Crooked lawyers must be set straight
By William ChamberlinThe Guardsman
David Margolis, associate deputy attorney general, handed down a memo Jan. 5 stating that Jay Bybee and John Yoo are not going to face criminal misconduct charges for their collaborated Bybee Memo.
The Bybee Memo was drafted and signed by Office of Legal Counsel lawyers Jay S. Bybee and John Yoo, who served in the Bush administration, to essentially authorize serious torture techniques. One infamous technique was waterboarding, consisting of someone lying on their back as water is poured over their head which simulates drowning and can cause brain damage due to a lack of oxygen.
Did the bloody gloves not fit? Well, actually, they fit surprisingly well, Margolis just decided not to act on the information.
The Office of Professional Responsibility, a watchdog over the Department of Justice, issued a report July 29, 2009 that reviewed the Bybee Memo. The OPR concluded that Bybee and Yoo were guilty of professional misconduct, that their analysis was not thorough, and that they needed to be reported to their respective state bar jurisdictions for disciplinary action.
Margolis came to a decision of his own, finding Yoo and Bybee not guilty of professional misconduct, but rather that they used poor judgment in coming to their decision. He felt since there was no direct violation of the law, the lawyers could not be charged with a crime.
This is a country that has laws prohibiting “cruel and unusual punishment,” but perhaps Yoo and Bybee meant well and they were truly expressing their patriotism. Maybe they should be hailed for their initiative in approving torture. It’s too bad the majority of this country has a conscience, otherwise we could take the old chisel back to Rushmore on behalf of these progressive thinkers.
Be careful if you shake Yoo’s or Bybee’s hands , they just got their wrists slapped pretty hard; though they should be able to find a way to get by since they have moved on to jobs that don’t require them to make important decisions or have an excellent ability of presenting information. Oh wait! John Yoo is currently a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and Jay Bybee is a federal judge.
Torture is the most sensible way to get the enemy to renounce their ties. Damage their brains and then perhaps they’ll spill the beans on where Bin Laden is hiding, what other rebel armies are training, and where the good oil is at?
There are never any easy answers when dealing with prisoners of war, especially when dealing with individuals who have killed many innocent people. Resorting to an option that puts this entire country behind a letter that not only legalized, but endorsed torture techniques seems like submitting to the old philosophy of “if you can’t beat them, join them.” The Bybee Memo nearly adopts the attitude of the enemy and applies it to the terrorists U.S. forces are now terrorizing.
The memo Bybee and Yoo drafted and signed was essentially a document that allowed the U.S. to participate in these acts of barbaric torture, to participate in the cruelty, mutilation and exploitation we’re fighting a war to stop. We did not vote that into office.
