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Torture Memo Author Declines to Appear Before Senate Commission

by Karen Hatter | May 16, 2009 at 06:24 am

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Jay S. Bybee, currently a sitting federal judge on the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, has declined, through his attorneys, to appear before the Senate Subcommittee of Administrative Oversight and the Courts.

A statement released by committee chairman Senator Patrick Leahy stated, it is the presumption in "our" civil law that by not coming forward ".... it is presumed to be because the information is negative and not helpful to his cause."

Judge Bybee, in conjunction with other attorneys in the Office of Legal Council (OLC) provided memoranda, recently released memoranda referred to as torture memos, that sought to justify and clarify what was termed by the Bush admistration "enhanced interrogation techniques" .

Judge Bybee provided the qualifying statement as to what was torture, included in a memo dated August of 2002, sent to Alberto Gonzales, then Council to the President (Bush), with Judge Bybee writing that torture was physical pain corresponding to ".... intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily functions, or even death."

Click here to read the article appearing at Jurist Legal News and Research .

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Amy Judd

at 07:24 on May 16th, 2009

This is not good - it just makes him look guilty in my opinion.

Karen Hatter

at 07:33 on May 16th, 2009

I agree, Amy.

Though, I'd venture, since he is an attorney well aware of the law, he may want to limit the number of statements he could be called to expound upon at a later point in time.

Barbara McPherson

at 08:38 on May 16th, 2009

Thank you for this. The former CIA agent sums it up when he says that the US is the standard. For the US to regain the moral high ground, it must repudiate the use of torture and those who authorized it.