Pentagon Releases Memo On Harsh Tactics

Declassified 2003 Memo Says Bush's Wartime Authority Trumps International Ban On Torture

(CBS/AP)  The Pentagon on Tuesday made public a now-defunct legal memo that approved the use of harsh interrogation techniques against terror suspects, saying that President Bush's wartime authority trumps any international ban on torture.

The Justice Department memo, dated March 14, 2003, outlines legal justification for military interrogators to use harsh tactics against al Qaeda and Taliban detainees overseas - so long as they did not specifically intend to torture their captors.

Even so, the memo noted, the president's wartime power as commander in chief would not be limited by the U.N. treaties against torture.

"Our previous opinions make clear that customary international law is not federal law and that the president is free to override it at his discretion," said the memo written by John Yoo, who was then deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel.

The memo also offered a defense in case any interrogator was charged with violating U.S. or international laws.

"Finally, even if the criminal prohibitions outlined above applied, and an interrogation method might violate those prohibitions, necessity or self-defense could provide justifications for any criminal liability," the memo concluded.

The memo was rescinded in December 2003, a mere nine months after Yoo sent it to the Pentagon's top lawyer, William J. Haynes. Though its existence has been known for years, its release Tuesday marked the first time its contents in full have been made public.

Haynes, the Defense Department's longest-serving general counsel, resigned in late February to return to the private sector. He has been hotly criticized for his role in crafting Bush administration policies for detaining and trying suspected terrorists that some argue led to prisoner abuses at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Yoo's memo became part of a debate among the Pentagon's civilian and military leaders about what interrogation tactics to allow at overseas facilities and whether U.S. troops might face legal problems domestically or in international courts.

Also of concern was whether techniques used by U.S. interrogators might someday be used as justification for harsh treatment of Americans captured by opposing forces.

The Justice Department has opened an internal investigation into whether its top officials improperly authorized or reviewed the CIA's use of waterboarding, which simulates drowning, when interrogating terror suspects. It was unclear whether the Yoo memo, which focuses only on military interrogators, will be part of that inquiry.

The Justice Department repeatedly rebuffed demands for its release, but the ACLU prevailed in its FOIA litigation in getting the memos, reports CBS News Justice Department producer Stephanie Lambidakis.

The document also was turned over to lawmakers.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said its release "represents an accommodation of Congress' oversight interest in the area of wartime interrogations."

Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's national security project, said Yoo's legal reasoning puts "literally no limit at all to the kinds of interrogation methods that the president can authorize."

"The whole point of the memo is obviously to nullify every possible legal restraint on the president's wartime authority," Jaffer said. "The memo was meant to allow torture, and that's exactly what it did."

The 81-page legal analysis largely centers on whether interrogators can be held responsible for torture if torture is not the intent of the questioning. And it defines torture as the intended sum of a variety of acts, which could include acid scalding, severe mental pain and suffering, threat of imminent death and physical pain resulting in impaired body functions, organ failure or death.

The "definition of torture must be read as a sum of these component parts," the memo said.

The memo also includes past legal defenses of interrogations that Yoo wrote are not considered torture, such as sleep deprivation, hooding detainees and "frog crouching," which forces prisoners to crouch while standing on the tips of their toes.

"This standard permits some physical contact," the memo said. "Employing a shove or slap as part of an interrogation would not run afoul of this standard."

The memo concludes that foreign enemy combatants held overseas do not have defendants' rights or protections from cruel and unusual punishment that U.S. citizens have under the Constitution. It also says that Congress "cannot interfere with the president's exercise of his authority as commander in chief to control the conduct of operations during a war."

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said the memo "reflects the expansive view of executive power that has been the hallmark of this administration." He called for its release four months ago.

"It is no wonder that this memo ... could not withstand scrutiny and had to be withdrawn," said Leahy, D-Vt. "This memo seeks to find ways to avoid legal restrictions and accountability on torture and threatens our country's status as a beacon of human rights around the world."

