Media Matters Claims Conservatives are Ignoring Facts to Defend Gonzales

I'd call this an interesting, though illogical piece. I can't find there actually tying Gonzales to the abuse/torture in Abu Ghraib or GITMO.

Conservative pundits have offered false and misleading claims to defend White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush's nominee for attorney general, asserting that the actions sanctioned in a series of administration memos -- in particular, an August 2002 Justice Department memo requested by Gonzales -- didn't rise to the level of torture.

Gonzales is a lawyer compiling information and the stance of the DoJ related to present national and international law related to torture. This documentation isn't institutionalizing of any action nor sanctioning any body to perform the described acts. Policy isn't set by these memos, the limits to the legality of said actions is merely documented.

And then this is interesting as well trying through sheer conjecture to place a causal link between memos of the executive branch and action by the guards.

But a May 24, 2004, Newsweek article laid out a detailed case for a causal link between the administration's development of a legal framework for detention and interrogation -- partly in the series of memos by Gonzales and others -- and the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib. The article noted: "The road to Abu Ghraib began after 9/11, when Washington wrote new rules to fight a new kind of war."

I think this is a stretch. Plausible on the edge of the logic, but insufficient to use as proof of wrong doing in regards to anyone in the executive branch.

They really need some real proof here. You can't just pull out what a left bent news organization says as proof that a right bent news organization is wrong or even misleading in its editorializing.

Look at the whole thing. I think its faulty, but you should decide yourself.