The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged OLC

Did the CIA Mislead the Justice Department in 2005 About Prolonged Diapering?

By | 08.26.09 | 8:47 am

Commenter Decora points to some references to diapering in the 2005 Office of Legal Counsel memoranda on torture. What’s striking is how the CIA describes the technique — evidently used, according to both the 2004 CIA inspector general report and the 2007 Red Cross report, in support More…

Vagueness Is Not a Crime, But It May Suggest Intent to Commit One

By | 08.25.09 | 9:35 am

Patrick Appel, who is filling in for Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish, yesterday suggested that I was accusing John Yoo & Co. in the Bush Justice Department of the “crime” of approving vague CIA interrogation guidelines. Appel writes:

This seems more likely to be raised in defense

More…

Footnote Suggests Broader Probe Is Needed – of CIA and DOJ

By | 08.24.09 | 5:34 pm

Following up on Spencer’s post, I don’t feel too sorry for Jay Bybee or John Yoo, the lead lawyers at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel who approved the CIA’s so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.” As Spencer writes and Footnote 26 of the newly released Inspector General report More…

Holder to Appoint Prosecutor to Investigate CIA Interrogations

By | 08.24.09 | 2:39 pm

The Justice Department still hasn’t officially announced it, but The Washington Post is reporting this afternoon, based on anonymous sources, that Attorney General Eric Holder has decided to go ahead and open an investigation on those controversial CIA interrogations we’ve been talking about for weeks now. More…

John Yoo Faces Back-to-School Welcome at Berkeley

By | 08.18.09 | 11:12 am

John Yoo should be fired, disbarred and prosecuted for war crimes, according to anti-war activists who greeted the University of California at Berkeley law professor when he returned to Boalt Hall, the law school where he has tenure, on Monday.

Yoo, of course, is the author of the infamous “torture More…

Unpopular Photography

By | 08.12.09 | 5:11 pm

Daphne Eviatar is guest-blogging for Glenn Greenwald today. The following is cross-posted at Salon.

If, as the latest reports indicate, Attorney General Eric Holder is serious about prosecuting the worst torture and abuse of “war on terror” prisoners that occurred during the Bush administration, then More…

Is Impending Holder Torture Probe a Bad Idea?

By | 08.10.09 | 10:28 am

Andrew Sullivan calls the reported impending torture probe by Attorney General Eric Holder “the worst of both worlds,” arguing that investigating only those who exceeded the overly-broad bounds set by the Bush administration “risks essentially legitimizing the torture it does not prosecute.”

On one hand, Sullivan’s right that More…

Controversy Grows Over Obama Signing Statements

By | 08.10.09 | 9:01 am

Despite President Obama’s previous criticism of former President George W. Bush’s “signing statements” that limit the president’s responsibility to comply with a bill passed by Congress, it turns out Obama has been doing much the same thing since he took office.  Charlie Savage reported in The New York More…

Sotomayor: Steel Seizure Case Should Be Considered in Challenges to Executive Power

By | 07.14.09 | 3:19 pm

Judge Sonia Sotomayor has been exceedingly careful not to say anything about any law that could possibly come before her as a Supreme Court justice, much to the evident frustration of some of the senators questioning her today — despite the fact that, as I noted before, they know More…

One Need Look No Further Than John Yoo for Evidence of Executive Lawbreaking

By | 07.13.09 | 8:56 am

The explosive inspectors general report released on Friday makes one thing increasingly clear: the Bush White House knew that it was probably breaking the law.

From the report itself, John Yoo’s Office of Legal Counsel memo — and the lightning-fast reporting of Spencer Ackerman, Marc Ambinder and More…