This story is from January 6, 2005. I'm posting it to provide background for you to inspire you to write your senators about opposing the Gonzales confirmation for US Attorney General.

White House Won't Release Gonzales Papers
By Mark Sherman for the Associated Press.

The White House refused Thursday to provide senators additional documents on attorney general nominee Alberto Gonzales' role in the decision to allow aggressive interrogations of terrorism detainees. The top Democrat at Gonzales' Senate confirmation hearing said that questioning was "tantamount to torture."...

"The road you traveled....all the way to the White House is a tribute to you and your family," Leahy said.

Nevertheless, the Vermont Democrat had harsh criticism for administration officials, including Gonzales' predecessor, John Ashcroft.

"Senior officials in the Bush White House, the Ashcroft Justice Department, the Rumsfeld Pentagon set in motion a systematic effort to minimize, distort and even ignore our laws, our policies and international agreements on torture and treatment of prisoners," he said...

Senate Democrats say the White House has refused to give them all of the memos and documents they need to trace how that decision was made so they can review Gonzales' role and how it would affect him as the nation's top law enforcement official.

"It appears that legal positions that you have supported have been used by the administration, the military and the CIA to justify torture and Geneva Convention violations by military and civilian personnel," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., in a statement prepared for the hearing.

"Memos you solicited, endorsed, approved or acquiesced in undermined longstanding traditions in our military and weakened important protections for our own troops serving abroad by violating the military's golden rule: that we treat captured enemy forces as we would want our own prisoners of war to be treated," Kennedy's statement said.

Here is the full text of the entire article in case the link goes bad:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4715334,00.html

White House Won't Release Gonzales Papers
By Mark Sherman
The Associated Press

Thursday 06 January 2006

Washington - The White House refused Thursday to provide senators additional documents on attorney general nominee Alberto Gonzales' role in the decision to allow aggressive interrogations of terrorism detainees. The top Democrat at Gonzales' Senate confirmation hearing said that questioning was "tantamount to torture."

"I hope things will be different if you are confirmed, Judge Gonzales," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told the former Texas Supreme Court justice.

Gonzales, who served as President Bush's White House counsel, pledged to abide by treaties that ban torture of prisoners, if he is confirmed by the Senate as the first Hispanic attorney general, while saying the foremost duty of the Justice Department is to protect the nation from terror attacks.

He faced questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee about his role in Bush's 2002 decision that the president had the authority to bypass international anti-torture accords.

Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., portrayed Gonzales as a rags-to-riches success story, and said his committee would closely scrutinize his involvement in the crafting of a January 2002 memo he wrote on the treatment of enemy prisoners and his role in crafting presidential orders on detainee policy.

"You know there are going to be times when the attorney general of the United States has to enforce the law of the United States. He can't be worried about friends or colleagues at the White House. His duty is to all Americans," Leahy said as Gonzales watched impassively.

With Republicans controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, "I worry that our system of checks and balances may become short-circuited by too few checks on the executive branch," Leahy said.

Still, Leahy told the son of Mexican immigrants: "I want to make clear how inspiring your life story is."

"The road you traveled....all the way to the White House is a tribute to you and your family," Leahy said.

Nevertheless, the Vermont Democrat had harsh criticism for administration officials, including Gonzales' predecessor, John Ashcroft.

"Senior officials in the Bush White House, the Ashcroft Justice Department, the Rumsfeld Pentagon set in motion a systematic effort to minimize, distort and even ignore our laws, our policies and international agreements on torture and treatment of prisoners," he said.

He said the hearing provides an "opportunity for some accountability for the meltdown on longstanding U.S. policy on torture."

"Harsh treatment is tantamount to torture," Leahy said.

Despite the contentious statements by Leahy and other committee Democrats, Gonzales' nomination was expected to be confirmed by the GOP-led Senate.

Senate Democrats say the White House has refused to give them all of the memos and documents they need to trace how that decision was made so they can review Gonzales' role and how it would affect him as the nation's top law enforcement official.

"It appears that legal positions that you have supported have been used by the administration, the military and the CIA to justify torture and Geneva Convention violations by military and civilian personnel," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., in a statement prepared for the hearing.

"Memos you solicited, endorsed, approved or acquiesced in undermined longstanding traditions in our military and weakened important protections for our own troops serving abroad by violating the military's golden rule: that we treat captured enemy forces as we would want our own prisoners of war to be treated," Kennedy's statement said.

David Leitch, the White House's deputy counsel, told ranking Judiciary Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont in a letter released Thursday that the administration has already turned over all of the documents it plans to.

Gonzales faces criticism from Democrats concerning a January 2002 memo he wrote arguing that the war on terrorism "renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions."

A month later, Bush signed an order declaring he had the authority to bypass the accords "in this or future conflicts." Bush's order also said the Geneva treaty's references to prisoners of war did not apply to al-Qaida or "unlawful combatants" from the Taliban.

Some Gonzales critics say that decision and his memo justifying it helped lead to the torture scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and prisoner abuses in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

About a dozen people showed up to the hearing wearing T-shirts that said "Investigate Gonzales" on the front and "No To Torture" on the back.

Last June, the Justice Department withdrew its 2002 memos arguing that the president's wartime authority supersedes laws and treaties governing treatment of prisoners.

Gonzales has repudiated torture before. "The president has stated that this administration does not condone torture. If anyone engages in such conduct, he or she will be held accountable," Gonzales said in a White House online discussion on July 7.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Democratic criticism is partisan, and that it is settled law that Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners are not protected by the Geneva Conventions. "Now, I hate to ruin a good story for the President's political opponents. But there is one important problem with this criticism: Judge Gonzales is right," Cornyn said in remarks prepared for his introduction of Gonzales.

John Yoo, who helped write the key memo at Justice's Office of Legal Counsel that critics said appeared to condone torture, said Gonzales and top Justice officials did not attempt to influence or interfere with the content, although they were briefed on drafts.

Even Democrats say they expect Gonzales to be confirmed. Republicans control a Senate split between 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and one independent.