Is America Becoming the New ‘Evil Empire’?

Re “Ashcroft Grilled Over Memos About Torture,” June 9: The key revelation by the Senate committee investigating the prisoner abuse atrocities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Cuba is that Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft is in contempt of Congress. But will the committee formally charge him? He is committing a crime against our Constitution and getting away with it. Will those in Congress stand up and be counted on this issue or will they just go along, as they usually do, and do nothing about it?

Ashcroft is the chief law officer of the government, and he is flagrantly committing a crime for all of us to see. He is in contempt of the law. Put him in jail for his crime against the Constitution.

Sam French

Rancho Palos Verdes

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Re “Memo Gave Bush Leeway on Torture,” June 8: As many Americans mourn the death of Ronald Reagan, commentators praise the former president’s role in the dissolution of the Soviet Union. No one is sorry to see the “Evil Empire” gone, and with it the communist state’s imperialistic military interventions, indefinite detention of suspects and use of torture in the gulags.

But apparently the Bush administration is feeling some nostalgia. Invading Iraq, detaining suspects without access to counsel and justifying the use of torture against detainees are not making us safer; they are only ensuring that the new Evil Empire is us.

Matt Nasatir

Los Angeles

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May we please be spared any more hand-wringing over Abu Ghraib prison? When dealing with people who are prepared to strap bombs on themselves to kill you, pain and intimidation will not produce cooperation. The Muslim culture itself provides the key: Humiliation is the only method that works. As long as we persist in trying to teach the enemy the Marquis of Queensbury rules -- while he has brass knuckles and a broken bottle -- we will lose.

James F. Glass

Chatsworth

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Before Abu Ghraib, I was merely looking forward to watching the voters politely tell our president that his services were no longer needed. But with each new revelation, my anger has grown. Did President Bush actually create a climate in which lawyers wrote memos that even considered using torture? If Bush approved the torture, or even asked for circumstances where its use would be allowed, we need to impeach him.

Miguel Munoz

Los Angeles

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This president has been going around proclaiming that he is the war president. I just reread the Constitution and I see nothing in the executive section about the power to declare war. Article I, Section 8 clearly states that Congress shall have the power to declare war. Have I missed something? Has Congress declared war?

Since this president has so blatantly jettisoned the articles of the Geneva Convention, could the Constitution be next?

Joe Sevenliss

Corona