Both John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales were pilloried by liberals in the left-wing press for trying to fulfill their official duty and advise the White House on a proper, constitutional response to the CIA's request for legal guidance on allowable methods to interrogate terrorist suspects.
The actual guidance provided by these Republican Attorneys General has never been revealed, of course, because they are legitimate state secrets, but this has not prevented the Mainstream Media from charging them with approving "torture". It is impossible for these men to defend themselves in the court of public opinion due to the secret nature of their legal advice. This circumstance has not prevented liberals from flogging them with this un-provable charge -- as well as all Republicans by association.
In contrast, Ramsey Clark, a former Democrat Attorney General has volunteered to render legal advice to two war criminals, Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein who were actual torturers and mass murderers. This goes virtually without comment in the media. Now Belmont Club reports that Clark has offered his services again to another mass murdering revolutionary, Jose Maria Sison, chief of the Communist Party of the Philippines who was arrested in the Netherlands at the request of the Government of the Philippines . He is charged with ordering the murders of associates and government agents. The Left has already begun protesting the illegality of the Philippines extradition request, a position inconsistent with their previous calls for the United Kingdom to extradite Augusto Pinochet to Chile. Who is Jose Maria Sison? Well he compares himself favorably to "Comrade Abimael Guzman" the leader of the Maoist "Shining Path" revolutionary movement in Peru which killed over 70,000 Peruvians, mostly innocent Native Peruvian peasants. This admission by itself is enough to indict Sison as a criminal psychopath in my view. Shining Path brutalized and traumatized the people of Peru thoroughly until Guzman's capture in 1992. So thoroughly, in fact, that the actress Cameron Diaz caused an international incident during her recent visit to Peru when she committed the faux-pas of carrying a handbag displaying Hollywood-chic Marxist symbols. What does Ramsey Clark think of Sison? From Komfie Manalo's All Headline News article linked above:
He (Clark) described Sison as a "gentle person and an inspiring leader."
"Everyone who is concerned about peace and freedom has to be greatly distressed over the arrest of Joma Sison," Clark reportedly said
So far the mainstream American media has failed to cover this new Ramsey Clark engagement. Remember, this is the same MSM that stoked the "controversy" over President Reagan's mere appearance in 1985 at Bitberg Cemetary where 49 SS soldiers were buried. So I offer tables below to conveniently summarize what events trigger the media to literally scream "bloody murder" with allegations of torture and war-crime versus which events are not worthy of reporting -- never mind commenting upon.
Media Response 1: Scream "Bloody Murder"!
Republican Attorney General offers official advice to the President of the United States concerning terrorist interrogations
Republican President of the United States stands at official state event near the graves of Nazi SS soldiers buried forty-years earlier
Anti-communist dictator resists extradition request
Media Response 2: "Ho-hum, nothing to see here"
Democratic Attorney General defends war-criminals
Democratic Attorney General praises mass-murderer
Communist mass-murder resists extradition request.
Notice a pattern here? Keep this double-standard in mind the next time the media expresses outrage over the actions of a Republican.
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