DOJ Closed the Books on CIA/GITMO/Interrogation Probe

Last month.
Obama and Holder did not want to open up this Pandora’s box.

The Justice Department is closing the books on its probe of the Bush administration lawyers whose legal memorandums authorized the CIA to waterboard terrorism suspects….

An internal review said the department lawyers showed “poor judgment” but did not commit professional misconduct in giving CIA interrogators the go-ahead at the height of the U.S. war on terrorism to use harsh interrogation tactics.

“Poor judgement”? For not playing patty-cake with Islamic shitbags who were in the middle of planning/carrying out more attacks against America?

……Liberal Democrats had pressed for action against the authors of the so-called torture memos, and they indicated they aren’t finished discussing the matter.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he was “deeply offended” by the legal memos and planned to hold a hearing Feb. 26.

“I have serious concerns about the role each of these government lawyers played in the development of these policies,” Leahy said in a statement posted on his Web site.

Clueless assholes like Leahy are offensive.

An initial review by the Justice Department’s internal affairs unit found that former government lawyers Jay Bybee and John Yoo had committed professional misconduct, a conclusion that could have cost them their law licenses. But, underscoring just how controversial and legally thorny the memos have become, the Justice Department’s top career lawyer reviewed the matter and disagreed.

“Thorny”…like the fact that the interrogations worked. Yeah, I can see how that would be embarrassing thorny for the Dems.

“This decision should not be viewed as an endorsement of the legal work that underlies those memoranda,” Assistant Deputy Attorney General David Margolis wrote in a memo released Friday.

Margolis, the top nonpolitical Justice Department lawyer and a veteran of several administrations, called the legal memos “flawed” and said that, at every opportunity, they gave interrogators as much leeway as possible under U.S. torture laws. But he said Yoo and Bybee were not reckless and did not knowingly give incorrect advice, the standard for misconduct.

……Yoo is now a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Bybee is a federal judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco. The decision spares them any immediate sanctions, though state bar associations could independently take up the matter.

The memos authorized CIA interrogators to use waterboarding, keep detainees naked, hold them in painful standing positions and keep them in the cold for long periods of time. Other techniques included depriving them of solid food and slapping them. Sleep deprivation, prolonged shackling and threats to a detainee’s family were also used.

Considering the prisoners were cutthroats like Khalid Sheik Muhammad, I would’ve thrown in a 12 volt battery and maybe even a cattle prod.

……Republicans said the memos, authored by two well-respected attorneys, gave the CIA the authority it needed to keep America safe in the panic-filled months after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The memos were hurriedly put together in days, and supporters of Yoo and Bybee note that investigators have had years to dissect them.

Many have criticized the Obama administration for trying to politicize legal advice.

He politicized the methods because the truth is too inconvenient.

……Yoo’s lawyer, Miguel Estrada, was more pointed. During the lengthy investigation, Estrada accused internal investigators of trying to be “Junior Varsity CIA” that second-guessed intelligence decisions. Friday, he said the two lawyers never deserved to be investigated in the first place.

Obama has said CIA interrogators who relied on the memos will not face charges for their behavior. A separate criminal inquiry is under way into whether a handful of CIA operatives crossed the line, leading to the death of detainees.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100220/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_interrogation_memos

http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/report-interrogation-techniques-work/

http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/obamas-doj-wants-to-reopen-cia-interrogation-cases/

http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/you-want-torture/

http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/obama-open-to-possible-prosecution-of-bush-era-officials/