Gonzales says prisoner's rights memo just a draft

from HoustonChronicle.comm AUSTIN -- White House counsel Alberto Gonzales on Friday defended a controversial memo he wrote concerning prisoner rights under the Geneva Conventions as a draft that never reached the president. Gonzales, attending a ceremony unveiling his portrait at the Texas Supreme Court, said he normally wouldn't comment in public about legal advice he's given to President Bush. But he said he thinks language from the draft memo has been "quoted out of context." "In this particular case, what I can say is the memo that everyone is focusing on is a draft memo," said Gonzales. "It was circulated for comment to various agencies. People made comments to that draft that came back. It was revised and a final version went to the president. "What has been commented on is a version of a memo that never went to the president. It was a draft, and a lot of the language that's been quoted out of context or incompletely never made it into the final draft," Gonzales added. The Jan. 25, 2002, memorandum outlined the legal argument for exempting Taliban and al-Qaida fighters from Geneva Conventions protections on how prisoners of war are treated. In it, he noted the need to quickly extract intelligence from prisoners. The memo, first reported by Newsweek last month, also said the war on terror "renders quaint" provisions such as supplying detainees with "commissary privileges (or) athletic uniforms." Gonzales, a former Houston lawyer, was appointed by then-Gov. George W. Bush to the Texas Supreme Court in January 1999. He served for two years before being tapped for the job of chief counsel to the president. Gonzales often is mentioned as a potential nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who served for seven years on the Texas court, also was honored with a portrait.