 Director's message -- by Nora Callahan
Character of a "Top Cop"
Or A Holiday Gift to pass on this season
Dear
Friends:
When any law enforcement officer, takes
an oath to serve - the person swears to "uphold, and protect
every citizen's constitutional rights." First and foremost
- this is what every law enforcement officer swears to do. They
swear to protect our constitutional rights, for in this way only,
can they protect a society from lawlessness.
Penning a 'holiday message' is tough these
days. There's a lot of pressing issues, and this needs to come
before any HO, HO, HO, send us some money - please.
So, for the holidays, let us rally to pursue
the nomination of an Attorney General that has characteristics,
and qualifications that merit the job - clean and clear, because
for a long time now, simply tough just doesn't cut it.
 Do we want our Attorney General to be a person
that served as counsel for Governor Bush in Texas during the
1990's? A review of the period shows gross abuse of prisoners,
not unlike the scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
There were 150+ executions of people convicted
under dubious circumstances - killed by the "State of Texas"
without review of those cases. Alberto Gonzales was the man in
charge of legal things in that terrible era. When I called my
senator, the aide I spoke to was unaware of this.
I've posted dozens of articles about this
man, that show that he was one of the legal minds who opined
that the Geneva Convention, and safeguards for prisoners of war
globally - a quaint, obsolete international agreement.
Many in places of authority opine back
- it was that foundation that led to soldiers sexually assaulting,
humiliating, torturing, and killing prisoners in their custody
at Abu Ghraib and beyond.
If these characteristics and the Gonzales
model are what you want in your 'top cop, and Gonzales' work
history sets well with you - than you need do nothing. If you
want the Attorney General of the United States of America to
be a righteous man - who is hell bent to protect your constitutional
rights, then visit www.november.org today.
At the November Coalition's homepage you
can access your members of Congress, and send an e-mail asking
them to oppose the Gonzales nomination for Attorney General.
Contact your Representative, and two Senators today!
Capital switchboards are open 24 hours
a day - it's toll free, just call 1-877-762-8762. The operator
can help you locate who your leaders are, and will connect you
with the correct offices. A letter costs .37 cents to mail.
Give yourself, and your loved ones an inexpensive
gift this season, whose value is immeasurable - our collective
voices heard.
In Struggle, 
P.S. Ho, ho, ho - send the November Coalition
a tax deductible gift today! And thank you, for the work you
do to end drug war injustice.
Stop the Confirmation of Alberto Gonzales!
Alberto Gonzales' record as White House
Counsel, as Texas Chief Legal Counsel, and as Texas Supreme Court
Justice demonstrate an absolute contempt for basic human rights
and international law.
George W. Bush has nominated Alberto Gonzales
for the position of Attorney General, and his confirmation hearings
have already begun. Gonzales is currently appearing before the
Senate Judiciary Committee.
Contact the Senate Judiciary Committee
to Voice Your Opposition to the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales
as Attorney General:
United States Senate Committee on the
Judiciary
Phone: (202) 224-5225; Fax: (202) 224-9102
Arlen Specter - chair; Tel: 202-224-4254;
Fax: 202-228-1229; E-mail: arlen_specter@specter.senate.gov
*The contact information for other members
of the Senate Judiciary Committee is included at the bottom of
this message.
Alberto Gonzales: A Record Of Injustice,
Corruption, And Violations Of International Law.
Gonzales called International Law "quaint"
and "obsolete.
According to a January 2002 memo to George
Bush, Gonzales claimed that the U.S. is not bound by the Geneva
Conventions. He told Bush in writing that the Geneva Conventions
are "quaint" and "obsolete," and that certain
detainees exempt from the Geneva Conventions' provisions on the
proper, legal treatment of prisoners. He said, "the war
against terrorism is a new kind of war" and "this new
paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning
of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions."
Gonzales Approved Memo Authorizing Torture.
Gonzales approved a Justice Department
document which redefined the meaning of the word torture. The
August 2002 Justice Department memo included the opinion that
laws prohibiting torture do "not apply to the President's
detention and interrogation of enemy combatants." Further,
the memo puts forth the opinion that the pain caused by an interrogation
must include "injury such as death, organ failure, or serious
impairment of body functions"in order to constitute torture."
According to Newsweek, the memo
"was drafted after White House meetings convened by George
W. Bush's chief counsel, Alberto Gonzales, along with Defense
Department general counsel William Haynes and [Cheney counsel]
David Addington."
Gonzales Demonstrated Contempt For Basic
Legal Rights.
Gonzales defended the ability of President
George W. Bush to seize U.S. citizens and hold them indefinitely
as prisoners with access to lawyers or even a criminal charge,
in violation of Amendments 4-8 of the Bill of Rights. He also
helped to write the infamous Patriot Act and has defended the
Act in despite its violation of basic freedoms guaranteed in
the Bill of Rights.
As Texas Chief Legal Counsel Gonzales
Told Then Governor Bush That He Could Ignore International Law.
