A Federal Judge has told the Feds to release the 3 Torture Memos we know some about or make their case why they shouldn't be released.
NEW YORK – A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to turn over three memos that authorized the extremely harsh treatment of prisoners in CIA custody or explain by October 3 why these memos can lawfully be withheld. The American Civil Liberties Union called for the immediate release of the May 2005 OLC memos as part of its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit requesting information on the treatment and interrogation of detainees in U.S. custody overseas.
"These memos provide further evidence that senior Justice Department officials gave the CIA a green light to torture prisoners," said Amrit Singh, staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project. "It is essential that these memos immediately be released to the public so that high level officials can be held accountable for authorizing torture as policy in violation of U.S. and international law." Federal Judge Orders Justice Department To Turn Over Memos Authorizing Torture Or Justify Withholding Them
Our Gov. should never be allowed to make, pass,fabricate or enact any Laws in Secret. It goes against the very idea of what a Democracy is. Let me remind you of what those secret memos do. According to Atty Gen. Mukasey no matter how flawed or even "unlawful" the OLC memos may be, Mukasey claims that those who depended on them are now immune from prosecution during a recent Congressional Hearing.
Wexler: Are you the people's lawyer or the President's?
MM: AG of US.
Delahunt: You said if an opinion was rendered, that would insulate him from any consequences.
MM: We could not investigate or prosecute somebody for acting in reliance on a justice department opinion.
Delahunt: If that opinion was inaccurate and in fact violated a section of US Criminal Code, that reliance is in effect an immunity from any criminal culpability.
MM: Immunity connoted culpability.
Delahunt: This is brand new legal theory.
MM: Disclosure of waterboarding was part of CIA interrogation and permitted by DOJ opinion, would and should bar investigation of people who relied on that opinion.
Delahunt: Let's concede that waterboarding is in contravention of international obligation. If opinion rendered that amounted to malpractice, whoever employed that technique, simply by relying on that opinion would be legally barred from criminal investigation.
MM: If you're talking about legal mistake, there is an inquiry regarding whether properly rendered opinions or didn't. But yes, that bars the person who relied on that opinion from being investigated.
Delahunt: I find that a new legal doctrine. The law is the law.
MM: If it comes to pass that somebody at a later date that the opinion should have been different the person who relied on the opinion cannot be investigated.
Delahunt: Is there a legal precedent.
MM: There is practical consideration. http://www.dailykos.com/...
Back in Nov of last year the ALCU had this to say in a press release about this case and it hold true today.
The memos are believed to have authorized the CIA to use extremely harsh interrogation methods including waterboarding.
"These torture memos should never have been written, and it is utterly unacceptable that the administration continues to suppress them while at the same time declaring publicly that it abhors torture," said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU’s National Security Project. "It is now obvious that senior administration officials worked in concert over a period of several years to evade and violate the laws that prohibit cruelty and torture. Some degree of accountability is long overdue."
On October 4, 2007, The New York Times published a front-page article disclosing that the OLC authored two memoranda in 2005 relating to the interrogation of prisoners held by the CIA. The Times reported that the first was issued "soon after" February, when Alberto Gonzales assumed the post of attorney general, and explicitly authorized interrogators to use combinations of psychological "enhanced" interrogation practices including waterboarding, head slapping, and stress positions. The second memo, according to The Times, was dated "[l]ater that year" and declared that none of the CIA’s interrogation methods violated a law being considered by Congress that outlawed "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment. http://www.aclu.org/...
In Feb. of this year Col. Davis, the former Head Prosecutor, at Gitmo wrote a Op-Ed in the NYTimes. One part of it has really stuck with me to this. The title of that OpEd is "Unforgivable Behavior, Inadmissible Evidence".
TWENTY-SEVEN years ago, in the final days of the Iran hostage crisis, the C.I.A.’s Tehran station chief, Tom Ahern, faced his principal interrogator for the last time. The interrogator said the abuse Mr. Ahern had suffered was inconsistent with his own personal values and with the values of Islam and, as if to wipe the slate clean, he offered Mr. Ahern a chance to abuse him just as he had abused the hostages. Mr. Ahern looked the interrogator in the eyes and said, "We don’t do stuff like that."
Today, Tom Ahern might have to say: "We don’t do stuff like that very often." Or, "We generally don’t do stuff like that." That is a shame. Virtues requiring caveats are not virtues. Saying a man is honest is a compliment. Saying a man is "generally" honest or honest "quite often" means he lies. The mistreatment of detainees, like honesty, is all or nothing: We either do stuff like that or we do not. It is in our national interest to restore our reputation for the latter. (All opinions here are my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Air Force or Defense Department.) http://www.nytimes.com/...
In closing let me remind you what the NYTimes wrote back when it first exposed these Memos to the American Public.
The New York Times disclosed the existence of two of the three OLC memos in a front-page article on October 4, 2007. The Times reported that the first memo explicitly authorized interrogators to use combinations of harsh interrogation methods including waterboarding, head slapping and exposure to freezing temperatures. The second memo, issued by OLC as Congress prepared to enact legislation prohibiting "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment," declared that none of the CIA's interrogation methods violated that standard.
That third Secret Memo must be a real doozy if they are still fighting to keep it secret. I do think some Members of Congress have seen it, but I'm not even totally sure of that. Will it become one more of those States Secrets Black Holes or will we finally know to what extent Bush broke the Torture Laws ?