Lowest Bar. Ever

Alberto Gonzales, future Attorney Journal, today:

We must be committed to preserving civil rights and civil liberties.

Alberto Gonzales, future Attorney Jounal, previously:

In Part I, we examine the criminal statue’s text and history. We conclude that for an act to constitute toture as defined by Section 2340, it must inflict pain that is difficult to endure. Phsyical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death. For purely mental pain or suffering to amount to torture under Section 2340, it must result in significant psychological harm of significant duration eg. lasting for months or even years. We conclude that the mental harm also must result from one of the predicate acts listed in the statute, namely: threats of imminent death; threats of infliction of the kind of pain that would amount to physical torture; infliction of such physical pain as a means of psychological torture; use of drugs or other procedures designed to deeply disrupt the senses, or fundamentally alter an individual’s personality; or threatening to do any of these things to a third party. The legislative history simply reveals that Congress intended for the statute’s definition to track the Convention’s definition of torture and the reservations, understandings, and declarations that the United States submitted with its ratification. We conclude that the statute, taken as a whole makes plain that it prohibits only extreme acts.

Senator Specter, today:

Do you approve of torture?

May we find our way again......