In 1997, Alberto Gonzales wrote a memo
for then Gov. Bush to justify non-compliance with the Vienna
Convention. The Vienna Convention, ratified by the Senate in
1969, was "designed to ensure that foreign nationals accused
of a crime are given access to legal counsel by a representative
from their home country." Gonzales said that the treaty
didn't apply to the State of Texas, as Texas was not a signatory
to the Vienna Convention. Two days later, Bush executed Mexican
citizen Irineo Tristan Montoya, despite Mexico's protestations
that Texas had violated Tristan's rights under the Vienna Convention
by failing to inform the Mexican consulate at the time of his
arrest.
As Texas Chief Legal Counsel Gonzales
Assisted Bush In The Execution Of 152 People, Including Mentally
Disabled Defendants.
As chief legal counsel for then Governor
Bush, Gonzales was responsible for writing a memo on the facts
of each death penalty case Bush decided whether a defendant
should be executed based on these memos. According to the Atlantic
Monthly [July/August, 2003], "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." As a result, Bush frequently
approved executions based on "only the most cursory briefings
on the issues in dispute." Rather than informing the governor
of the conflicting circumstances in a case, "The memoranda
seem attuned to a radically different posture, assumed by Bush
from the earliest days of his administration"one in which
he sought to minimize his sense of legal and moral responsibility
for executions."
For example, in his memo on Terry Washington
a mentally disabled 33-year-old man with the communication skills
of a seven-year-old Gonzales devoted nearly a third of his three-page
report to the gruesome details of the crime, but referred "only
fleetingly to the central issue in Washington's clemency appeal"his
limited mental capacity, which was never disputed by the State
of Texas"and present[ed] it as part of a discussion of 'conflicting
information' about the condemned man's childhood."
Gonzales "failed to mention that Washington's
mental limitations, and the fact that he and his ten siblings
were regularly beaten with whips, water hoses, extension cords,
wire hangers, and fan belts, were never made known to the jury,
although both the district attorney and Washington's trial lawyer
knew of this potentially mitigating evidence." Nor did he
mention that Washington's lawyer had "failed to enlist a
mental-health expert" to testify on Washington's behalf,
even though "ineffective counsel and mental retardation
were in fact the central issues raised in the thirty-page clemency
petition" it was Gonzales's job to review. This all came
at a time when "demand was growing nationwide to ban executions
of the retarded."
Gonzales Does The Bidding Of Enron And
Other Big Energy Companies.
Enron and Enron's law firm were Gonzales's
biggest campaign contributors, while Gonzales was a member of
the Texas Supreme Court, contributing $35,450 in 2000. Overall,
Gonzales raked in $100,000 from the energy industry. This was
money that was well spent-according to the New York Daily
News, in May 2000, "Gonzales was author of a state Supreme
Court opinion that handed the energy industry one of its biggest
Texas legal victories in recent history." Since he was appointed
White House Legal Counsel, Gonzales has hard to keep secret the
details of meetings of Dick Cheney's National Energy Policy Development
Group, where he was meeting with officials from Enron and other
Big Oil companies and studying petro maps of Iraq.
Help Stop the Confirmation of Alberto
Gonzales!
1) Contact the members of the Senate Judiciary
Committee (listed below)
2) Sign up for updates from PeopleJudgeBush.org
at http://peoplejudgebush.org/signup4updates.shtml
3) Donate to help build a campaign to hold
Bush & his Adminstration accountable for their crimes! -
http://peoplejudgebush.org/donate.shtml
Contacts:
United States Senate Committee on the
Judiciary
224 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5225; Fax: (202) 224-9102
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee:
Arlen Specter - chair; 202-224-4254; Fax:
202-228-1229; E-mail: arlen_specter@specter.senate.gov
Patrick J. Leahy; 202-234-4242; E-mail:
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
Charles E. Grassley; 202.224.3744; Fax:
515-288-5097; http://www.grassley.senate.gov/webform.htm
Edward M. Kennedy; 202-224-4543; http://www.kennedy.senate.gov/contact.html
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.; 202-224-5042; E-mail:
senator@biden.senate.gov
Jon Kyl; 202-224-4521; http://www.kyl.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Herbert Kohl; 202-224-5653; http://www.kohl.senate.gov/gen_contact.html
Mike DeWine; 202-224-2315; http://www.dewine.senate.gov
Dianne Feinstein; 202-224-3841; http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/email.html
Jeff Sessions; 202-224-4124; http://www.sessions.senate.gov/contact.htm#form
Russell D. Feingold; 202-224-5323; E-mail:
russell_feingold@feingold.senate.gov
Lindsey Graham; 202-224-5972; http://www.lgraham.senate.gov/index.cfm?mode=contact
Charles E. Schumer; 202-224-6542; http://www.schumer.senate.gov/webform.html
Larry Craig; 202- 224-2752; http://www.craig.senate.gov/webform.html
Richard J. Durbin; 202-224-2152; http://www.durbin.senate.gov/sitepages/contact.htm
Saxby Chambliss; 202-224-3521; http://www.chambliss.senate.gov/Contact/default.cfm?pagemode=1
John Cornyn; 202-224-2934; http://www.cornyn.senate.gov/contact/index.html
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