by davidswanson
We're building a coalition.
Help the California Democratic Party pass a resolution asking for Bybee's impeachment.
The New York Times finally wants somebody impeached and it's Jay Bybee.
Congressman Jerrold Nadler finally wants somebody impeached and it's Jay Bybee.
Senator Russ Feingold finally wants somebody impeached and it's Jay Bybee.
A Spanish judge is seeking an indictment of Jay Bybee.
Jay Bybee's "legal" memos were thrown out by the Bush administration.
Jay Bybee signed memos authorizing torture.
Jay Bybee is a federal judge with a lifetime appointment who was not straight with us at his confirmation.
Lawyers have been held accountable for the crime of pretending to legalize crimes before, see: US v. Joseph Altstoetter.
Any act complicit in torture is a felony under US law.
Every single crime is in the past. "Looking forward" means looking forward to a world in which abuse and criminality cannot be deterred.
CLICK HERE to ask Congress to impeach Jay Bybee.
"I was following orders" is a Nazi excuse. CIA employees are civilians and don't get orders.
"I was following lawyers' advice" could permit absolutely anything because there is nothing a lawyer cannot be paid to say is legal.
The advice came after the torture began and the torture was never limited to the approved techniques.
The memo in which Bybee claims to legalize the torture of Abu Zubaydah itself claims only to be valid if certain facts and circumstances are true, which were not.
Secret laws produced as royal decrees are not laws at all, but their drafting can be a crime, and in the case of Bybee's memos violated the Convention Against Torture.
CLICK HERE to ask Congress to impeach Jay Bybee.
We can restore power to Congress AND begin to deter future abuses through one absolutely necessary action.
Bruce Ackerman made the case very well in a Slate article called "Impeach Jay Bybee: Why should a suspected war criminal serve as a federal judge?" Ackerman wrote:
"Jay Bybee is currently sitting on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. As assistant attorney general in President George W. Bush's Justice Department, he was responsible for the notorious torture memos that enabled the excesses at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and other places. While John Yoo did most of the staff work for Bybee, Yoo was barely 35 years old -- and his memos showed it. They not only took extreme positions; they were legally incompetent, failing to consider many of the most obvious counterarguments. Bybee was 49. He was the grown-up, the seasoned jurist. He had been a law professor and had served as associate counsel to President Bush. When he was promoted to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, he became the final judge of legal matters within the executive branch. Yet his opinion on torture was so poorly reasoned that it was repudiated by his very conservative successor, Jack Goldsmith."
Ackerman points out that when Bybee was confirmed by the Senate, his role in promoting the use of torture and other criminal acts was not known (well, was still denied by some people), and he absurdly claimed the right to keep his work secret. When torture teammate William Haynes was later considered for a similar appointment, the widespread use of torture had become known, and the Senate rejected him. That's the same Senate, although slightly improved by recent elections, that would have to convict Bybee in an impeachment trial.
CLICK HERE to ask Congress to impeach Jay Bybee.
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