U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales does not consider doing the president's will a reason to resign.
Photo: AP
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U.S. Attorney General May Be Next to Go
A scandal is brewing around U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Congressmen demanded his resignation yesterday, accusing him of misuse of the law and violations of civil liberties under the guise of fighting terrorism. This attack on Gonzales comes simultaneously with a campaign against Vice President Dick Cheney and was unleashed on the popular Sunday news show Face the Nation.
Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer, chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Joseph Biden and influential Republic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Arlen Specter appeared together on that broadcast.
Schumer commented that Gonzales has made his priority enforcing U.S. President George W. Bush's policies, rather than upholding the law and rights of American citizens. “Attorney General Gonzales is a nice man, but he either doesn't accept or doesn't understand that he is no longer just the president's lawyer, but has a higher obligation to the rule of law and the Constitution even when the president should not want it to be so. And so this department has been so political that I think, for the sake of the nation, Attorney General Gonzales should step down,” Schumer said.
Gonzales's problems began after the Justice Dept.'s Office of the Inspector General revealed that the FBI had used national security letters under the 2005 Patriot Act to gain access to business records without judicial approval, then underreported its activities by 20 percent due to poor recordkeeping.
Bush has expressed support for his appointee, who has argued in the American press that he was only doing his job as he enforced Bush administration policy.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 13, 2007
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