Human Rights Watch: Attorney General Nominee Undermined Rights

Press release from Human Rights Watch
Dated Wednesday November 10

Attorney General Nominee Undermined Rights
Former White House Counsel Helped U.S. Circumvent International Legal Obligations

Alberto Gonzales is a poor choice for the top law enforcement post in the United States, Human Rights Watch said today. President George W. Bush today nominated Gonzales to replace John Ashcroft as attorney general.

As White House counsel, Gonzales was the architect of the Bush administration’s policy of placing detainees captured in the fight against terrorism beyond the protection of any law. That policy opened the door to brutality against detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay and unfair legal proceedings against them.

"The Attorney General should enforce the law," said Jamie Fellner, director of the U.S. Program of Human Rights Watch. "Gonzales has helped the president circumvent it. His record suggests that he would be more likely to defer to the President than to uphold basic rights."

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