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DOJ Clears Bush Lawyers In ‘Torture’ Memo Probe
Much to the chagrin of leftists everywhere, the DOJ will clear Bush administration lawyers of any professional misconduct in a soon-to-be-released report.
While the probe is sharply critical of the legal reasoning used to justify waterboarding and other “enhanced” interrogation techniques, NEWSWEEK has learned that a senior Justice official who did the final review of the report softened an earlier OPR finding. Previously, the report concluded that two key authors—Jay Bybee, now a federal appellate court judge, and John Yoo, now a law professor—violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted a crucial 2002 memo approving the use of harsh tactics, say two Justice sources who asked for anonymity discussing an internal matter. But the reviewer, career veteran David Margolis, downgraded that assessment to say they showed “poor judgment,” say the sources. (Under department rules, poor judgment does not constitute professional misconduct.) The shift is significant: the original finding would have triggered a referral to state bar associations for potential disciplinary action—which, in Bybee’s case, could have led to an impeachment inquiry.
As much as he would have loved to, not even Eric Holder was dumb enough to try and prosecute the lawyers from the previous administration. Obama’s presidency would have gone down in flames and Democrats wouldn’t be elected to high office again for 50 years.
Speaking of going down in flames, Jon Stewart got his ass handed to him by John Yoo recently. (Click HERE to buy Yoo’s book, Crisis and Command)
The entire controversy surrounding the Bush administration’s approach to fighting terrorism has proven to be misguided and largely political. President Obama has emboldened our enemies and put this nation at risk with his naive leftist ideology.
You can look for Eric Holder’s crusade against the CIA interrogators to end much like this phony case did.
It’s really too bad the DOJ couldn’t find the time to prosecute Black Panthers for intimidating voters outside a polling place, but found time to attempt a phony case against President Bush’s lawyers — simply for giving legal advice.
-Chris Jones
Video: John Yoo On Jon Stewart
This is a pretty interesting interview. Stewart actually conducted a respectful interview and seemed like he genuinely wanted to understand the complicated legal questions. Meanwhile, his audience was small minded and moronic as usual.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Daily Show: Exclusive – John Yoo Extended Interview Pt. 1 | ||||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Exclusive – John Yoo Extended Interview Pt. 2 | ||||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Exclusive – John Yoo Extended Interview Pt. 3 | ||||
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(hat tip The Right Scoop)
Cheney Officially Asks For Release Of Two Classified Documents
It looks like the Obama administrations attempt to smear the Bush administration by releasing the “torture” memos has taken on a life its own.
After telling Sean Hannity that he intends to push for declassification of documents showing what was gained from enhanced interrogation — has done just that.
Dick Cheney personally filled out forms in his own hand and submitted it the National Archives’ Presidential Libraries requesting that two specific documents be declassified.
The forms have since been forwarded to the CIA for processing.
This is starting to get good.
Obama Flirts With Show Trials For Former Bush Lawyers
I really wish this whole thing would just go away. Not because I think anyone is going to be prosecuted, but because of the absurdity of it all.
The newly released CIA memos did exactly what Obama intended them to do, inflame his kooky left-wing base.
Obama has said all along his intention is to “look forward” rather than get caught up in phony manufactured issues from the Bush era.
He gave reassurance to the CIA that no one at the agency will be prosecuted for keeping us safe for the last seven years.
However, he left the door open for his Attorney General to prosecute former Bush lawyers for their advice that led to enhanced interrogation.
It’s hysterically funny to imagine the Justice Department prosecuting members of the previous Justice Department for giving the president legal advice.
Obama is too much of a committed a liberal to allow his socialist agenda to go down the shitter for a couple of show trials. The opportunity to turn America into France may never come again.
They have no leg to stand on legally anyway, and it would set a horrible precedent that republicans would be sure to get even with once back in power.
Secondly, the opinions issued by the Bush era lawyers regarding interrogation were completely legitimate.
Moreover, democrats will have to put Nancy Pelosi and other top democrats on trial as well since we know they were fully briefed on interrogations including waterboarding as far back as 2002.
At the end of the day, all the newly released memos did was confirm what most clear thinking Americans already knew anyway — that there was no torture.
As someone who’s pro-torture, I was somewhat disappointed by what I read.
The techniques described in the memos were highly effective enhanced interrogation techniques and nothing more.
Only big pinko pussies would call anything described in those memos as “torture.”
Obama is just keeping this thing hanging out there as a bone for the kooks in his party to gnaw on while he works on getting his agenda passed.
When it comes to prosecuting Bush officials, allow me to borrow a line from the former president and say, bring it on.
-Chris Jones
Dick Cheney Moving To Declassify Reports Showing Success Of Interrogation Program
Former Vice President Dick Cheney will appear on “Hannity” tonight where he is expected to tell Sean the following:
“One of the things that I find a little bit disturbing about this recent disclosure is they put out the legal memos, the memos that the CIA got from the Office of Legal Counsel, but they didn’t put out the memos that showed the success of the effort. And there are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity. They have not been declassified.”
“I formally asked that they be declassified now. I haven’t announced this up until now, I haven’t talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country.”
“And I’ve now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was, as well as to see this debate over the legal opinions.”
This is just too awesome. The Obama administration released those documents in an attempt to further discredit and smear the Bush administration at the expense of our national security. It’s gonna be a beautiful day for America when the “torture” cry-babies are exposed as the left-wing pussies they are. Everyone involved in the interrogation programs says it was a success, now it’s time to lay it out.
-Chris Jones
