Mukasey Delayed Report Criticizing Authors of Torture Memos
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey delayed a report last fall by the Justice Department’s ethics unit that criticizes three lawyers who wrote the so-called torture memos approving harsh interrogation tactics for terrorism suspects.
The report by the Office of Professional Responsibility “sharply criticizes” three former Justice Department officials, according to Newsweek, which broke the story. They are Jay Bybee, now a judge on the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; John Yoo, a Berkeley law professor; and Steven Bradbury, who recently left the Justice Department. Mukasey’s deputy, Mark Filip, said the report should include responses from the men, who are drafting their comments, the New York Times reports.
Yoo was the primary author of a torture opinion in August 2002 and Bybee signed it, the Times story says. The 2002 opinion, later withdrawn, said U.S. law permits CIA interrogation methods that cause severe mental pain as long as they do not cause “harm lasting months or even years after the acts were inflicted upon the prisoners.” Another 2003 memo by Yoo maintains that treaties and criminal statutes against torture and assault don’t apply to military interrogators questioning al-Qaida suspects overseas because the president has authority as commander-in-chief to override them.
Bradbury wrote three more opinions in 2005, and they remain secret, the Times story says.
The report examines whether the lawyers, who worked in the Office of Legal Counsel, followed professional standards in their legal reasoning and response to White House pressure. All three stories say the findings of the report are likely to be shared with state legal discipline authorities. The Post story says the report did not make disciplinary recommendations for Bradbury.
