Gonzales to police: Get 'graphic' in sex crime talk

SPRINGFIELD - U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales recommends authorities become "extremely graphic" in describing sex crimes and exploitation they see perpetrated against children.

"Otherwise, people have a tendency to turn away, to tune out," Gonzales told a group of downstate police and prosecutors gathered Friday at a federal building in Springfield.

Gonzales repeatedly stressed the need to be "graphic" to get the public's attention.

"We have to be very, very graphic in describing what we're discovering over the Internet, for example, the images that we see. Not just young teenage girls in bikinis, but these are images of crimes being committed against our children, of dads having sex with their young daughters, oral sex, defecation," Gonzales said. "I mean, just, we've got to be extremely graphic about what we're seeing because all these images mean that a child has been molested."

The embattled Republican attorney general took no questions from reporters during the 25-minute public discussion and talked only about cracking down on sex crimes and child exploitation.

Later, during a tour of the state Capitol, which included a stop in Gov. Rod Blagojevich's office, Gonzales declined to answer questions when approached by the Daily Herald. As he shook his head no, a staff member approached and said the attorney general was on a tight schedule.

His Illinois appearance came a day after the head of the FBI contradicted Gonzales' sworn testimony about dissent within the Bush administration regarding the president's secret wiretapping program.

Senate Democrats are pushing for a perjury investigation of Gonzales, but the White House backs Gonzales.