I remain awed at the blogsphere’s pundits and their capacity for research. This one comes from Balkanization via emptywheel. The topic is, of course, the recently released John Yoo Torture Memo [1][2] from March 14th, 2003. Recall that John Yoo‘s predecessor, Jay Bybee, co-author of an earlier August 1st, 2002 Torture Memo, had left the day before [March 13th, 2003]. It is not lost on us that Yoo’s Memos on his first day of his job were 81 pages long: Here’s the remarkable thing: Page 11 of the Opinion states that "[t]he Criminal Division concurs in our conclusion that these canons of construction preclude the application of the assault, maiming, interstate stalking, and torture statutes to the military during the conduct of a war." In other words, John Yoo checked with the Criminal Division as to whether the military could torture and maim detainees in a war, and that Division, which ordinarily strongly resists narrowing constructions of criminal statutes, agreed that the torture and maiming (and other) statutes were inapplicable. The head of the Criminal Division at the time was Michael Chertoff (now Secretary of Homeland Security). Nine days before the memo was issued, President Bush nominated Chertoff, like Bybee, to be a federal judge on a U.S. Court of Appeals.
So, it seems, our now Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, was also involved in the construction of the Torture Memos. Jay Bybee, John Yoo, and Michael Chertoff all left the Department of Justice in 2003, suggesting to me that maybe they knew what they’d done and got out of Dodge City soon thereafter. John Yoo, besides being a Berkley Law Professor, is in the Federalist Society where he’s received awards and is a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Did I mention that he was a Law Clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas? Oh yeah, he’s the prophet for the Unitary Executive Theory.
So, add Michael Chertoff to the distinguished list of attorneys behind the Torture policies of President Bush and Vice President Cheney – joining David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, Jay Bybee, John Yoo, Douglas Feith, and others.
I have always had bad vibes about Chertoff. He was a U S Attorney during the Bush 1 administration and he was the only U S Attorney asked to stay when Clinton took office as president and he left after 2 years to become special counsel for the Senate Whitewater committee. He had also been picked by Guiliani when he was a U S Attorney in NY to work in his federal office before Guiliani became Mayor years ago. When Bush 2 nominated him for the federal judgeship it is noted that Hillary was the only Senator who did not vote yes. She said that he had not treated people they knew very well when he was doing the Whitewater investigation. Of course, he did end up working along side Ken Starr doing everything they could to find anything to impeach Clinton and they succeeded. I’ve always considered him to be some kind of attack dog for Republicans who seem to love their party and connections more than their country. What a guy! It doesn’t surprise me that the same bad characters keep popping up when the lowlifes hiding at the White House need bad stuff covered up.
From Empty Wheel “Marty Lederman suggests Chertoff gave John Yoo the go to exempt the military from the laws prohibiting torture…” I have to tell you that I’m get sick and tired of seeing the same characters popping up in W’s administration. It’s as if they are daring anyone from stopping them. You know the saying fool me once etc well it’s time to stop them. I’d like to see the crooks in handcuffs, especially the “Dark One”.