« The Sunni-Shia War | Main | Dude, What About The Shower? »

15 Feb 2007 10:06 am

Gonzales in Argentina

My Spanish is not so good. Yours is great. And several readers followed my link yesterday about Alberto Gonzales' trip to Argentina. My link was not the most salient story. Another article is much more revealing. Over to my reader:

The article avoids explicitly stating why Gonzales did not get high-level talks and opts instead to show how it was a clear deviation from diplomatic protocol by outlining the hierarchical ranking of other government representatives who met with counterparts from the American delegation and how Gonzales' rank in the US government was not afforded corresponding diplomatic recognition.

Anyway, more interestingly, it goes on to the talks Gonzales did have with the Ministers of Justice and the Interior, Alberto Iribarne and Anibal Fernandez respectively. In those meetings, Gonzales brought up the war on terror and America's gratitude to Argentina for its cooperation. The article says that both ministers had been instructed to bring up the issue of "what's permitted and what's prohibited" in America's war on terror. Then comes this paragraph:

Iribarne explained to him that the methods used by the Argentine dictatorship three decades ago led to state terrorism, which the current government rejected. Fernandez said that Argentina's cooperation had a limit: he mentioned explicitly Gonzales' famous memos and explained to him the goverment's disagreement with their substance. He added that the Argentine government is part of the International Crimes Tribunal and supports the application of the statute of Rome, which it created, and the Geneva Conventions.

The astonishing response from Gonzales was that those memos had not been written with public dissemination in mind. "Either way they reflect your thinking, which we don't agree with," the Interior minister replied.

So Gonzales essentially admits he authorized torture. The only mistake he made was that the American public somehow found out what he had authorized. Think of what we have discovered about the torture policies of these people. Now imagine what we do not yet know.

Permalink :: Trackback (1) :: Sphere It! ::

Share This