The USAG who finds the 1949 Geneva Conventions "quaint" is on the Senate Judiciary roller coaster (uphill with Sen. Leahy, downhill with Hatch, up with Kennedy, down with Grassley, etc.). Gonzales says it takes too much time to follow the law, even when he knows no one will stop him. Grassley wants to know what can be done to stop the fitful attempts by American news media to inform Americans about government lawbreaking, embarassing the congressional oversight committees that are supposed to stay a step ahead of them, but Gonzales says he's doing all that he can. What can we do to help? Shut up and move along.
One thing we might ask in return, not only of Gonzales but of everyone in the committee room: let's stop uncritcally referring to the police action against al-Qaeda, or "terrorism" generally, as a "war" . A war is a legal relationship between or among states, governed primarily by international law. Al Qaeda is not a state. Calling the campaign against terrorism a "war" glorifies it, selectively to be sure, so that all kinds of nastiness become acceptable, mostly in the way of the loss of individual rights. The next thing you know we'll be secretly arresting, detaining and torturing the actor who played the Marlboro Man as part of the war on cancer. Secret arrest, detention and torture should be reserved for Republicans.
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