the La R@cist squater’s dogma. That makes him a high value target in the Left’s war of personal destruction on the battle field of group identity politics.
And like a dog with dried bone, the liberals can’t let go of the judiciously fired federal attorneys bzzness, either.
Bottom line: Liberals don’t like brown people. It’s the only explanation.
Mar 10, 2009 - 1:12 pm 15. David S:What, exactly, is unfair about pointing out what Gonzales did wrong?
And why should we forget to mention the torture memos?
Mr. Gonzales did a disservice to his country, and what vilification he receives is mostly well earned.
Peace.
DS
Mar 10, 2009 - 3:19 pm 16. Marc Malone:See what happens, Navarette, when you do some actual journalism? 4 interviews and 24 other direct contacts. Suddenly, you see that the media lied. Oh gosh, really? Careful. Next thing you know, you’ll become a conservative. And they’ll cancel your subscription to Socialism Today.
Mar 10, 2009 - 11:51 pm 17. JackT:This guy should never have been appointed AG, period.
Mar 10, 2009 - 11:59 pm 18. mhr:Anyone who observed the way liberals in congress and in the media treated Clarence Thomas is not suprised at the liberal Democrat assault on Gonzales. Each of these men is a member of a minority group that liberals have dubbed “people of color.” “People of color” belong on the liberal political plantation- that plantation assures Democrat electoral wins. Anyone who belongs on the Democrat plantation who associates with the other party is an enemy of the people and must be destroyed. It’s as simple as that. When Democrats celebrate “diversity” they mean a system in which people of all colors vote Democrat. They assuredly do not approve of people thinking for themselves-especially “people of color”- that kind of freedom is not valued by liberals.
Mar 11, 2009 - 10:54 am