But Judge Bybee does not:
Judge Bybee said he was issuing a statement following reports that he had regrets over his role in the memorandums, including an article in The Washington Post on Saturday to that effect. Given the widespread criticism of the memorandums, he said he would have done some things differently, like clarifying and sharpening the analysis of some of his answers to help the public better understand the basis for his conclusions.
But he said: “The central question for lawyers was a narrow one; locate, under the statutory definition, the thin line between harsh treatment of a high-ranking Al Qaeda terrorist that is not torture and harsh treatment that is. I believed at the time, and continue to believe today, that the conclusions were legally correct.”
Other administration lawyers agreed with those conclusions, Judge Bybee said.
“The legal question was and is difficult,” he said. “And the stakes for the country were significant no matter what our opinion. In that context, we gave our best, honest advice, based on our good-faith analysis of the law.”
Kind of makes that WaPo piece with all of Bybee’s friends announcing his regrets look funny. Not sure how you square that piece with the statement today from Bybee. You know what they say, though- in for a penny, in for pounding a child’s testicles.
4tehlulz
So he didn’t do anything wrong except for an intellectual exercise to determine how many kid’s nuts can be impaled on the head of a pin.
Haven’t we all wondered that at one time or another? If Bybee is guilty, then we’re all guilty.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Without, you know, any sort of determination as to who was or wasn’t a high-ranking A-Q terrorist. We weren’t asked to think about that. Plus, the stakes were high and 9/11 changed everything.
Shit like this helps me understand why my dad started reciting dead lawyer jokes when I got into law school.
robertdsc
It would be too kind to subject him to the same treatment the AQ guys received. It would almost be worth it to drain the life out of this fucker.
p.a.
Was it just something as banal as keeping their jobs with these people? We can all understand someone stealing bread to feed the family, but Bybee and co. had reached a social level where they would have had a soft landing if they had just resigned in protest- if they really thought torture was wrong. Didn’t even have to make a public statement and so become a target of the Cheney Gang; just issue the ‘Spend More Time With Family’ press release.
On the other hand (here comes the national self-analysis), if they believe(d) in torture, what does it say about us as a nation that these monsters gained the position they did in American society?
Oh yeah. Almost forgot; no one resigns in protest or disgrace here anymore, right?
MattF
Oh, well. So much for “more-or-less honorable”, and back to “Impeach the cocksucker”.
kay
Professor Blakesley said that while he liked Judge Bybee, “he has some basic flaws including being very naïve about leaders.”
“He has too much respect for authority and will avoid a confrontation no matter what,” the professor continued.
Dear Lord. I’m so glad he has a life-time tenure with these stellar personal qualities.
He’s a coward and a go along to get along. They picked the right guy.
Redhand
The fact that Bybee pegs his analysis on “the central question” of what acts are possible against “a high-ranking Al Qaeda terrorist” just underscores how full of shit he is, and how completely bogus his opinion was.
The definition of torture under the Convention Against Torture, which is part of US law, speaks in terms of conduct against “a person.” Article 2 of the Convention flatly states:
“No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.”
The whole premise of Bybee’s memo was completely flawed from the get-go. Of course, this also gives the lie to Dick Cheney’s “Yeah, but lookit’ how effective is was” nonsense. What these guys authorized was torture, and a serious crime under US law.
matoko_chan
It is interesting that on this issue, exactly like on Palin, the rightside braintrust seems to be entirely divided from the base, with the exception of the usual suspects like the mad shamans at NRO.
Waiting for First Things.
Also….the base does know that torture is wrong. Try postulating a jackbauer scenario that involves machiavellian pragmatism applied to rape as a method instead of torture and they wig out…..”sickening, disgusting, we would NEVER do that.”
What is the Aristotelian/Thomist distinction between rape and torture?
Svensker
@4tehlulz:
LOL
Svensker
@p.a.:
Actually, quite a few Foreign Service Officers resigned in protest at the start of the Iraq war.
Comrade Dread
Shorter Bybee:
I regret not thinking that that stupid liberal commie secret Muslim was gonna let the stupid public see what I wrote, or I would have used more euphemisms to make my legal advice seem less heinous.
BRD
Here, fixed it:
“In that context, we gave our best, honest advice, based on our
good-faith analysis of the lawhope that the documents would remain classified in perpetuity and knowledge that one absolutely doesn’t cross Dick Cheney or Karl Rove”Note the “we”, too – it was peer group pressure made him do it!
Thingumbob
What’s in a word? “Harsh interrogation techniques”– formerly known as torture. Hmm. I guess noticing Orwellian doublespeak has become passe these days.
Margarita
That’s why we need a court to resolve this.
He and Cheney and everyone else still defending the correctness of torture eliminates the option of just moving “forward.” It’s not about retribution, vindictiveness, and scapegoating. It’s not about excusing excesses done in the heat of crisis. It’s about their repeated promises that they’ll do the same thing all over again.
Why isn’t this obvious to anyone whose opinion counts?
slag
What disturbs me the most is the basic question: How much of our judiciary is composed of guys like this? Doesn’t being a judge mean that you’re supposed to have good judgment?
Martin
It seems to me that rape would meet the definition of ‘enhanced interrogation/not torture’. Has anyone asked one of the torture boosters if it would have been okay to rape a high-ranking female Al Qaeda member 183 times?
I’d like to hear the defense of that played out on CNN.
Mnemosyne
@matoko_chan:
We already know that several prisoners were threatened with rape. Eventually, it will come out that at least one “interrogator” followed through on the threat, though it probably will involve a prisoner in Iraq and not one at Gitmo.
Be prepared for your friends to do a 180 and start claiming that rape doesn’t count as torture once the news breaks.
Stefan
It seems to me that rape would meet the definition of ‘enhanced interrogation/not torture’. Has anyone asked one of the torture boosters if it would have been okay to rape a high-ranking female Al Qaeda member 183 times?
But it’s not rape, it’s merely “enhanced seduction procedures” or “harsh lovemaking techniques”…..
b-psycho
Two things on that:
1) the likelihood of a high-ranking female member is nil.
2) Considering the extent of the enthusiasm, I doubt they’d care if it wasn’t a woman. Yes, I sincerely believe these cretins would order the buttfucking of a dude in the name of “security” — without realizing the irony of people that roll w/ homophobes co-signing anal.
SGEW
“New Details of Prison Abuse Emerge: Abu Ghraib Detainees’ Statements Describe Sexual Humiliation And Savage Beatings,” May 21st, 2004:
Keep on walking, Peggy.
Xanthippas
Awesome.
SGEW
Hey, this is kind of big: Jim Manzi at NRO’s The Corner comes out against waterboarding:
I credit Larison’s takedown of his original post.
[also posted on th’ open thread]
Thom
It looks funny, but not in the way you say. Bybee sent his “friends” – six in a single article, two on the record – to express his “regrets” for the memo. He lets that sink in, then “responds” to the story that he initiated by defending, with great piety, the tortuous work he and other poor souls had to do in those POST 9/11!!!! days. It’s pure Rovian newsmaking. Now both stories are true; he regrets it; he defends it.
I hope a rat chews his anus out in prison.
KRK
…but then again, too few to mention.
TenguPhule
This only means you are all complete monsters that need to be staked through the heart, beheaded, burned and have your ashes scattered to the four winds.