Hullabaloo

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

 
The Torture Lobbyists

by dday

Here's a little nugget buried in an article about developments in the torture investigations:

At the same time, Bush administration lawyers are facing a deadline to respond to a Justice Department ethics investigation into their support for the rough interrogation tactics.

Investigators are evaluating whether former Office of Legal Counsel lawyers John C. Yoo, Jay S. Bybee and Steven G. Bradbury followed professional standards when they drafted memos in 2002 and 2005 that gave a green light to simulated drowning and wall slamming of prisoners.

Sources told The Washington Post earlier this year that an earlier draft of the investigators' report recommended disciplinary referrals to local bar associations for two of the men: Yoo, now a law professor in California, and Bybee, now a federal appeals court judge based in Nevada. The report requires the approval of new Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., and findings could be released as early as this summer, according to two sources familiar with the process.

The Associated Press reports that this DoJ probe is nearing conclusion. If the recommendations fall short of the disciplinary referrals reportedly cited in the earlier draft, can we conclude that Eric Holder softened the report? Well, we can certainly conclude that BushCo landmines at Justice met their desired effect.

Former Bush administration officials are lobbying behind the scenes to push Justice Department leaders to water down an ethics report criticizing lawyers who blessed harsh detainee interrogation tactics, according to two sources familiar with the efforts.

In recent days, attorneys for the subjects of the ethics probe have encouraged senior Bush administration appointees to write and phone Justice Department officials, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the process is not complete.

These "torture lobbyists" include past senior Bush DoJ officials, but I'll bet they also include the burrowed Bush officials at Justice, designated to protect the interests of the previous Administration. Let's see what kind of power they wield.

One hopes comes from the fact that Eric Holder last month dispatched the Bush-era head of the Office of Professional Repsonsibility, where this investigation originated, and replaced him with Mary Patrice Brown, who looks to be a pretty tough character. Ultimately, though, Holder must sign off on the report.

...Here's the latest: Devlin Barrett of the AP gets a sneak peek at the report - or maybe just helps the Justice Department float a trial balloon - showing that the professional sanctions remain intact, but that's as far as it goes:

Bush administration lawyers who approved harsh interrogation techniques of terror suspects should not face criminal charges, Justice Department investigators say in a draft report that recommends two of the three attorneys face possible professional sanctions [...]

Officials conducting the internal Justice Department inquiry into the lawyers who wrote those memos have recommended referring two of the three lawyers — John Yoo and Jay Bybee — to state bar associations for possible disciplinary action, according to a person familiar with the inquiry. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was not authorized to discuss the inquiry.

The person noted that the investigative report was still in draft form and subject to revisions. Attorney General Eric Holder also may make his own determination about what steps to take once the report has been finalized [...]

Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, called the decision not to seek criminal charges "inconceivable, given all that we know about the twisted logic of these memos."

Warren argued the only reason for such a decision "is to provide political cover for people inside the Obama White House so they don't have to pursue what needs to be done."

They've gone back and forth on this several times. But this really would be definitive. There needs to be a very loud reaction to this.


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dday 5/05/2009 04:00:00 PM |