[ubrew12]

Article: "[Pentagon releases memo] saying that President Bush''s wartime authority trumps any international ban on torture"

Lucky thing for Bush that the War on ''Terror'' is a 100-year war...

[idnnsg]

"Declassified 2003 Memo Says Bush''s Wartime Authority Trumps International Ban On Torture"

The PURPOSE of the international ban on torture is to PREVENT rogue countries from being able to use torture! By ignoring the international ban on torture, Bush has become an INTERNATIONAL WAR CRIMINAL.

He will be held accountable, both here on earth and in the afterlife!

[regkearney]

The important question to ask is: when will Bush-Cheney and their legions be held accountable for violations of law both domestic and international? That has to be the first step toward restoring the moral authority of the United States.

[idnnsg]

If a president''s authority trumps international law, then there is NO international law. The result is chaos for the world, forever.

John Yoo is a fascist; Bush is stu.pid evil; Cheney is slightly more intelligent but even more evil. Repugs who support these WAR CRIMINALS are just as stu.pid and just as evil as their heroes. I curse them all to h3ll for eternity.

[sweetreeeed]

'' .. book of physics is but 1 bursting bubble in whirlpools of burstbubble factorys, as when we alter physics by setting goals of low probability that we achieve by forgetting they exist as we think of any & all else .. ''

'' .. to be sane is to chase lazy naked folk around for switching .. ''

'' .. thank you congress & networks, your multi trillion dollar baby saving nuke bio chem stealth ray death tax dress strip cuff cage rough stuff freak famine spank nuke stick stone rant rave cop troop rage slave prisonet of dare shock awe camp armagedon extravaganza saved my life & soul .. ''

'' .. they own all''s to own, yet their stuff lie all round undiscovered, hope they call when ready to meet all their children unmet .. ''

'' .. wish i''d never heard of holy daughter player girls what cure notlazy notnaked notignorant notprofane notblemished notpromiscuous unholy father coach men, ****** are horrid .. ''

'' .. oxygen''s surgery, 120 - 240 deep breaths minmum each 24 hr, unless starving houseguests .. ''

'' .. well, i wanted to crack bones of crowds of infant & toddlet volunteers begging & pleading for it to such extent they mostly crack their own bones, but i taxed adults against will instead for some mumbled quietly disgruntled .. ''

'' .. $2 - $33 tips donations each night sharing 33 new dances & blooms at 33 new sick bed party villages of 75 to 300 folk each, 1.5 mile avg between most villas, 7500 m around sea, 5 months all way round .. ''

[rowdytexan2]

Sometime go find the documentary on the young taxi driver that was taken into custody in Abu Ghraib in Afghanistan under false pretenses. They not only tortured him, they murdered him! HIs name was Dilawar!

Because the rules of torture were so confusing our soldiers thought they were doing what they were supposed to do.

[magoo2u1]

So, this memo states that president Bush considers himself to be the equal to Saddam Husein , who, in the national defense interests of Iraq, determined it was legal to gas women and children because they lived in an area where separatists threatened the state. There is no law above George and Saddam. They were / are the heads of state and governed by no law on earth. That''s what the constitution has written in it''s pages? That the president is above all laws on earth and answers to no one and can imprison anyone for any period of time? Why does this not sound correct?

[shanev137]

And yet we complain that other countries don''t adhere to the Geneva Convention.

[rowdytexan2]

These horrible torture prisons turned our young soldiers into packs of raving dogs! God knows how they will be able to live the rest of their lives after doing those things. It''s just plain evil what they did.

Bush and Cheney should be hung from the ceiling for four days, and have their legs beaten into pulp, and have water squirted into their mouths until they gag!

