Friday, February 19, 2010

JUST POOR JUDGMENT

From the Kansas City Star:

Two former high-level Bush administration officials who provided legal justification for harsh interrogations of overseas terror suspects are likely to escape any formal punishment now that the Justice Department has concluded they should not be held legally responsible.

In a long-awaited report released early Friday evening, Deputy Associate Attorney General David Margolis said that former department lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee should not have their law licenses revoked as a consequence of their legal advice to the Bush administration signing off on the controversial interrogation methods.

In a 69-page legal memo, Margolis concluded "that these memos contained significant flaws. But as all that glitters is not gold, all flaws do not constitute professional misconduct. ... I conclude that Yoo and Bybee exercised poor judgment by overstating the certainty of their conclusions and underexposing countervailing arguments."

So. The Bush administration lawyers who advised that "enhanced interrogation techniques" were allowable will suffer no consequences, not even loss of their licenses.

Obama ordered no more torture, but what kind of precedent is set by the decision to let these men off the hook? What about a future president who decides that torture is permissible?

11 comments:

  1. It's BS and as far as I am concerned, Margolis is now an accomplice after the fact of torture. Add him to the list of war criminals.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's only a matter of time before a President from either party decides his opposition are all "terrorists."

    And speaking of torture without consequences, how about police departments around the country going all taser-happy?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lawyers protecting lawyers; politicians protecting politicians.

    "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

    ReplyDelete
  4. Of course I´m ANGRY!

    Injustice from the Justice Department makes me sick (but then, it always has, and the sickening part is, they, and their accomplices, wave the American Flag while they are sticking it...you know where!).

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't think they're off the hook at all. They'll answer for what they've done. In this life or the next.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's always something, dammit! I am incapable of coherence at this point!

    ReplyDelete
  7. maybe they all need a dose of waterboarding

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm close to despair about our country. I hope that this is not the end of the story.

    Anyone who supports the view that waterboarding is not torture should prove their sincerity by testing it out.

    Of all people, former Rep. Bob Barr (R) said at the CPAC convention (conservative Republicans and independents) that waterboarding is torture, and he was roundly booed.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I read that Yoo also said that the President had the right to order the massacre of a civilian village. (as far as we know, he did not avail himself of this "right") WTF was Cal thinking of to offer him a Law School professorship?

    Evil.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Susankay "WTF was Cal thinking of to offer him a Law School professorship?"

    Why, MONEY of course... 30 pieces of silver no doubt.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The Federal Department of Justice is not responsible for licensing lawyers or disbarring them, but rather (typically) the court system in any state in which they are licensed. Any of these lawyers are subject to disciplinary proceedings that could lead to disbarment in any of the states in which they are licensed to practice law, and the Department of Justice would have nothing to do with that procedure. Also, federal district and appellate courts independently admit lawyers to the bar of their court, and they are not bound by the Justice Department either.

    Can you imagine the reaction of a judge who is told by Mr. Margolis how he or she should decide such an issue?

    ReplyDelete

Anonymous commenters, please sign a name, any name, to distinguish one anonymous commenter from another. Thank you.