U.S. attorney general to discuss terrorism in Asia

U.S. attorney general to discuss terrorism in Asia

Deborah Charles, Reuters/Washington

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales travels to Asia next week hoping to explain the U.S. war on terrorism, and said he will talk about information sharing and joint law-enforcement efforts.

Gonzales departs on Saturday for a weeklong trip to Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and China.

"I'm there to listen but I'm also there to try to educate and inform people overseas about our commitment to the rule of law," Gonzales said in an interview.

Gonzales' visit comes amid renewed international scrutiny of U.S. abuse of foreign detainees and new reports of secret CIA prisons overseas.

Earlier this week President George W. Bush defended his government's aggressive action to protect Americans from "terrorism" but said "we do not torture."

U.S. forces have held hundreds of detainees at known facilities outside the United States, like the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The government faced sharp criticism for its handling of detainees after pictures of guards abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq shocked the world.

Gonzales said the government abided by the law.

"I'm not going to defend," he said. "What I am going to do is talk about this administration's commitment to our legal obligations -- we take them very seriously."

"I think (in) our country, unlike other countries, when there are allegations of wrongdoing ... then there are investigations and people are held accountable," he added.

Gonzales said he knew people abroad might disagree with the administration's policy and that he respected "a good healthy debate" on the issue.

"But we have a clear history of showing that when someone makes an allegation about a violation of law, including particularly torture, there is an investigation," he said.

"If people are engaged in unlawful conduct, they're held accountable."

Gonzales said the recent arrests in Australia of 17 people believed to have been plotting militant attacks showed that the threat of attacks was still very real.

"This confirms that the United States and its allies still confront a very dangerous enemy intent on harming America and our friends and allies," he said.

"Sharing information is critical. We all have the same objective and that is to make sure our countries are safe."

Gonzales is likely to be asked in Australia about David Hicks, an Australian who is a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. Hicks was captured with Taliban forces in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Australia said last week the government would investigate claims of sexual abuse against Hicks after his father and a former detainee said he was taken from a U.S. warship and abused in two 10-hour beatings before reaching Guantanamo Bay.

"That's fine," Gonzales said of an Australian inquiry. "If there are allegations that he was abused I would presume that those have been investigated by the Department of Defense, because we'd be concerned about it."

An aide to Gonzales said he decided to visit Jakarta as part of an effort to encourage continued cooperation with Indonesia -- the world's most populous Muslim nation.

In China, Gonzales will ask Beijing for increased criminal enforcement of laws protecting the intellectual property rights of businesses in the United States and elsewhere.