doj lawyer who wrote torture memo

Who was the author of the original torture memo?

Jay Bybee, author of the original "Torture memo". Jay Bybee, then Assistant U.S. Attorney General and head of the OLC, addressed a memorandum to Alberto Gonzales, then Counsel to the President, dated August 1, 2002, titled "Standards for Conduct for Interrogation under 18 U.S.C. 2340-2340A".

What did the DOD use the torture memo to justify?

In 2008, leaders of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees concluded that the memo was used by the DoD to "justify harsh interrogation practices on terror suspects at Guantánamo Bay " and the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse.

What are the Torture Memos of John Yoo?

A set of legal memoranda known as the "Torture Memos" were drafted by John Yoo as Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the United States and signed in August 2002 by Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee, head of the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice.

Who wrote the torture memo that haunted Alberto Gonzales's confirmation hearing?

^ a b c Dean, John W. (January 14, 2005). "The Torture Memo By Judge Jay S. Bybee That Haunted Alberto Gonzales's Confirmation Hearings". FindLaw.

Who signed the torture memo?

A set of legal memoranda known as the " Torture Memos " were drafted by John Yoo as Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the United States and signed in August 2002 by Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee, head of the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice.

What are torture memos?

The term "torture memos" was originally used to refer to three documents prepared by the Office of Legal Counsel at the United States Department of Justice and signed in August 2002: "Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 U.S.C. sections 2340–2340A" and "Interrogation of al Qaeda" (both drafted by Jay Bybee ), ...

What is the primary torture memo?

section 2340 and the interrogation of al Qaeda operatives. This is the primary "torture memo", which defines the Department of Justice's (DOJ) interpretation of torture.

When did the Yoo memos come out?

Following accounts of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq, one of the memos was leaked to the press in June 2004. Jack Goldsmith, then head of the Office of Legal Counsel, had already withdrawn the Yoo memos and advised agencies not to rely on them.

Why was John Yoo criticized?

John Yoo was later harshly criticized by the Department of Justice for failing to cite legal precedent and existing case law when drafting his memos. In particular, the 2009 DOJ report chastises Yoo for failing to cite Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, a seminal case on the powers of the Executive in times of war.

What is the convention against torture?

The memo discusses the Convention Against Torture (which the memo calls the "Torture Convention") and concludes that the convention makes a distinction between torture and "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment", and that therefore torture is "only the most extreme acts", which the memo concludes, together with the ratifying reservations of the United States, confirms the interpretation of torture found in part one. It concludes that torture does not include "other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" because such language is found in a different article than the definition of torture, and because it appears that the convention does not intend to criminalize such action, but instead discourage it. The memo examines the ratification history, and cites U.S. case law stating that the executive branch's interpretation of the treaty "is to be accorded the greatest weight in ascertaining a treaty's intent and meaning". It finds in the congressional record that the Reagan administration understood torture to be "at the extreme end of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment", and that such treatment or punishment, which is not torture, to be "the cruel, unusual, and inhumane treatment or punishment prohibited by the Fifth, Eighth and/or Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States".

When did the CIA request new legal opinions?

In May 2005, the CIA requested new legal opinions about the interrogation techniques it was using. The OLC issued three memos that month, signed by Steven G. Bradbury, ruling on the legality of the authorized techniques if agents followed certain constraints.

Why did Yoo write the memo?

Yoo authored the October 23, 2001 memo asserting that the President had sufficient power to allow the NSA to monitor the communications of US citizens on US soil without a warrant (known as the warrantless wiretap program) because the Fourth Amendment does not apply. As another memo says in a footnote, "Our office recently concluded that the Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations." That interpretation is used to assert that the normal mandatory requirement of a warrant, under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, could be ignored.

When did the Justice Department investigate Yoo?

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) began investigating Yoo's work in 2004 and in July 2009 completed a report that was sharply critical of his legal justification for waterboarding and other interrogation techniques.

What crimes could Yoo be charged with?

Glenn Greenwald has argued that Yoo could potentially be indicted for crimes against the laws and customs of war, the crime of torture, and/or crimes against humanity.

What is the Bybee memo?

Torture memos. See also: Enhanced interrogation techniques. Main article: Torture Memos. In what was known as the Bybee memo, Yoo asserted that executive authority during wartime allows waterboarding and other forms of torture, which were euphemistically referred to as " enhanced interrogation techniques ".

Why did Yoo defend Clinton?

Yet, Yoo has defended President Clinton, for his decision to use force abroad without congressional authorization. He wrote in The Wall Street Journal on March 15, 1999, that Clinton's decision to attack Serbia was constitutional.

How long is Yoo's term?

In December 2020, President Donald Trump appointed Yoo to a four-year term on the National Board for Education Sciences, which advises the Department of Education on scientific research and investments.

What was Yoo's role in the Bush administration?

Yoo became known in the early-2000s for his legal opinions concerning executive power, warrantless wiretapping, and the Geneva Conventions while ser ving in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) of the Department of Justice, during the George W. Bush administration.

Who wrote the memos authorizing the Bush administration to conduct torture?

A former Justice Department official who wrote controversial memos authorizing the Bush administration to conduct torture was the object of a prank by an Australian comedian during one of his recent law class lectures. John Yoo, a former deputy assistant attorney general who has faced intense criticism for authoring constitutionally-questionable memos justifying torture and the ]

Who is Kim Zetter?

Kim Zetter is an award-winning, senior staff reporter at Wir ed covering cybercrime, privacy, and security. She is writing a book about Stuxnet, a digital weapon that was designed to sabotage Iran's nuclear program.

Overview

Responses to the torture memos

Bybee signed the legal memorandum that defined "enhanced interrogation techniques" (including waterboarding), which are now regarded as torture by the Justice Department, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, medical experts, intelligence officials, military judges, and American allies. In 2009, a Spanish judge considered conducting a war crime investigation against Bybee and five other Bush administration figures, but the Attorney General of Spain recommend…

The "Torture Memos"

OLC head Jack Goldsmith's withdrawal of the torture memos

Revised opinion, December 2004

Bradbury memoranda

Revised opinions, 2009

President Obama's repudiation of the torture memos