LadyBroadoak Visionary Planetary Healing Tutorial: WAR CRIMES DOSSIER: Mukasey defends government lawyers who wrote interrogation memos : Jurist

May 25, 2008

WAR CRIMES DOSSIER: Mukasey defends government lawyers who wrote interrogation memos : Jurist

Mukasey defends government lawyers who wrote interrogation memos
Devin Montgomery at 11:59 AM ET

[JURIST] US Attorney General Michael Mukasey [official profile; JURIST news archive] defended Bush administration attorneys who authored memoranda supporting the legality of coercive interrogating tactics - the so-called "torture memos" [JURIST news archive] - in a commencement address [text] to Boston College Law School graduates Friday. Emphasizing the legal complexity of the issues raised in the memos and criticizing the vilification of the authors [JURIST op-ed] in some quarters, Mukasey told the audience:

Today, many of the senior government lawyers who provided legal advice supporting the nation’s most important counterterrorism policies have been subjected to relentless public criticism. In some corners, one even hears suggestions—suggestions that are made in a manner that is almost breathtakingly casual—that some of these lawyers should be subject to civil or criminal liability for the advice they gave. The rhetoric of these discussions is hostile and unforgiving.

The difficulty and novelty of the legal questions these lawyers confronted is scarcely mentioned; indeed, the vast majority of the criticism is unaccompanied by any serious legal analysis. In addition, it is rarely acknowledged that those public servants were often working in an atmosphere of almost unimaginable pressure, without the academic luxury of endless time for debate. Equally ignored is the fact that, by all accounts I have seen or heard, including but not limited to Jack Goldsmith’s book [The Terror Presidency], those lawyers reached their conclusions in good faith based upon their best judgments of what the law required.

The author of one such memo [PDF text] for the Department of Defense in 2003, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo [faculty profile], faces a civil lawsuit and calls for his resignation from Berkeley Law School. Earlier this month, a federal judge directed the CIA [order, PDF; JURIST report] to produce a 2002 Department of Justice memo that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) claims authorized the agency to use specific torture techniques, including waterboarding [JURIST news archive]. AP has more.

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I. Powers and Rights Reserved To We the People, Never Delegated or Violated Without Consent

A. The People are expressly defined as human beings and does not refer to corporations or contractual relationships.

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M. The Executive Branch and Presidents and subordinate agency head, contractor, and employees are expressly denied any assurance any conversation he has related to illegal activity, war crimes, unlawful acts, or other threats to the US Constitution shall remain secret behind any shield, scheme, agreement, or technology. Any order a President or anyone gives to anyone to hide, destroy,not provide, or conceal evidence of illegal activity may be construed as a subsequent war crime, punishable by the death penalty. This restriction against following illegal orders may not be bypassed by claiming the order was from a non-person, electronic device, or other non-Constitutionally recognized entity, database, policy, guide, or other document.

N. The Presidents are denied the power to use any combat force, technology, or other military weapon or plan against American civilians, except in cases of internal rebellion which only the Congress shall approve in writing. When the Congress fails to act, or abuses its authority, the State Governors may lawfully use deadly combat force to detain and enforce the laws of war prohibiting illegal use of force against American civilians.

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LadyBroadoak Visionary Planetary Healing Tutorial

May 25, 2008

WAR CRIMES DOSSIER: Mukasey defends government lawyers who wrote interrogation memos : Jurist

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