[sweetreeeed]

'' .. don''t dance get well feed world get sick tax world hike naked dance dressed porn songs rallyed round sick beds that swim and drift spore bloom weed dragon trail fickle first aid lunch farm cottage studio trail crossing yseedsberry trail group subsistence farm trails .. ''

'' .. there''s a 99.999...% chance i did not magically erupt in the middle of endless oblivion, but if i did not erupt in the middle of endless oblivion, then tere is a 99.infin9% chance that i can erupt magically in the middle of a endless oblivion anytime what i choose .. ''

'' .. it was difficult to provide food and medicine to each and all when all knew how to farm, now no one knows .. it''s easy silly, just add food and air and water, like raiding a proverbial fridge except for a bunch of flowers instead .. ''

[singingrick]

"We don''t torture." George W. Bush

[inventagod]

AfghanIraq is not a war.

It never was a war.

Congress declares war.

[rudy654-2009]

"We don''t torture." George W. Bush
Posted by singingrick at 01:02 AM

Just a good Christian white lie. Does no harm.

[feelfree1]

Re: "AfghanIraq is not a war."

"It never was a war."

"Congress declares war."

Posted by Inventagod


That is a fact.

We are rapidly running out of options here.

The Mussolini option may soon become our only possible remedy.

[estabwary]

Done in our name & our government too corrupt
to halt them & hold them accountable.

And now we have a crippled economy & way,
way too much debt.

You''d have to be pretty d*mn stupid to be
proud of all this.

To send people out for their oil wars
from now on is a torture sentence & everyone
who travels abroad now is a target.

Support the ACLU as much as you can.

[whitepicks2]

These actions go against everything for which our country stands, and for what she can become. We have been diminished by this - in our hearts and in the minds of all others. Unforgivable.

[mh4cbs1]

John McCain said tonight on Letterman that he wants to End American Torture.

Bravo!

Will he also call for Bush and Cheney to be tried for their War Crimes in LYING us into Iraq, where another 938 CIVILIANS were killed in March (that were bothered to be counted).

When the NeoCon Nightmare is OVER, we need to throw Cheney and Bush in Jail for their crimes. If you love America, call your representatives and demand Impeachment and criminal prosecution.

[mh4cbs1]

"Even so, the memo noted, the president''s wartime power as commander in chief would not be limited by the U.N. treaties against torture."

The Bus/Cheney regime rivals the Nazis in their ability to Lie blatantly and repeatedly, use Fear to propagandize their citizenry, and twist, distort and invent their own "legal" system.

[irliberal]

"Declassified 2003 Memo Says Bush''s Wartime Authority Trumps International Ban On Torture"

NO, it does NOT. We do not have the ability to arbitrary violate international law! Criminals!

[ramos937]

President Bush says we do not torture. This memo written by the folks that work for him says we do.
Who do we believe?

[samrensho]

I thought there had to be a war before the president had war powers! When was a war declared?? War on drugs? War on terror? What a crock.

[langx]

The Bush Administration = American Nazis.

No surprise hear. The Bush family has ties to the Nazis.

[skyk-2009]

President Bush says we do not torture. This memo written by the folks that work for him says we do.
Who do we believe?



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by ramos937 at 04:18 AM : Apr 02, 2008
+ report abuse

LOL I''ve already added it to the list of lie''s told by Bush and his Administration. You can''t just enter into treaties and agreements with your neighbors and friends and then trash those agreements because you want too. The creditability of this nation has been lowered to a level never seen in our history by Bush. It''ll take decades and decades of good will to get it back that''s for sure.

[dinkydog1]

If only we could torture the digbats who still support this administration.

[leftyintexas]

If only we could torture the digbats who still support this administration.

Posted by dinkydog1 at 07:50 AM : Apr 02, 2008

I agree 100% ! And the best thing is......it wouldn''t be considered torture! YEAH!

[rushlimpdrug]

"the memo noted, the president''s wartime power as commander in chief would not be limited by the U.N. treaties against torture."


This sounds like what got Saddam in trouble.

"the memo written by John Yoo, who was then deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel."

Yoo sounds chineeze - torture must run through his blood.

[pastdue1]

It goes without saying that this administration is without credibility. It has allowed torture for many YEARS against a man after he was deemed innocent by all who looked at his case and still they tortured. Yet, it released a man proven guilty of perjury and said the fine was adequate. Now, everyone knows that Scooter was one of the enablers of the terrorism that has ensued in Iraq, but still the President commuted his sentence, saying he had suffered enough??????

