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TRADING SECURITY FOR POLITICS
Survey after survey shows that the American people do not want more investigations of how interrogations of terrorists were conducted. Most agree—including the current administration—that it’s time to look forward, not backward.
...dedicated public officials may have honest disagreements on difficult matters of legal judgment without violating ethical standards.
—Maureen Mahoney, Bybee Attorney
Judge Jay Bybee and other attorneys from the Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel were asked by the CIA for a reasoned opinion on how to handle the questioning of individuals that helped plan and carry out the 9/11 attacks. But now many of those attorneys are caught in the crosshairs of interest groups who want to prosecute, impeach and/or disbar them for doing their job.
The United States of America has never before held “show trials” where one administration punished its predecessors for its policies. But that is what some members of Congress are suggesting. Presidential attorneys have never before been expected to consider the political ramifications of their opinions, nor have they been attacked by their political opponents for their opinions after leaving office. To set such a precedent would prevent future advisors/attorneys to every president from giving the best advice for fear of possible recriminations.
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From the National Review, read how the House Dems launched a sneak attack on the CIA by inserting into an intelligence authorization bill a provision that would criminalize the CIA's use of certain interrogation tactics. Fortunately, it was detected and dumped, but it's just one more example of the animosity on the left towards the CIA.
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It’s becoming clear that Eric Holder has packed the Justice Department full of lawyers who previously represented terrorists. Yet he is stonewalling senators who want to know who they are. Of nine current Justice Department lawyers who defended terrorist-detainees, why can’t we know their names?
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It's what NRO calls a "Friday Night Hack Attack"—the news dump on Friday, February 19 by Attorney General Holder clearing Judge Bybee and John Yoo. Other opinions were far more devastating. Says Miguel Estrada, "Having seen OPR’s work and tactics up close, I would have a hard time choosing one dominant trait in their approach. It is probably a three-way tie between stupidity, rank incompetence, and partisan malignancy.” Read this assessment of the OLC's tainted process for evaluating the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel in this deadly serious matter.
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GREAT NEWS! A senior Justice Department official has cleared Judge Bybee and John Yoo for their handling of the 9/11-era memos re: enhanced interrogations techniques. Let's hope this is the end of the partisan process to punish these public servants for their work in the Bush Administration. It's time for all fair-minded citizens (and legislators) to move on, and rather than trying to settle political scores, address the national security issues that face our country today.
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So after five years of investigation, partisan accusations and unethical media leaks, the Justice Department's senior ethicist has determined that Judge Jay Bybee and John Yoo committed no professional misconduct. Not only that, but their campaign, according to this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, has been exposed as a partisan, unethical smear job. Could the perpetrators be in for some legal trouble of their own?
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Watching Obama put his antiterror policies into effect is to vindicate Dick Cheney. That's according to this opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, that speculates our current attorney general may eventually have to explain why he's decided that the best place to try KSM is a military tribunal—in Guantanamo!
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Check out this story by Josh Gerstein...Senator Kit Bond is accusing the White House of releasing sensitive national security information to the press when the White House gave reporters a detailed background briefing on how FBI interrogators used the Christmas Day bomber suspect's family to win his trust. It would be a devastating charge if true, as it smells of politics!
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Check out this story from Politico...Pressure is building among Republican and Democrat legislators alike to keep terror trials out of the U.S. A bipartisan group of 18 senators is trying to yank the funding for KSM and other trials.
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Is the Obama Admistration tone-deaf to terrorism? That's what The Post's Richard Cohen suspects. "There is almost nothing the Obama administration does regarding terrorism that makes me feel safer..."
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Read from the Washington Post how U.S. Intelligence Chief Dennis C. Blair gives a sizzling critique of the government's decision to treat the Christmas day attacker as a common criminal when his plane landed.
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Just how has the Democrat party attacked the CIA? Let me count the ways...Check out this article by Mike Hall that chronicles how the party of FDR has made us less safe as a country with its actions over the past 35 years.
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Check out the Washington Post...According to former CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson, "Certain of the techniques seemed to have little effect, whereas waterboarding and sleep deprivation were the two most powerful techniques and elicited a lot of information." Read how one detainee became a CIA asset.
