Responses To The Torture Memos
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Bybee signed the legal memorandum that defined "enhanced interrogation techniques" including waterboarding, which are now regarded as torture by the current Justice Department, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, medical experts in the treatment of torture victims, intelligence officials, military judges, and American allies. In 2009 a Spanish judge considered conducting a war crime investigation of Bybee and five other Bush administration figures, but the Attorney General of Spain recommended against it. Bybee was investigated by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility. (See below.)
In addition, Jack Goldsmith, who succeeded Bybee as head of the Office of Legal Counsel, withdrew the torture memos weeks before resigning in June 2004. He later said he was "astonished" by the "deeply flawed" and "sloppily reasoned" legal analysis in the memos.
David Luban, a law professor at Georgetown Law School, testified before Congress on May 13, 2009, that the memos were "an ethical train wreck" and had been drafted to "reverse engineer" a defense for illegal actions already committed.
Read more about this topic: Torture Memos
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