[r9119111]

McCain''s own integrity is on the line. He almost sounds believable. We shouldn''t be fooled. The Republican party is not worthy and should barred from holding public office for the next 100 years because of what they have done to not just American but also the rest of the people of the entire world. They have trashed the Constitution (someone said, "it''s just a piece of paper")in the past several years and should be held accountable. They did take an oath of office. Lies, lies and more lies. Throw the bums out of Washington. Period! I am an Independent voter.

[r9119111]

Simply put: The Republicans and anyone who supports them are a disgrace to our nation.

[rushlimpdrug]

Makes sense that Bush would use Yoo as his instrument to promote torture of citizens a civil matter.

So sad for UC Berkeley Law School.
Keep Yoo and when you''re through with him - deport him to china to clean up the Tibet thing.

[cattlekate]

To watch Mr. Yoo chit chat about it and explain it all, watch PBS''s Bush''s War on your computer:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/bushswar/

[haoli25]

Exhibit A at the Bush/Cheney War Crimes Trial.

[hungry1968]

To watch Mr. Yoo chit chat about it and explain it all, watch PBS''''s Bush''''s War on your computer:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pag
es/frontline/bushswar/

Posted by cattlekate at 08:57 AM : Apr 02, 2008





I watched it Sunday on PBS. Excellent documentary!!

[jersupporter]

Simply put: The Republicans and anyone who supports them are a disgrace to our nation. Posted by r9119111
----------------------------
That is probably the most LIB statement I have seen on this message board. As you sit in the comfort of your living room, you would say that the tens of thousands of military serving overseas are a disgrace if they are supporting our country. Please step away from the KoolAid.

[hungry1968]

That is probably the most LIB statement I have seen on this message board. As you sit in the comfort of your living room, you would say that the tens of thousands of military serving overseas are a disgrace if they are supporting our country. Please step away from the KoolAid.

Posted by JERSupporter at 09:16 AM : Apr 02, 2008





Why do you automatically assume that the troops overseas, support the republican party? Many soldiers HATE the Bush regime for getting them mired in that quagmire, and they also blame Bush DIRECTLY for the deaths of their friends and buddies.

Saying that the troops support the GOP, based on your incorrect assumption, is highly insulting to the troops.

[jersupporter]

P!ss off. Nobody cares what your kind thinks anymore. You''''re irrelevant doofbag. shoo. Posted by FloydZepp
----------------------------------
You are a hater and should be called a HATRIOT because you would like nothing better than to see our nation fail. That is abhorrent and simply put a direct reflection on your character. Enough with the HATRIOTS.

[jersupporter]

hungry1968 - you can attempt to legitimize your statement, but you also are a HATRIOT. Perhaps one day you will see the wrongs of your ways.

[jersupporter]

Saying that the troops support the GOP, based on your incorrect assumption, is highly insulting to the troops. Posted by hungry1968
---------------------------------------
You should learn how to read first before making ignorant statements. I never said all troops. But of course discussing issues with blinded Hatriots as yourself is meaningless. Continue to wave your flag and place your yellow ribbons on your cars, but that does not make you a supporter of our troops. Spite is simply another form of hatred.

[jersupporter]

FloydZepp - defeatist attitudes breed contempt. And your negativity is laughable. Perhaps now I fully understand why losers will always be LOSERS. You are simply a messenger of despair and that trend will always be in yours and your families lives. I sincerely feel apathy for your family because you have created those pathetic conditions. Fostering and molly coddling indifference will always be your downfall. It is like cross breeding.

[kissamaarse]

John Yoo is a sociopath, who was working for sociopaths, seeking to justify sociopath behavior. These people, from Bush down to Yoo, have diminished America, made us no better than any other totalitarian regime, and have indelibly shifted America from a nation of laws to a nation of men. They should be tried, convicted, and put in a place forever where the sun doesn''t shine.

