John Durham, an assistant US attorney in Connecticut, was appointed special counsel earlier this year to investigate the destruction of that videotape as well as destroyed film on other interrogations. This week the DOJ reported that 92 videotaped interrogations, including those depicting Zubaydah being waterboarded, were destroyed.
In an interview with the Orange County Register, Yoo said he's not particularly concerned about the OPR report that may result in his disbarment.
"I wish they weren't doing it, but I understand why they are," Yoo told the OC Register in response to a question about Jarrett's probe. "It is something one would expect. You have to make these kinds of decisions in an unprecedented kind of war with legal questions we've never had to think about before. We didn't seek out those questions. 9/11 kind of thrust them on us. No matter what you do, there's going to be a lot of people who are upset with your decision. If Bush had done nothing, there would be a lot of people upset with his decision, too. I understood that while we were doing it, there were going to be people who were critical. I can't go farther into it, because it's still going on right now. I'm not trying to escape responsibility for my decisions. I have to wait and see what they say."
In terms of explaining what many legal scholars said was "sloppily reasoned" legal work, Yoo said he had "very little time to make very important decisions. You don't have the luxury to research every single thing and that's accelerated in war time."
On Monday, newly released, albeit heavily redacted, CIA documents from a March 2007 Combatant Status Review Tribunal revealed that Zubaydah's torturers eventually apologized to him and said they concluded he was not a top al-Qaeda lieutenant as the Bush administration and intelligence officials had alleged.
"They told me sorry we discover that you are not number three, not a partner even not a fighter," Zubaydah said during is tribunal hearing.
In an interview with the Orange County Register, Yoo said he's not particularly concerned about the OPR report that may result in his disbarment.
"I wish they weren't doing it, but I understand why they are," Yoo told the OC Register in response to a question about Jarrett's probe. "It is something one would expect. You have to make these kinds of decisions in an unprecedented kind of war with legal questions we've never had to think about before. We didn't seek out those questions. 9/11 kind of thrust them on us. No matter what you do, there's going to be a lot of people who are upset with your decision. If Bush had done nothing, there would be a lot of people upset with his decision, too. I understood that while we were doing it, there were going to be people who were critical. I can't go farther into it, because it's still going on right now. I'm not trying to escape responsibility for my decisions. I have to wait and see what they say."
In terms of explaining what many legal scholars said was "sloppily reasoned" legal work, Yoo said he had "very little time to make very important decisions. You don't have the luxury to research every single thing and that's accelerated in war time."
"They told me sorry we discover that you are not number three, not a partner even not a fighter," Zubaydah said during is tribunal hearing.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 16 June 2009 13:12
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