2003 Torture Memo Released Justifies Harsh Interrogation Tactics
The Pentagon has released a declassified 2003 Justice Department memo that claimed the president’s wartime authority trumps any international ban on torture, and concluded that the Fifth and Eighth amendments do not apply to foreign prisoners held outside the country.
The memo, released by the Pentagon, was written by Justice Department lawyer John Yoo in March 2003. He has since left the agency.
The memo was rescinded in December 2003, about nine months after Yoo sent it to top Pentagon lawyer William J. Haynes II.
In the 81-page memo, obtained by FOX News, Yoo outlined legal reasons why military interrogators could use harsh tactics against al Qaeda and Taliban detainees. Yoo wrote that the techniques could be used as long as the interrogators did not specifically intend to torture their captors.
He argued that the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual” punishment, does not apply since the detainees “have not been punished as part of a criminal proceeding.”
Citing statutory language that defines torture as “severe mental pain or suffering,” Yoo argued that a detainee would have to experience extreme anguish for it to rise to that level.
“The victim must experience intense pain or suffering of the kind that is equivalent to the pain that would be associated with serious physical injury so severe that death, organ failure, or permanent damage resulting the loss of significantly bodily function will likely result,” wrote Yoo, who was then the deputy assistant attorney general and headed the Office of Legal Counsel.
The memo also offered a defense in case any interrogator was charged with violating U.S. or international laws.
“Finally, even if the criminal prohibitions outlined above applied, and an interrogation method might violate those prohibitions, necessity or self-defense could provide justifications for any criminal liability,” the memo concluded.
Haynes, the Defense Department’s longest-serving general counsel, resigned in late February to return to the private sector. He has been hotly criticized for his role in crafting Bush administration policies for detaining and trying suspected terrorists that some argue led to prisoner abuses at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Yoo’s memo became part of a debate among the Pentagon’s civilian and military leaders about what interrogation tactics to allow at overseas facilities and whether U.S. troops might face legal problems domestically or in international courts.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, who has long sought the so-called torture memos from the Department of Justice, said in a statement that the newly released memo “reflects the expansive view of executive power that has been the hallmark of this administration.”
He said it “seeks to find ways to avoid legal restrictions and accountability on torture and threatens our country’s status as a beacon of human rights around the world.”
Still, he called the release “a small step forward” in the long-running effort to obtain what he describes as “secret Justice Department opinions on interrogation practices.”
In the memo, Yoo wrote that interrogating enemy combatants is one of the core duties of the commander in chief.
“It is well settled that the President may seize and detain enemy combatants, at least for the duration of the conflict, and the laws of war make clear the prisoners may be interrogated for information concerning the enemy, its strength and its plans,” he wrote.
“Numerous Presidents have ordered the capture, detention and questioning of enemy combatants during virtually every major conflict in the Nation’s history. … Recognizing this authority, Congress has never attempted to restrain or interfere with the President’s authority on this score.”
(Fox)
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Take a look at the pics libtards, and bleeding hearts, that’s what real torture looks like. And you shitheads want to bitch about waterbioarding. I bet the dude in the pic wishes that is all that would happen to him?
These low-life worms did the same shit to our POW’s. This is how they treat us…no matter how we treat them…
Nothing we do, will rise to the level of barbarism as depicted in these photos.
And where is the UN? Human Rights Commission? ACLU? The so-called Mooselem moderates? Where’s the million pissed off man march for the rights of these victims?
What’s that I hear? More hypocracy and rhetoric from the liberals? Or is it just crickets chirping again?
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:41 pmWe know what we are dealing with. Demoncraps and other Libs who think just like ‘em. As far as my memory goes back it has always been this way. Our great country’s enemies can do whatever they please to our POW’s and citizens but for some reason if we do anything that even appears to be uncomfortable or (heaven forbid) painful, then they turn white, crap their panties and screech “stop!” This disparity is so screwed up that the thinking(?) of the “protect the turds” group is just hard to even assess. The Libs are simply hosed in their spirits and mentally they are pusillanimous allies of the enemy even though they would deny it.
What is so hard about this? Our mantra *should* be “We will hurt you twice as bad as you ever thought of hurting us!” And, then DO IT. Feed them bastard mooselimb radicals pigs blood and then beat the hell out of them during interrogation. Do it over and over again. No mercy. I guarantee you it would change some stuff really fast. Too radical? Sometimes just don’t know except I am done listening to Liberal solutions because they punish US.
Maybe have some 72 year old haggard virgins (72 0f them) all moaning and groaning just waiting for their hooded lover. Maybe that would be horrible enough to loosen their tongues. After all, if they’re 72 and STILL virgins…guh! I’ll start talking myself!
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:58 pmThere is college hazing that goes on that’s worse than waterboarding. How anyone can call it torture is beyond me. Especially compared to what real torture looks like.
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:29 pm