[hungry1968]

hungry1968 - you can attempt to legitimize your statement, but you also are a HATRIOT. Perhaps one day you will see the wrongs of your ways.

Posted by JERSupporter at 09:31 AM : Apr 02, 2008





You need to grow up and realize, that supporting the criminal terrorist organization - the GOP, is NOT the same thing as supporting the troops.

Leaving them to die, in a far away place, that has NOTHING to do with our national security, is NOT supporting the troops, no matter how you pathetic, blind fools try and spin it.

Supporting the troops would be to bring them home, to their family and friends, and the safety of the country they so proudly serve.

You''ll do yourself a world of good, to sit up and take notice of the difference.

[briannorwood]

"Use more torture and mostly on you liberal P*ssys who think we should put the terrrorist up in a hotel and give them room service." -- guyfrompa45

You are obviously either very, very stupid or you are a traitor. I''ll give you the benefit of the doubt and consider you to be just stupid.

[finewoven]

"The Justice Department repeatedly rebuffed demands for its release"

The Justice Department does not like oversight, and perfers to operate in secret. I wonder if they claimed that the memo was part of National Security, and even Congress shouldn''t know.

[hungry1968]

Use more torture and mostly on you liberal P*ssys who think we should put the terrrorist up in a hotel and give them room service. You''''re all a bunch of clowns with no balls.

Posted by guyfrompa45 at 09:54 AM : Apr 02, 2008





I''ve got plenty of balls. But unlike you wannabe terrorists, I''ve also got civility and decency. That''s a big difference between the two of us.

There were 775 "alleged" terrorists sent to Guantanamo, and we''ve released 420 of them because they were innocent. How many of the 420 were tortured? If the answer is ONE, it''s way too many.

[finewoven]

Simply put: The Republicans and anyone who supports them are a disgrace to our nation.
Posted by r9119111 at 08:31 AM : Apr 02, 2008

So very sad, very sad; but true. Perhaps McCain can do something to heal their sorry situation. Republicans are hardly the party of Lincoln anymore; or Goldwater, or Reagan for that matter.

[rushlimpdrug]

Use more torture and mostly on you liberal P*ssys . . . You''''re all a bunch of clowns with no balls.
Posted by guyfrompa45 at 09:54 AM

Would you like to start with the liberal American soldiers fighting in Iraq?

or would you like to start with the "don''t ask, don''t tell" American soldiers fighting in Iraq?

Or would you like to start with liberal American soldiers from other wars?

[finewoven]

The Republican party is not worthy and should barred from holding public office for the next 100 years because of what they have done to not just American but also the rest of the people of the entire world. They have trashed the Constitution (someone said, "it''''s just a piece of paper")in the past several years and should be held accountable. They did take an oath of office. Lies, lies and more lies. Throw the bums out of Washington. Period! I am an Independent voter.
Posted by r9119111 at 08:22 AM : Apr 02, 2008

Don''t be fooled by the idea that it''s over and done with the coming electionl. One last push by people like this--watch out for a ploy to circumvent the constitution and take over the government. We are not just discussing mendacious people, we are talking about power hungry people.

[libsrweak]

Posted by rushlimpdrug at 10:36 AM : Apr 02, 2008
+ report abuse

************

a american liberal soldier??????????? i dont think it exist..the last time i seen an american liberal, they were spitting at a soldier.


see as always, these american liberals has a cozy asociation with terrorists THAT THEY CONSIDER THEM a brethrens...CLOSE ENOUGH TO FIGHT FOR THIER RIGHTS.

[jersupporter]

Supporting the troops would be to bring them home, to their family and friends, and the safety of the country they so proudly serve.
You''''ll do yourself a world of good, to sit up and take notice of the difference. Posted by hungry1968
------------------------------------------
So which candidate running for President is bringing home our troops? I would love for this to happen, but we all know this will not be easy.

[libsrweak]

trust me, if you are a criminal, a murderer, a terrorist or anything anti=american...YOU CAN DEPEND ON A LIBERAL TO GIVE THIER MISGUIDED AND UNDERHANDED SUPPORT