Legal Ethics
Does Bybee’s ‘Easy Personality’ Explain Why He Signed ‘Torture Memos’?
Posted Apr 8, 2009 6:57 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Some acquaintances wonder why Judge Jay Bybee signed two memos approving harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects when he led the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in 2002.
The Recorder (sub. req.) partly answers the question, saying the federal appeals judge’s “easy personality” may provide a clue. That personality may also help him recover from this latest setback, the story says.
Bybee, with the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, finds himself at the center of controversy and inquiries into his role in signing the memos at OLC, including a probe ordered by a Spanish investigative judge. Bybee has hired high-profile appellate lawyer Maureen Mahoney of Latham & Watkins to represent him, the Recorder story says.
One of the memos, written by John Yoo, said interrogation techniques could be cruel, inhumane or degrading without constituting torture. Another memo, also written by Yoo, approved a list of interrogation techniques.
Bybee indicated some regret about his work at OLC when he met former judicial clerks at a Las Vegas steakhouse for a five-year reunion, according to former clerk Tuan Samahon, who spoke to the Recorder. Bybee's telling remark came after he talked about the well-researched memos produced by his judicial clerks, said Samahon, now a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Then the judge reportedly added, "I wish I could say that of the prior job I had."
Another regret concerned Bybee’s decision to attend law school at Brigham Young University, instead of Duke University, to stay close to a girlfriend, according to a friend, lawyer Steven Guynn of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. The girlfriend broke off the relationship when Bybee was still a 1L.
Bybee faced other challenges as well, the story recounts. As a Mormon missionary in Chile, he managed to proselytize while avoiding politics and a military curfew. In his 20s, he stepped in to lead his family after his father died from cancer thought to have been caused by his work at the Nevada nuclear test site.
Bybee’s work at OLC has flummoxed his ideological opposite on the 9th Circuit, Betty Fletcher. “It seems completely out of character and inexplicable that he would have signed such a document," she told the Recorder.
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Comments
B. McLeod
Apr 8, 2009 7:21 AM CST
Probably one of those strong souls who is completely impervious to pain, so long as it is that of others. I guess if you ever have Bybee on a panel where you’re defending a Rule 11 issue, this means you can argue that frivolity is excusable based on the poor work of research clerks.
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J.D.
Apr 8, 2009 8:14 AM CST
Can interrogation techniques “be cruel, inhumane or degrading without constituting torture”?
I think the answer is ‘yes.’
The Left really doesn’t want any interrogation at all—that’s their end goal. Anything that helps terrorists will be supported by the post-American Left.
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B. James Stinson
Apr 8, 2009 9:36 AM CST
This is buyers’ remorse: the American Left demanded protection after 9/11, but then stood aloof and let Ashcroft, Bybee et al do all the heavy lifting. Once the defenders were weakened, the patriotically ambiguous Left moved in to hamstring them and tear off drumsticks. Nauseating.
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JR
Apr 8, 2009 10:34 AM CST
Easy persontlity, or blind ambition? I recall Bybee lied about his role when up for confirmation to the Ninth Circuit.
One question I have to poster no. 2. Since you wrote the other day that torture is not a legal term, yet, everyone must admit that cruel and inhumane is, how can you defend the memo Bybee signed? Then, again, I should not ask, since you still think Obama’s citizenship open to question
Poster no. 3: the American Left, indeed, the American public, had no idea about these dirty doings at the time. Sen. Rockefeller, one of the four who did, wrote a letter to the Vice War Criminal objecting to these “methods.” When the New York Times made the news public, outrage ensued, and justifiably.
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Anderson
Apr 8, 2009 2:10 PM CST
The Levine article is excellent, and makes it all the more puzzling what the hell Bybee was thinking. I’m very afraid that ambition for the Ninth Circuit led him to compromise his conscience.
Permit me to doubt that he could’ve read the Aug. 2002 torture memo and not been left wondering why Yoo didn’t discuss the Youngstown decision.
(Also interesting that CIA came to DOJ with its wish list of reverse-engineered torture methods from SERE. What did that CIA memo say about them—did it misrepresent the facts to coax a favorable OLC opinion?)
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Paul the Magyar
Apr 8, 2009 9:38 PM CST
“The Left really doesn’t want any interrogation at all—that’s their end goal. Anything that helps terrorists will be supported by the post-American Left.”
Screw morals, ideals, principles—even logic. Lets just repeat lies and cant.
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Paul the Magyar
Apr 9, 2009 4:02 PM CST
It is very interesting that torture need not be a “right-left” issue at all, but that conservatives have made it so by attempting to justify it on grounds of patriotism and efficacy.
They have no historical basis for these justifications—torture is not patriotic in any sense of the concept and has been proven to be inefficacious. So, it boils down to what Rush Limbaugh calls “blowing off a little steam.” In other words, it is R&R for the troops and makes us all feel better that we are doing SOMETHING, at least.
Wow. That is some impressive and sound intellectual basis for an indefensible policy.
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Alba Etie
Apr 10, 2009 3:28 AM CST
Not only is torture not a Left vs Right issue its also a moot point that torture is illegal - we are signatories of treaties that make it illegal for us to torture.
More, importantly -torture yields no actionable intelligence .Most importantly our illegal torture of prisoners -has been an excellent recruiting tool for the extremist clerics /al Qaida terrorist networks that sure enough want to kill is.
Torture in short is counterproductive as well as illegal . ( RE Cunningham’s book on his experiences in Iraq )
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Paul the Magyar
Apr 10, 2009 9:29 AM CST
Hey Alba—what is the Cunningham book to which you refer? Best Wishes!
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alba etie
Apr 10, 2009 4:24 PM CST
Paul
If memory serves -and I have loaned the book out several months ago - the title is ” How to Break a Terrorist ”
And if I am correct in my recollections the author was given wide publicity -including an interview on Keith Olbermann.
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alba etie
Apr 10, 2009 4:37 PM CST
Correction Paul
Its “How to Break a Terrorist ” by Alexander Matthews -an excellent read - sorry for my memory lapse…
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Alba Etie
Apr 13, 2009 2:56 AM CST
Should a sitting United States federal judge be indicted for war crimes ie torture -by a recongnized overeseas court ie Spain -would that be grounds to at least start impeachment proceedings against that judge ?
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Chris
Apr 17, 2009 10:12 AM CST
Really, this is not a partisan issue. Poster #2 is blinded by scary straw men.
America is a country of laws—we just do not torture. Those who think we should either don’t know it doesn’t work (it only extracts what we want to hear and destroys army discipline and morale) or don’t care because they’re sticking it to some imaginary person who “hates America.”
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J.D.
Apr 20, 2009 10:58 AM CST
LOL, a book highlighted by unintelligent sportscaster-turned-taking head. Ha, ha, yeah, that’s quite an endorsement.
It’s funny how many people repeat the mantra, “torture doesn’t work”—it’s as if they’ve tried it dozens of times before.
I think I’m going to leave our security to those on the front lines rather than to some pothead “journalists” who always oppose security.
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