Ex-military lawyers protest 'Torture Guy' nomination

High-profile lawyers from the Judges Advocate General, or JAG, office of the Navy and from Army courts have announced they plan to protest Alberto Gonzales' nomination for Attorney General. They claim that he routinely ignored military lawyers' advice on the issue of interrogation procedure and torture, and has drafted policies which put our own troops at risk.

Hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the nomination are expected to begin next month. While Mr. Gonzales is expected to be confirmed, objections from former generals and admirals would be a setback and an embarrassment for him and the White House. [...]

Mr. Gonzales, as White House counsel, oversaw the drafting of several confidential legal memorandums that critics said sanctioned the torture of terrorism suspects in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and opened the door to abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. [....]

Brig. Gen. James Cullen, retired from the Army, said on Wednesday that he believed that in supervising the memorandums, Mr. Gonzales had purposely ignored the advice of lawyers whose views did not accord with the conclusions he sought, which was that there was some legal justification for illegal behavior.