Conyers Releases Committee Interview of - Torture Memo Author Bybee - Squealing On Yoo

[kpete]

Conyers Releases Committee Interview of Torture Memo Author Bybee and Sends to Justice Department

Bybee: "CIA did not have an opinion from OLC" when it exceeded limits in interrogation memos

For Immediate Release
July 15, 2010 Contact: Nicole Triplett
Jonathan Godfrey

(Washington, D.C.) – House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. D-Mich.) today released the transcript of the Committee’s interview of Judge Jay Bybee, former assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel during the administration of President George W. Bush and author of two of the Bush administration’s most infamous "torture memos."

"This testimony reveals that many brutal techniques reportedly used in CIA interrogations were not authorized by the Justice Department – the author of these legal memos has now admitted this on the record," Conyers said. "These statements are highly relevant to the pending criminal investigation of detainee abuse and I have provided the Committee’s interview to the Justice Department and directed my staff to cooperate with any further requests for information."

"During a recent Committee interview, answers provided by Judge Bybee made very clear that detainee interrogations were not conducted within the ‘four corners’ of the advice provided by the Office of Legal Counsel, and that the close relationship between John Yoo and the administration warrants further investigation," said Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), one of the members involved in questioning Judge Bybee. "Judge Bybee’s disclosures heighten the need for a special counsel to investigate the development and implementation of interrogation policies following the 9/11 attacks and, once again, I call upon the Department of Justice to ensure justice and accountability for these potentially grave abuses of executive power."

"The memos issued from Judge Bybee’s office during his tenure, some authored by John Yoo and others bearing his own signature, have now been widely criticized across the political spectrum for their flawed legal analyses," said Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). "Judge Bybee’s testimony confirms that the Office of Legal Counsel failed to act as an independent and objective source of legal counsel to the administration, and rather saw its role as fashioning a colorable defense for any action President Bush and Vice President Cheney sought to take."

THE REST:
http://judiciary.house.gov/news/100715.html
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/53985

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

The idea that one can legally authorize a criminal act just sets my teeth on edge.

Waterboarding is torture. Torture is illegal. Ergo, waterboarding is illegal. So, you can't legally authorize it.

"brutal" techniques ..anything but the word torture...

[Angry Dragon]

2. This country can not heal until the torturers are

brought to justice........ all of them .... all the way to the top

[fasttense]

3. If the torturers had been prosecuted according to law and treaties, the RepubliCONS wouldn't

be doing so well right now.

If we lose seats this fall, it's because of a failure to prosecute people who broke the law by using torture.