Early this morning, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation.
This time last year, Human Rights USA (in coalition with TASSC) called for the appointment of an independent special prosecutor to investigate Gonzales and other high level U.S. government officials for promoting the use of torture as an interrogation tactic.
In support of this request, we wrote: "Gonzales ... issued a January 25, 2002, memorandum to President Bush urging the Bush administration to declare captives exempt from the protections of the Geneva Conventions in order to pre-empt war crimes charges and justify the denial of rights and more extreme forms of interrogation. This memorandum provided a presumed legal basis for the abuses in Guantanamo and Afghanistan, and, through General Miller's advice and actions, in Iraq. Memorandum from Alberto R. Gonzales, “Decision Re Application of the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War to the Conflict with Al Qaeda and the Taliban,” January 25, 2002."
For a copy of our Request for Appointment of a Special Prosecutor, click here.
Photo credit: AP/Susan Walsh
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