January 25, 2002 - Alberto Gonzales [then the White House counsel, he is now (2006) the Attorney General, sent a memo to President Bush arguing for a “new paradigm” of interrogation, declaring that the war on terror “renders obsolete” the “strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners” required by the Geneva conventions, which were ratified by the United States in 1955. (O) "In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions." […] your policy of providing humane treatment to enemy detainees gives us the credibility to insist on like treatment for our soldiers." (RR) (DD) [See also August 1, 2002] [For information about John Yoo’s testimony, see (DD), pg. xvi] [16] “Some State Department lawyers charge that Gonzales misrepresented so many legal considerations and facts (including hard conclusions by State's Southeast Asia bureau about the nature of the Taliban) that one lawyer considers the memo to be "an ethical breach." In response, a senior White House official says Gonzales's memo was only a "draft" and just one part of an extensive decision-making process in which all views were aired.” [75]

August 1, 2002 – Department of Justice Redefines Torture […] “Amid the furor over the Abu Ghraib Prison photos [see April 28, 2004] Gonzales insisted to reporters that the "torture" memo of Aug. 1 and other documents then making headlines were little more than "irrelevant" legal theorizing.” [75]

Early January 2009- H. Marshall Jarrett, chief of the Justice Department Office of Professional Responsibility issues a draft report of their investigation into senior Bush administration OLC lawyers who approved waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics. The investigation began in late 2003. [See December 2003] “But then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey and his deputy, Mark Filip, strongly objected to the draft, according to the [two knowledgeable] sources. […] OPR is now [February 2009] seeking to include the responses before a final version is presented to Attorney General Eric Holder. “The matter is under review," said [Obama Administration] Justice spokesman Matthew Miller.” A former Bush administration lawyer says: "OPR is not competent to judge [the opinions by Justice attorneys]. They're not constitutional scholars." [76]

[75] Torture’s Path, Newsweek, 12/27/04 http://www.newsweek.com/id/56219/output/print

[76] A Torture Report Could Spell Big Trouble For Bush Lawyers, Newsweek, 2/23/09 http://www.newsweek.com/id/184801/output/print

Related thoughts:

1] Do we even have any “competent authorities”

2] Maybe we’re witnessing the descent of Conason from shrill to shill.

You might be interested in this talk at Berkley [on youtube] by law scholar Elizabeth Warren, who teaches contract law, bankruptcy and commercial law at Harvard Law School.

The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akVL7QY0S8A&feature=channel

It's long, but [I think] very interesting.

Is anyone else having trouble with the "opinionjuris" link at the words "reasonable dispute"?

About that Iran-Contra report [related to El Cid’s comment]

Cheney was on the Committee.

The majority report asserted that the entire affair "was characterized by pervasive dishonesty and inordinate secrecy." But Cheney authored a minority report - joined by several other Republicans, though not all.

Cheney's report took a very different view: He called the failures of the Reagan White House to comply with the laws "mistakes," insisting they "were just that -- mistakes in judgment and nothing more."

These so-called mistakes were actually serious criminal offenses according to Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh, who successfully prosecuted some eight Reagan officials for their mistakes. All eight, however, either had their verdicts reversed on technicalities, or were pardoned by President George H.W. Bush. The George W. administration hired many of these people, and has made the records of George H.W. Bush disappear.

Vice President Cheney and The Fight Over "Inherent" Presidential Powers: His Attempt to Swing the Pendulum Back Began Long Before 9/11, John Dean, Feb. 10, 2006

http://writ.corporate.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=/dean/20060210.html

See also:

Mr. Cheney’s Minority Report, SEAN WILENTZ, July 9, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/opinion/09wilentz.html?pagewanted=print

I think that the duty of Congress can be simply enunciated:

Verify in what way the American constitution was violated by the Bush administration.

Here's a link to the Report of the Majority Staff of the House Judiciary Committee, under John Conyers:

Reining in the Imperial Presidency; Lessons and Recomendations Relating to the Presidency of George W. Bush

http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/printers/110th/IPres090113.pdf

Harpie has floating around somewhere on the internets an excellent torture timeline that lays everything out and makes the conspiracy to commit torture fairly obvious. I've lost track of the URL, but if you are pissed off now, wait till you see it all laid out in chronological order.

Thanks very much for the compliment. Jebbie and I are working on the latest update at the moment…he does all the complicated technical stuff that would be beyond me. Here’s the link [and at sig]

The Torturous Timeline

http://www.webdsi.com/jebbie/tline.html

It would of course look better if we, as you so picturesquely put it, cleaned out our own toilet, but it seldom works that way. For some things it works out better to have someone else do it.

And for the record, I’m all for someone else cleaning the toilets in MY house. ;-)

Just wanted to let you know that the story of Aaifa Saddiqui is now in the timeline, and as soon as we get a couple of glitches worked out, Humanity Against Crimes will be listed [82] in the Sources. Here's the link to the first page where she's mentioned I hope it's OK:

http://www.webdsi.com/jebbie/tlpage18.html

for the link to the Guantanamo Testimonials Project at UC Davis.