This afternoon, more than 200 Washington University students and St. Louis citizens gathered together to protest former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as he came to speak at Washington University.

Gonzales was invited to speak by the Wash. U. College Republicans, who, in conjunction with the Wash. U. Student Union executive board, paid him $30,000 to speak. Students and community members upset with the decision of the Wash. U. groups and the actions of Alberto Gonzales protested outside of the building.

Protesters marched up Delmar and Big Bend dressed in orange jumpsuits like the one worn by prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison shouting “Stop torture now, A-L-B-E-R-T-O, shut down Guantanamo” and other chants chastising the actions of Gonzales. While some protesters wanted to “let Washington University know that they have made a bad mistake in paying Mr. Gonzales to speak,” others agreed with the decision to bring him to Wash. U. but still wanted to make sure that people understood the problems with his views on torture and disregard for the Geneva Conventions.

In his speech, Gonzales addressed the protesters by mentioning that oftentimes some of the biggest protesters don’t even vote. He challenged protesters and students alike to “step into the arena” and serve their country. Gonzales said he “disagreed with those who say [Americans] have lost our way,” and explained that he believed current United State enemies did not deserve all the specific protections of the Geneva Conventions because they were not fighting lawfully. When asked how he would react to American soldiers being waterboarded, Gonzales said there was a distinction between American soldiers and their enemies because American soldiers fight lawful wars. As a result, his reaction to waterboarding American soldiers would be, “Don’t do that. Shouldn’t do that.”

Gonzales received a combination of boos and applause for his speech and was interrupted once by a sophomore who shouted “Perjurer, you broke the law; You should be in jail,” before walking out of the speech.