Every Friday some people, politicians, corporations and government bureaucracies, slip out news they don’t want people to pay attention to. The assumption is that most people aren’t paying attention on Friday. That’s true for most, but not me.

Here’s what I have so far.

AG Holder didn’t reveal all legal papers to Senate

WASHINGTON — Justice Department officials say that when senators were considering Eric Holder’s nomination to be attorney general last year, he didn’t given them all the legal briefs he had signed from his time in private practice. Read more

Bloomberg’s Fling Mulls Senate Run

New York politics is about to get messier. The state’s Republican Party has reportedly tapped Diana Taylor, the former state banking superintendent and longtime girlfriend of Mayor Bloomberg, to run against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Read more

Texas ed board adopts social studies standards

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas State Board of Education agreed to new social studies standards on Friday after the far-right faction wielded its power to shape the lessons that will be taught to millions of students on American history, the U.S. free enterprise system, religion and other topics. Read more

CIA Report on Torture Program

The Obama administration is no different than other administrations in that they dump news on Friday hoping that no one is paying attention. Fortunately, I’m a dork and I love seeing what they try and sneak past us each week.

Today the Office of Professional Responsibility released their report on whether Bush administration lawyers broke the law when they decided torturing fellow human beings was cool.

According to the report the OPR found misconduct, but DoJ career attorney David Margolis didn’t have a problem with Jay Bybee and John Yoo’s legal justification for torture.

Here’s what Margolis wrote:

In keeping with usual Department practice, I invited Bybee and Yoo to submit responses to OPR’s final report. They submitted those responses on October 9, 2009, and the matter is no ripe for discussion. My task is a narrow one. The OPR report addresses a number of topics without reaching misconduct fundings against any Department attorney. I did not review OPR’s analysis of those topics. For example, during the course of its investigation, OPR reviewed prosecutive declinations regarding interrogations of certain detainees, but I have not examined its analysis of those issues. In addition, OPR reviewed and analyzed several memoranda authored by former OLC attorney Steve Bradbury. Because that review did not result in a finding of misconduct or poor judgement, I have not reviewed that analysis. Rather, my review was strictly limited to the findings of misconduct against Yoo and Bybee.

For the reasons state below, I do not adopt OPR’s finding of misconduct. This decision should not be viewed as an endorsement of the legal work that underlies those memoranda. However, OPR’s own analytical framework defines “professional misconduct” such that a finding of misconduct depends on application of a known, unambiguous obligation or standard to the attorney’s conduct. I am unpersuaded that OPR has identified such a standard. For this reason and based on the additional analysis set forth below, I cannot adopt OPR’s findings of misconduct, and I will not authorize OPR to refer its findings to the state bar disciplinary authorities in the jurisdictions where Yoo and Bybee are licensed.

Here are the newly released documents from OPR and DoJ.
Career DoJ attorney David Margolis Admonishes Torture Lawyers
John Yoo Response to DoJ Torture Investigation
Office of Professional Responsibility Second Report on Torture
Office of Professional Responsibility First Report on Torture
Bybee Response to OPR’s Draft Report
John Yoo Response to OPR Draft Report on Torture

Here’s my archive of torture memos and reports
Jay Bybee torture memo August 1, 2002
Steven Bradbury torture memo May 10, 2005
Steven Bradbury to John Rizzo about torture program May 10, 2005
Steven Bradbury to Rizzo torture memo
De-classified CIA report on Bush torture program

Attorney General Eric Holder

The only question remaining now is whether former Vice President Dick Cheney personally participated in waterboarding people. When it comes to torture, hell yes, Cheney was totally on board.

On Sunday, Cheney unequivocally stated the Bush administration tortured prisoners. On ABC’s “This Week” Cheney said, “I was a big supporter of waterboarding.”

I guess one could argue that waterboarding isn’t torture, or illegal. But if you remember Vietnam, you might recall the story about the US soldier who was court-martialled for waterboarding a North Vietnamese prisoner. The Washington Post ran a photo of the torture.

That was back when the US had a news media willing and able to challenge the government. Now we just have media without the news.

“Water boarding was designated as illegal by US generals in Vietnam 40 years ago,” ABC News reported in 2005 in their story “History of an Interrogation Technique: Water Boarding.”

Sen. John McCain(R-Ariz), who was tortured as a POW in Vietnam, said the water-board technique is a “very exquisite torture” that should be outlawed, according to the ABC News report.

Waterboarding has been outlawed. We signed the Geneva Convention that prohibits torture. And here’s what the US Justice Department’s Criminal Manual says about torture.

Section 2340A of Title 18, United States Code, prohibits torture committed by public officials under color of law against persons within the public official’s custody or control. Torture is defined to include acts specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering. (It does not include such pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions.) The statute applies only to acts of torture committed outside the United States. There is Federal extraterritorial jurisdiction over such acts whenever the perpetrator is a national of the United States or the alleged offender is found within the United States, irrespective of the nationality of the victim or the alleged offender.

So where’s the Justice Department investigation Attorney General Eric Holder was yammering about last year?

The story is that Holder is waiting on the Office of Professional Responsibility to complete its report on the Bush torture program. Well, it’s been a year now, and it looks a lot more like a cover-up than an investigation.

The sad truth is that this is NOT a nation of laws but rather men, and this case proves that. These men can break any law they want and get away with it.

Maybe an international war crimes tribunal is a more appropriate venue anyway?

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Here are links to stories last year about the pending Bush torture investigation.
Criminal investigation into CIA treatment of detainees expected LA Times
Top prosecutor orders probe into interrogations; Obama shifts onus CNN
Holder Probe Would Be Big Break From Bush Torture Policy Washington Independent
Justice Dept. Report Advises Pursuing C.I.A. Abuse Cases New York Times