justice department

Bush: No Attorney General if Not Mukasey

2007-11-02

By LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush sought to save Michael Mukasey's troubled nomination for attorney general Thursday, defending the retired judge's refusal to say whether he considers waterboarding torture and warning of a leaderless Justice Department if Democrats don't confirm him.

"If the Senate Judiciary Committee were to block Judge Mukasey on these grounds, they would set a new standard for confirmation that could not be met by any responsible nominee for attorney general," Bush said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

"That would guarantee that America would have no attorney general during this time of war," the president said.

Congress Wants to Rein In Contractors

By Anne Flaherty
The Associated Press

Wednesday 03 October 2007

Washington - Congress wants to update a law that has protected Blackwater USA and other private security contractors in Iraq from criminal prosecution, but the White House has expressed doubts.

The House was expected to pass legislation on Thursday by Rep. David Price, D-N.C., that would extend the criminal jurisdiction of U.S. courts to any federal contractor working alongside military operations. Senate Democratic leaders said they planned to follow suit as soon as possible and send the measure to President Bush.

The legislation comes amid a string of allegations involving Blackwater employees hired by the State Department to protect diplomatic personnel in Iraq.

Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations

By SCOTT SHANE, DAVID JOHNSTON and JAMES RISEN
The New York Times
October 4, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.

But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Embattled Attorney General Resigns

“It has been a long and difficult struggle, but at last the attorney general has done the right thing and stepped down. For the previous six months, the Justice Department has been virtually nonfunctional, and desperately needs new leadership.” Senator Charles Schumer

By STEVEN LEE MYERS
New York Times
August 27, 2007

WACO, Tex., Aug. 27 — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington.

TELL CONGRESS TO VOTE NO CONFIDENCE ON ALBERTO GONZALES
No Confidence

On Monday, June 11, there is scheduled to be a no confidence vote on Alberto Gonzales in the Senate.

ACTION PAGE: http://www.millionphonemarch.com/no_confidence.php

All our senators need to hear from us on this, but especially we have a message your Republican senators need to hear. How dare they call this vote playing politics? Talk about turning justice on its head. The whole reason Congress must now step in is to STOP the justice department from playing politics.

What WAS politically motivated was when Gonzales turned our justice department into a hit squad for the RNC.