How Dare Gonzales Accurately Report the Law?

Attorney General nominee Alberto R. Gonzales may have stepped in it again in his written response to senatorial questions following his confirmation hearings. He had the audacity to state that the CIA and other nonmilitary personnel are not bound by a 2002 presidential directive requiring the humane treatment of prisoners in American custody. Adding insult to injury he said that a separate Congressional ban on cruel, unusual and inhumane treatment had a “limited reach” and didn’t apply in all cases to “aliens overseas.” But, added Gonzales, the president has a clear policy opposing torture which binds the CIA and other nonmilitary personnel.

Of course, despite his straightforward responses Senator Pat Leahy said he considered most of his written answers to be “vague, unresponsive or AWOL.”

You just can’t please these people, who would have you believe that the mild-mannered Gonzales is a sadist.