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Newly released...CIA Inspector General's Report.
Download here.
Check out our new FACTS section, just updated with fresh, new documents. See well-sourced history of CIA memo. Pass along the "real facts" to interested parties!
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LATEST HEADLINES
The lawyers who really should be punished for engaging in incompetent and possibly unethical behavior are the OPR lawyers who conducted a biased witch hunt and leaked defamatory information to the press.
Hans A. von Spakovsky, Washington Times, February 25, 2010... Read article
Margolis’ bottom line was that Bybee and Yoo did not "knowingly or recklessly provide incorrect legal advice or [act] in bad faith" and thus violated no ethical standard. On the other hand, somebody else did violate an ethical standard. That would be whoever leaked last year the conclusions of the confidential, now-overruled OPR draft attacking Bybee and Yoo. When will the attorney general order an internal investigation of that?
Stuart Taylor, National Journal, February 27, 2010... Read article
Department of Justice Reports detail the facts of the case against Judge Bybee and John Yoo, as well as the responses of Bybee and Yoo and the report that clears them. See the:
OPR Final Report... Read article
Margolis Report... Read article
Bybee Response to OPR Final Report... Read article
Yoo Response to OPR Final Report... Read article
A "withering" analysis of the OPR's initial report in the "interrogations memo" matter cites mistakes, politics, a lack of consideration of context, direct contradictions, omissions, legal errors and more. In his January 2009 letter, we now know why Attorney General Michael Mukasey recommended against premature release of the report.
Andy McCarthy, National Review, February 20, 2010... Read article
Finally, a healthy exoneration for Judge Bybee and John Yoo! No president now, or in the future, can operate effectively if his advisers believe they may be taken to court for offering advice the next president dislikes.
Editorial, Providence Journal, February 19, 2010... Read article
“Thousands are already dead because of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s choices. We do not want to see hundreds of thousands dead because of the Attorney General’s choices.”
Jane Meyer, The New Yorker, February 15, 2010... Read article
Senator Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, is suggesting that the Obama administration made a mistake in planning a terrorist trial in NYC, and seems to think a military base might be appropriate.
Eric Zimmermann, The Hill, February 1, 2010...
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The real scandal surrounding the failed Christmas Day airline bombing was what happened after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab came under the full control of the U.S. government. After 50 minutes of questioning, the Obama administration chose, reflexively and mindlessly, to give the chatty terrorist the right to remain silent. Which he immediately did...
Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, January 29, 2010...
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Though President Obama has said repeatedly that we are at war, it does not appear to us that the President’s words are reflected in the actions of some in the Executive branch, including some at the Department of Justice, responsible for fighting that war.
Chair and Ranking Member of Senate Homeland Security Committee, January 25, 2010...
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This is a stunning admission from a senator who reveals the reason the White House held up the release of the DOJ report on Judge Bybee and John Yoo for months. Can you say health care bill? That's right—to ensure the bill's passage, the White House embargoed the report in order to avoid angering Republicans. This is becoming increasingly familiar: a Justice Department that is steeped in the politics of decisions that affect every aspect of American society.
Jason Leopold, OpEdNews.com, January 26, 2010...
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Says Rowan Scarborough, President Obama’s priority of distancing himself from his predecessor has left American less safe after one year. A long list of policy decisions is to blame.
Rowan Scarborough, Human Events, January 20, 2010...
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This description of the CIA’s questioning of suspected terrorists debunks many myths, such as supposition that pain is inflicted gratuitously, that the enhanced interrogation techniques were applied to elicit information, or that it didn’t prevent another 9/11.
Marc A. Thiessen, National Review Online, January 18, 2010...
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If indeed AG Holder believes waterboarding is torture, and any evidence obtained after Mohammed's waterboarding is ruled inadmissible at trial, the government will likely have to rely on evidence that predates the waterboarding, including Mohammed's 2002 statement in which he took credit for the 9-11 attack.
Massimo Calabresi, Time Magazine, November 13, 2009...
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