The Fabrications of Jay S. Bybee
By Martin Garbus
May 14, 2009
... Bybee makes sure there are no facts in the memorandum to contradict him. I felt sick as I read it. In his August 2002 memo Bybee writes, "We also understand that you do not have any facts in your possession contrary to the facts outlined here and this opinion is limited to these facts. If these facts were to change, this advice would not necessarily apply."
Nothing in Bybee's memo is based on firsthand knowledge. He tries to protect himself from the possibility of contradiction or responsibility as he keeps total deniability.
Throughout the memo, he gives himself outs and defenses, but he is too subtle to argue for one position or another. He relies on oral information from individual parties so that there are no written records to support or contradict his "facts." He can always say, moreover, if a "source" is identifiable, that it was someone else who gave him the information.
He keeps it all ambiguous and attributes the transparently false statements to someone else. Bybee prefaces factual statements with language that passes responsibility to the CIA: "...your intelligence indicates..."; "Based on the information you have provided...."
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090601/garbus