It's frustrating to watch, Niall. Kind of like Bugs Bunny wiggling his way out of getting shot by Elmer Fudd with a series of non sequiturs, only without the humor.
"Did you request the memo authorizing torture?"
"Duck season!"
As to why he would uphold the principle while denying responsibility, I think this passage from international law expert Anthony D'Amato on Brian Leiter's blog explains a great deal:
In the middle of [torture memo collaborator] Professor [John] Yoo's essay, in legalistic language that most readers might not bother to parse, he reveals that "Gonzales also observed that denying POW status would limit the prosecution of U.S. officials under a federal law criminalizing a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions."
What does this convoluted sentence mean? It means that Mr. Gonzales may have made it clear to the DOJ attorneys drafting the various memos that if they were to conclude that the Taliban and Al Quaeda come within the protection of the Geneva Conventions, or that the policies or practices at Guantanamo and Al Ghraib amount to criminal torture prohibited by U.S. law, they would be placing the President of the United States and his top advisers personally at risk of criminal indictment. Indeed any indictment, irrespective of final outcome, would probably have a huge negative political impact politically and could even result in a change of administrations and a change of legal staff at the DOJ.
In other words, if a zealous prosecutor, including one within the DOJ, were to seek indictments against the President and his advisers, Mr. Gonzales' position, as now revealed by Professor Yoo, was that the DOJ's legal conclusion in its memos should be modified or changed and rationalized, if necessary, not on legal grounds, but just in order to protect Mr. Gonzales's clients from prosecution.
So to get the nomination, he has to pretend his involvement in this fiasco was minimal. But to protect capo di tutti capi, he has to maintain omertá.
For those involved in the thread about digital cameras in the military, here's a follow-up:
Digital cameras, camcorders and cellphones with cameras have been prohibited in military compounds in Iraq... a total ban throughout the US military is in the works.
Good to know they're on top of the real "problem" exposed by Abu Gharib. Sheesh.
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