Bush/Cheney Pulled Torture Strings
By Robert Parry
March 4, 2010
George W. Bush’s White House stage-managed the Justice Department’s approval of torture techniques by putting pliable lawyers in key jobs, guiding their opinions and punishing officials who wouldn’t go along, according to details contained in an internal report that recommended disciplinary action against two lawyers..................................
“I thought it was important for some senior person in the administration to stand up and defend those people who’d done what we asked them to do,” Cheney said.
A
little-noticed subplot in the OPR’s 289-page report was how the Bush administration got the legal opinions that it wanted from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which advises the President and the Executive Branch on the limits of their legal powers.
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Expanding Bush’s Power
After those meetings, Yoo and his OLC associates added two new sections relating to how presidential power could override the anti-torture statutes and what possible defenses could be used by CIA interrogators who exceeded official guidelines.
Yoo claimed the two sections were added because of internal OLC conversations that he had with his OLC boss, Bybee, and another assistant Patrick Philbin. However, Philbin said he told Yoo that the two sections were superfluous and should be removed.
“According to Philbin, Yoo responded, ‘They want it in there.’Philbin did not know who ‘they’ referred to and did not inquire; rather, he assumed that it was whoever had requested the opinion,” the OPR report said.
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