After Andrew Sullivan reported this remarkable snub of Alberto "Torture" Gonzales, citing a report from an Argentine newpaper Página 12, I thought I'd translate it, for the benefit of all and sundry. Contains references to internal Argentine politics and slang.
Pairs and Nones: (order of precedence)
(warning, I hate Spanish's preference for passive writing, not a literal translation)
Preface: The title "Pares y Nones" is a child's game, well, really it's a way of working out who goes first. One kid says "pares", the other says "nones". Then it's like Rock Paper Scissors, each kid puts one hand behind the back, on a signal both hands come out with a certain number of fingers extended. The sum of all the fingers is calculated. If it comes out to an even number, the "pares" kid wins. If it's an odd number, the "nones" kid wins. Order of precedence.
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By Horacio Verbitsky
The cordiality extended by (Argentine) head-of-cabinet Alberto Fernández and President Néstor Kirchner to Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and Thomas Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, contrasts with the reception received by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The Executive Chancellery recommended a meeting only with his (Argentine) peer, which frustrated any attempt by this visitor to meet with Kirchner and Fernández. This wasn't a decision guided by protocol, since Americans of lesser rank than Gonzales' have been so received.
His title in English is Attorney General. He's on the Cabinet, the only member who does not take the title of Secretary. Gonzales is an old personal friend of George Bush, and was a member of his Texas cabinet and was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court. When Bush entered the White House, he brought him along as his legal counsel. In 2005, Bush appointed him to his current position, which has no real counterpart in Argentine government. Some of his functions are carried out by the Ministry of Justice, others by the Solicitor General, some by the Solicitor of the Treasury, and some by the Secretary of Interior Security.
Gonzales outranks Burns, Shannon and the US trade representative John Veroneau. Burns is a third-tier bureaucrat in the State Department, under Condoleeza Rice and John Negroponte and other undersecretaries. Shannon's a fourth-tier bureaucrat. Veroneau met with Felisa Miceli, (Argentine) Minister of the Economy, and he's under (Ambassador) Susan Schwab, US Trade Representative, integrated with the Cabinet, if not a direct report to the President. If the same logic had been applied to Gonzales as to the others, they would only have met with civil employees, whose names are unknown beyond the bounds of their respective ministries. The US ambassador, Earl Anthony Wayne, invited the Ministers of Justice and the Interior for meetings in the embassy, Alberto Iribarne [minister of Justice and Human Rights] for breakfast, Aníbal Fernández for lunch. However, the Solicitor General Esteban Righi (progressive reformer) declined to meet in the embassy and met him in his office. Both ministers had been instructed to question Gonzales' positions as advisor to Bush regarding the legality and prohibitions in the so-called "war on terror".
On January 2002, Gonzales sent a memo to the President, advocating military tribunals. opposed to the presumption of innocence. [According to this memo], the Geneva Conventions were "obsolete" and did not apply to the prisoners at the specially built jail Guantánamo, for they would impede the interrogations of "enemy combatants". On 1 August of that same year, Gonzales' office produced another memo, according to which death threats and physical pain were allowed, insofar as it did not produce a grave wound or the collapse of a body organ.. As for psychological abuses, these were only torture if they caused "lasting psychological damage". In addition, laws prohibiting torture do not apply to the President acting in his constitutional role as Commander-in-Chief. Such was the path which led to the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
In every meeting, Bush's minister [Gonzales] conveyed his government's opinion, blaming the Buenos Aires synagogue bombing on Iran. If Bush decides to attack Iran, what a shame for Argentina if the photo of (Argentine) public prosecutor Alberto Nisman (famous for seeking arrest warrants against Iran and Hizb'allah) was not tacked onto to the nose cone of the first missile fired into Iran. Gonzales answered various technical and judicial questions. With Iribarne and Anibal Fernandez, Gonzales praised reforms in the Argentine Supreme Court, then spoke of his government's policy in the so-called "war on terror" and thanked the Argentines for their cooperation. Iribarne had to explain the methods used by the Argentine dictatorship three decades ago resulted in State terrorism, and are rejected by the present government of Argentina. Fernandez said cooperation had its limits: and explicitly cited and disagreed with Gonzales' famous memo. Fernandez added the government of Argentina is part of the International Criminal Court and defends the application of the Treaty of Rome and the Geneva Conventions which created it. Amazingly, Gonzales responds, saying those memos were not for public dissemination. "In every respect, this is how you think, we don't agree", replied the Interior Minister.
In 2000, at the request of Eduardo Duhalde, Alberto Fernández organized a meeting Carlos Ruckhauf, then the governor of Buenos Aires and presidential candidate, a guy who proposed to "put a bullet in every crook" and who appointed Aldo Rico as Minister of Security.
"I don't know about the province, but in the Capital, that's not gonna fly." Fernandez argued.
"Pay attention, rookie, (the original is "pibe", Lunfardo slang used only by city people in Buenos Aires, literally a little boy) the city people of Buenos Aires (porteños) want you to crack down on crime, and they don't care how you do it" responded [Ruckhauf] the Dauphin of Duhalde (a famously autocratic president of Argentina)
This dialogue came to mind this week as a result of Gonzales' phrase about his memo's publicity.
The same question reappeared when Burns met the cabinet head. After exaggerating the differences between Kirchner and [Venezuela's president Hugo] Chávez, this worthy North American praised Argentina's human rights record and its punishment of the dictatorship's repressive elements. Soon enough, he expanded on this theme in elliptical phrases about "the objections your government's people expressed to our government's people". In conclusion, Fernandez confirmed his opposition to Gonzales' Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo recommendations.
Perhaps if the government passed these dialogues up the hierarchy to the commanders of the Argentine security forces, Gonzales could have a meeting at the embassy. Just so they had no doubts about the policies of the government they depend on.