http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/01/29/holder-under-fire.aspx
Justice Official Clears Bush Lawyers in Torture Memo Probe
Friday, January 29, 2010 8:07 PM
By Newsweek
By Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman
For weeks, the right has heckled Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. for his plans to try the alleged 9/11 conspirators in New York City and his handling of the Christmas bombing plot suspect. Now the left is going to be upset: an upcoming Justice Department report from its ethics-watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), clears the Bush administration lawyers who authored the “torture” memos of professional-misconduct allegations.
While the probe is sharply critical of the legal reasoning used to justify waterboarding and other “enhanced” interrogation techniques, NEWSWEEK has learned that a senior Justice official who did the final review of the report softened an earlier OPR finding. Previously, the report concluded that two key authors—Jay Bybee, now a federal appellate court judge, and John Yoo, now a law professor—violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted a crucial 2002 memo approving the use of harsh tactics, say two Justice sources who asked for anonymity discussing an internal matter. But the reviewer, career veteran David Margolis, downgraded that assessment to say they showed “poor judgment,” say the sources. (Under department rules, poor judgment does not constitute professional misconduct.) The shift is significant: the original finding would have triggered a referral to state bar associations for potential disciplinary action—which, in Bybee’s case, could have led to an impeachment inquiry.
The report, which is still going through declassification, will provide many new details about how waterboarding was adopted and the role that top White House officials played in the process, say two sources who have read the report but asked for anonymity to describe a sensitive document. Two of the most controversial sections of the 2002 memo—including one contending that the president, as commander in chief, can override a federal law banning torture—were not in the original draft of the memo, say the sources. But when Michael Chertoff, then-chief of Justice’s criminal division, refused the CIA’s request for a blanket pledge not to prosecute its officers for torture, Yoo met at the White House with David Addington, Dick Cheney’s chief counsel, and then–White House counsel Alberto Gonzales. After that, Yoo inserted a section about the commander in chief’s wartime powers and another saying that agency officers accused of torturing Qaeda suspects could claim they were acting in “self-defense” to prevent future terror attacks, the sources say. Both legal claims have long since been rejected by Justice officials as overly broad and unsupported by legal precedent.
A Justice official declined to explain why David Margolis softened the original finding, but noted that he is a highly respected career lawyer who acted without input from Holder. Yoo and Bybee (through his lawyer) declined requests for comment.
- © 2010 Newsweek, Inc.
Evo's New Cabinet: Ten Men, Ten Women
Saturday 23 January 2010
by: EFE | Los Tiempos (Bolivia)
http://www.truthout.org/evos-new-cabinet-ten-men-ten-women56498
(Photo: Presidencia de la República del Ecuador (Flickr username not subject of image) / Flickr)
On Saturday, January 23, Bolivian President Evo Morales kicked off his second term as leader of the country by announcing the appointment of his new Cabinet. Morales has replaced more than half of the ministers from his previous administration, and brought gender parity to his new team by apportioning exactly half of the ministerial positions to women.
The announcement of the new Cabinet took place during a ceremony one day after Morales was sworn in on Friday.
Among the dismissed officials, Morales let go of some of the "strongmen" of his first term, like the now former Minister of the Presidency Juan Ramón Quintana, the ex-Minister of Government Alfredo Rada and Wálker San Miguel, former defense minister.
The new government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia will witness the return of David Choquehuanca as minister of international relations, Luis Arce as minister of finance and economy, Carlos Romero as minister of autonomy, Wálter Delgadillo as minister of public works and Roberto Alguilar as minister of education.
Nardi Suxo and Óscar Coca will also remain part of Evo's executive team, as minister of transparency and anti-corruption and minister of the presidency, respectively. Coca will be switching roles this term; previously he was Morales's minister of hydrocarbons.
New faces in the cabinet include: Rubén Saavedra (defense), Sacha Llorenti (ministry of the government), Antonia Rodríguez (ministry of production and microenterprise), the young Carmen Trujillo (employment),
Also joining the team will be Gobierno Milton Gómez (ministry of mining), Hilda Copa Condori (justice ministry), Sonia Polo (health), Esther Udaeta (environment) and Nemesia Achacollo (rural development ministry).
One of the special appointments is the well-known Bolivian singer Zulma Yugar, who will serve as
Translation: Ryan Croken.
Ryan Croken is a freelance writer and editor based in
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