Cheney's Top Torture Lawyers Now Work for Obama

We've heard of John Yoo and Alberto Gonzales, and maybe even Jay
Bybee. Some of us recall John Ashcroft, Michael Mukasey, and even David
Addington. William Haynes, Stephen Bradbury, and Douglas Feith
occasionally make the news. If I had any say about it all 40 of these facilitators of torture
would be universally known -- plus the eight more that readers of this
article will call to my attention and angrily accuse me of trying to
cover for by only being aware of 40. I would also make universally
known the fact that two of the worst now work for President Barack
Obama.

Even if you haven't read them, you probably know that the Justice
Department under Bush-Cheney produced memos pretending to legalize
torture, gruesome memos stipulating exactly how many times a particular
victim could "legally" be tortured with a particular technique. John
Yoo and Jay Bybee wrote the worst of these memos. But the memos take
the form of responses to inquiries from a guy named John Rizzo. Yes,
Mr. Rizzo, you may slam that guy against a wall. No, Mr. Rizzo, you may
not drown that one unless you have a doctor present. And so on. The
memos are all headlined thus: "MEMORANDUM FOR JOHN A. RIZZO."

So, Yoo and Bybee didn't invent the torture techniques out of their
own sadistic imaginations. They replied to Rizzo's requests for "legal"
permission to use detailed techniques. What if those requests from
Rizzo had been turned into news headlines, rather than the Justice
Department's responses? Would activists then be focused on demanding
Rizzo's, rather than Yoo's, removal from one of our prestigious
institutions of higher learning? That's actually a very easy question
to definitively answer, and the answer is no. Rizzo doesn't work in
academia: he is still, until he retires this summer the top lawyer at the CIA.

Retirement is what counts as accountability these days in
Washington. Future consiglieri are hereby put on notice: you back
torture and death squads and drone strikes and you'll be forced to
retire with the LA Times printing a profile on your great influence and
wonderful taste in expensive suits. Rizzo served as top lawyer at the
CIA for years, without the title, because the Senate wouldn't approve
him. Serving as the "Acting So-and-So" is what now counts as compliance
with the Constitution. Senators are hereby put on notice: you fail to
confirm an appointee, and he or she will get the job without the title.

Rizzo oversaw in detail the use of illegal detention, rendition, and
torture at sites around the world. He requested Justice Department
memos to cover his actions. He illegally sanctioned the destruction of
videotapes demonstrating what he had done. He brazenly testified before
Congress that torture was not torture. He authorized torture prior to
receiving the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memos. After receiving the
memos, he authorized torture that far exceeded what they pretended to
allow. He lied to the Justice Department, claiming that a captive (Abu
Zubaydah) was not cooperative in the absence of torture. He ignored
warnings that all of this was illegal, but made clear his awareness of
guilt by requesting the memos and destroying the tapes.

And Rizzo didn't do all of this alone. He had help from another top
lawyer at the CIA, Jonathan M. Fredman. Fredman now works in the Obama
administration in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence,
with -- as far as I know -- no plans to leave. According to the Senate
Armed Services Committee:

"On October 2, 2002, Jonathan Fredman, who was chief
counsel to the CIA's Counter Terrorist Center, attended a meeting of
GTMO staff. Minutes of that meeting indicate that it was dominated by a
discussion of aggressive interrogation techniques including sleep
deprivation, death threats, and waterboarding, which was discussed in
relation to its use in SERE training. Mr. Fredman's advice to GTMO on
applicable legal obligations was similar to the analysis of those
obligations in OLC's first Bybee memo. According to the meeting
minutes, Mr. Fredman said that 'the language of the statutes is written
vaguely. . . . Severe physical pain described as anything causing
permanent damage to major organs or body parts. Mental torture [is]
described as anything leading to permanent, profound damage to the
senses or personality.' Mr. Fredman said simply 'It is basically
subject to perception. If the detainee dies you're doing it wrong.'"

People like Rizzo and Fredman should not be working for our
government a single day longer. They should be impeached. They should
be prosecuted. They should be given fair trials and be imprisoned if
convicted. And all existing information on what they did should be made
public. Fed up with waiting for Congress or the Justice Department to
act, a coalition of groups headquartered at http://DisbarTortureLawyers.com
has gone ahead and filed complaints with bar associations to have
torture lawyers disbarred and to call attention to the need for further
accountability. Having already filed complaints against 12 torture
lawyers, Disbar Torture Lawyers filed three more on Monday. Two of
these were against Rizzo and Fredman.

Disbar Torture Lawyers held a press conference
on Monday at the National Press Club, with remarks by Kevin Zeese, who
filed the complaints, by Bruce Fein, a former Reagan administration
lawyer, and by Shahid Buttar, Director of the Bill of Rights Defense
Committee. I was not in town but am certain we can count on the
Washington Post to give the story all the coverage it deserves.