Official Defends Signing Interrogation Memos

[kpete]

Source: New York Times

Official Defends Signing Interrogation Memos

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By NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: April 28, 2009

WASHINGTON — Judge Jay S. Bybee broke his silence on Tuesday and defended the conclusions of legal memorandums he had signed as a Bush administration lawyer that allowed use of several coercive interrogation practices on suspected terrorists.

Judge Bybee, who issued the memorandums as the head of the Office of Legal Counsel and was later nominated to the federal appeals court by President George W. Bush, said in a statement in response to questions from The New York Times that he continued to believe that the memorandums represented “a good-faith analysis of the law” that properly defined the thin line between harsh treatment and torture.

As the head of the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department, Mr. Bybee signed two memorandums in August 2002 that discussed the legal limits on American interrogators seeking to apply pressure on captured operatives of Al Qaeda.

The two memorandums, which provided a basis for the use of techniques like waterboarding, sleep deprivation and isolation under certain restrictions, provoked a storm of controversy and a debate about whether Bush administration lawyers had provided legal cover for torture.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/us/politics/29bybee.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

[bluebellbaby]

1. They created the Memo's after Torture was already being done!

Here's a timeline of events...look for yourself...

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/timeline-collection/torture-tape-timeline/

So...in this light...it doesn't matter what he claims now...who knows if there are more memo's or emails or correspondences that show this intentional attempt to circumvent our laws and treaties...?

[Demeter]

2. Na-Na-Na-Nah, Na-Na-Na-Nah, Hey Hey, Good-Bye!

It sucks to be a Bushbot.

[jordi_fanclub]

3. Dear A**hole...

War crimes will be prosecuted, war criminals will be punished
and it will be no defense to say, “I was just following orders.”
Guess who said that: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/28/bush-torture-flashback/

Get used to something like this:

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Excellent photo! You should put this out as a thread and I'll K&R it.

[Wizard777]

5. Impeach him!

[MasonJar]

6. Waterboard the bastard and then impeach him.

[LynnTheDem]

7. There is no "thin line". The US Military field manual, US law, international law

via the Geneva Conventions, makes it very clear exactly what is and what isn't torture.

Waterboarding is torture/ Waterboarding has always been considered torture.

America has EXECUTED people who waterboarded Americans.

Fact: waterboarding is torture.

[Winterblues]

8. How could they possibly have been "in good faith" when there are so many

case histories of the USA prosecuting for just such incidents? It was more than simple negligence, it was malfeasance.

[The Magistrate]

9. Bybee Must Be Impeached, Ma'am

It is the best way to get the ball rolling on this....