{"id":12526,"date":"2008-04-02T06:57:58","date_gmt":"2008-04-02T13:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/04\/02\/do-what-thou-wilt.html"},"modified":"2008-04-02T06:57:58","modified_gmt":"2008-04-02T13:57:58","slug":"do_what_thou_wilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/04\/02\/do_what_thou_wilt.html","title":{"rendered":"“Do What Thou Wilt”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spiffy — a newly declassified 2003 Justice Dept. memo (rescinded 9 months later) that told the Defense Dept. it could do pretty much anything it wanted when it came to interrogating prisoners<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Sent to the Pentagon’s general counsel on March 14, 2003, by John C. Yoo, then a deputy in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, the memo provides an expansive argument for nearly unfettered presidential power in a time of war. It contends that numerous laws and treaties forbidding torture or cruel treatment should not apply to U.S. interrogations in foreign lands because of the president’s inherent wartime powers.<\/p>\n

“If a government defendant were to harm an enemy combatant during an interrogation in a manner that might arguably violate a criminal prohibition, he would be doing so in order to prevent further attacks on the United States by the al Qaeda terrorist network,” Yoo wrote. “In that case, we believe that he could argue that the executive branch’s constitutional authority to protect the nation from attack justified his actions.”<\/p>\n

Interrogators who harmed a prisoner would be protected by a “national and international version of the right to self-defense,” Yoo wrote. He also articulated a definition of illegal conduct in interrogations — that it must “shock the conscience” — that the Bush administration advocated for years.<\/p>\n

“Whether conduct is conscience-shocking turns in part on whether it is without any justification,” Yoo wrote, explaining, for example, that it would have to be inspired by malice or sadism before it could be prosecuted.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

In other words, don’t worry your little head about “treaties” and “law.” Do whatever you think is “necessary,” as long as you don’t openly <\/em>chortle maniacally whist doing it.<\/p>\n

Justice and Law in the Bush Administration.   How invigorating.<\/p>\n

(The memo<\/a> itself<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spiffy — a newly declassified 2003 Justice Dept. memo (rescinded 9 months later) that told the Defense Dept. it could do pretty much anything it wanted when it came to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,19,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-home-improvement","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":133497,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/a-special-counsel-will-pick-up-where-james-comey-left-off.html","url_meta":{"origin":12526,"position":0},"title":"A Special Counsel will pick up where James Comey left off","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 17-May-17 4:23pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Justice Dept. announced that former FBI Director Robert Mueller will oversee the FBI probe of \"Russian government efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election, and related matters\".Especially the \"related matters.\"This is potentially a huge step forward. Dueling recusals and White House interference in the investigation have dogged the Justice\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12524,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/04\/02\/bug_as_thou_wilt_too.html","url_meta":{"origin":12526,"position":1},"title":"Bug as thou wilt, too","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 2-Apr-08 3:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, not only did the DoJ claim it was okay to torture folks if the President said to do it, someone at the EFF spotted a footnote in the original...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":134961,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/06\/jeff-sessions-says-okay-fire-transgender-workers.html","url_meta":{"origin":12526,"position":2},"title":"Jeff Sessions says it’s okay to fire transgender workers again","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 6-Oct-17 2:49pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Because of course he did. 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Comey, the former F.B.I. director, asked the Justice Department for a significant increase in resources for the bureau\u2019s investigation into Russia\u2019s interference in the presidential election, according to four congressional officials, including Senator Richard J. Durbin.Mr.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131307,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/18\/phasing-out-the-for-profit-private-prison-industry-at-the-federal-level-at-least.html","url_meta":{"origin":12526,"position":4},"title":"Phasing out the for-profit private prison industry — at the Federal level, at least","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 18-Aug-16 9:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Making profit off of jailing people is inherently inefficient, demonstrably corrupting, and ethically suspect. If we, as a society, believe that an individual should be incarcerated, we, as a society, should do it, not bid it out to the lowest bidder corporation with the biggest lobbying budget.So hearing that the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Chain-Gang-25B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13017,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/08\/15\/seeking_justice_from_just.html","url_meta":{"origin":12526,"position":5},"title":"Seeking justice from Justice","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 15-Aug-08 7:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Given the failure of the Attorney General to follow up on the illegal politicization of attorney hiring at the Justice Dept (which included the odd statement for an Attorney General...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}