My Fellow Prisoners, Be of Good Cheer: Cheney and Gonzales Indicted for Prisoner Abuse

AP: Cheney and Gonzales Indicted for Prisoner Abuse

By Scott Horton

Originally published November 18, 2008 in No Comment on Harpers.org

No this is not a hoax. The indictment was handed down by a South Texas grand jury in Willacy County, the scene of some recent bizarre federal prison projects which have been hounded by serious corruption allegations. AP reports:

A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on state charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County’s federal detention centers. The indictment, which had not yet been signed by the presiding judge, was one of seven released Tuesday in a county that has been a source of bizarre legal and political battles in recent years. Another of the indictments named a state senator on charges of profiting from his position.

Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra himself had been under indictment for more than a year and half before a judge dismissed the indictments last month. This flurry of charges came in the twilight of Guerra’s tenure, which ends this year after nearly two decades in office. He lost convincingly in a Democratic primary in March.

I spoke with the District Attorney involved, Juan Angel Guerra, earlier this year. He claimed he had been targeted himself by a criminal investigation designed to stop his probe of corruption relating to a federal prison project. I wasn’t able to make sense of the matter, and, after reading the AP report, still can’t. But Cheney and Gonzales should definitely be investigated, and the charges sound just right.