US President George W. Bush has picked Alberto Gonzales, the White House lawyer who advised him he could disregard the "obsolete" Geneva conventions, as his new attorney general, it was reported on Wednesday.
News of Gonzales's nomination to the top job at the Department of Justice, replacing John Ashcroft, who resigned on Tuesday, was poorly received by US human rights groups, which said he had shown scant regard for the importance of international human rights law.
Jamie Fellner, the head of the US program at Human Rights Watch, said: "The elections did not hand President Bush a blank cheque to carry on as before. It is distressing that his first nominee post-election not only doesn't have a record of defending human rights but has a record of actively opposing their recognition."
The White House did not comment on the nomination on Wednesday, but said an announcement was imminent.
As White House counsel, Gonzales was a central figure in the debate in the Bush administration over how to treat prisoners in the "global war on terror" after the Sept. 11 attacks.
In a memorandum to the president in January 2002, he argued that the president had the authority to disregard the Geneva conventions.
Arguing that the US was faced with "a new kind of war," in which there was a premium on the ability to obtain information quickly from "captured terrorists and their sponsors," Gonzales wrote: "This new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners."
He also described as "quaint" provisions in the Geneva conventions requiring that enemy captives be given monthly pay, athletic uniforms and scientific instruments.
Gonzales later claimed he was simply outlining the president's options and that Bush subsequently decided that all captives should be humanely treated even if not by the letter of the Geneva conventions.
Administration critics, however, said the Gonzales memo, and a subsequent Justice Department memo which he approved, ultimately paved the way for the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique