NEW YORK, Jan 6 (AFP) - Amnesty International and other rights groups blasted US attorney general nominee Alberto Gonzales' record over the treatment of war on terror suspects held by the United States, in an ad in The New York Times on Thursday.
The advertisement coincided with the first day of the Senate confirmation hearing for Gonzales, 49, the White House legal counsel who President George W. Bush now wants to lead the US Justice Department.
"You may not know Alberto Gonzales," say the groups. "But we're sure you'll recognize the results of his work."
The ad includes the widely disseminated photograph of a hooded prisoner connected to electric wires at at the US-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
"Of all the questions you'll face today, Judge Gonzales, this is the simplest: will you sign our declaration to stop torture?" ask the groups.
In 2002 Gonzales wrote memos advising Bush that foreign fighters captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere should not have prisoner of war status under the Geneva Conventions.
The memos maintained that the urgent nature of the war on terror renders the Geneva Conventions "obsolete" and "quaint."
Critics have said his opinions may have paved the way for the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and elsewhere.
The ad was also paid for by the advocacy groups MoveOn.org, True Majority, and Win Without War.
01/06/2005 18:30 GMT - AFP