[Sosfbay-discuss] Justice Dept. Report May Whack John "Torture Memo" Yoo

[Brian Good]

    Michael Isikoff writes in Newsweek that the DOJ Office of Professional
Responsibility has been investigating whether the legal advice 
authorizing torture met DOJ professional standards.   Their draft report
criticizing John Yoo, Jay Bybee, and Steven Bradbury angered 
then-Attorney General Mukasey when it was submitted to him late
last year.  It is currently being revised to include comments from
the three subjects before it is submitted to the new AG, Eric Holder.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/184801


    Isikoff told Rachel Maddow on Monday that last year the report 
found that "the entire legal edifice of Bush counter-terrorism policy 
was based not just on shoddy legal analysis but unprofessional and 
potentially unethical legal analysis" and it recommended that the 
issue be referred to state bar associations for possible disciplinary 
action.  Isikoff doubts that the repudiation of Yoo's memos would 
change the legal environment for the CIA guys who did the torturing 
and who thought what they did was legal.  (Jonathan Turley said 
a few weeks ago that the underlings have an "estoppel defense" but 
Bush and his immediate underlings do not.)   Isikoff says the DOJ 
investigators had emails and drafts recording the creative process of 
Yoo's memos and the report goes into the question of the degree to 
which Bush administration officials dictated Yoo's legal opinions--possibly 
telling him what they wanted instead of asking him for an opinion.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6JArB2p7lo


    John Yoo has taken a year's leave from Berkeley to teach at 
Chapman University in Orange County.  An article in the LA Times
credits World Can't Wait and Curt Wechler's outfit
FireJohnYoo.org 

Way to Go, Curt!

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-yoo11-2009feb11,0,7413410.story


    I first became aware of Michael Isikoff when he wrote an unfair 
attack on "Fahrenheit 911".  Later he was a co-author of a very
impressionistic Newsweek article after Cheney's hunting accident that
says that an early draft of the 9/11 Commission report made AG
Gonzales "extremely agitated" when it expressed skepticism about 
Cheney's 9/11 story.  Newsweek's account casts doubt on Cheney's 
claim that he got the required authority from Bush before he ordered 
flight 93 shot down and, for those familiar with the facts of Flight 93, 
can be viewed as a hint that maybe he did shoot it down.  The final
9/11 Commission report was "toned down" and it says Cheney did not 
reach the White House bunker until 9:58, too late to have ordered a
successful shootdown of Flight 93.  But Newsweek says he got there 
at 9:35. 

http://www.newsweek.com/id/56896/page/6
     (Norm Mineta insists he saw Cheney in the bunker at 9:20 discussing 

an apparent shootdown orderon flight 77, but neither Newsweek or the 

9/11 Commission mention that.)











 






  







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