Jay Bybee Wasn't Proud Of Torture Memo Outcome, Friends Say

Washington Post:

On a Saturday night in May last year, Jay S. Bybee hosted dinner for 35 at a Las Vegas restaurant. The young people seated around him had served as his law clerks in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, the post Bybee had assumed after two turbulent years at the Justice Department, where as head of the Office of Legal Counsel he signed the legal justifications for harsh interrogations that have become known as the "torture memos."

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[wordvarc]

04:24 PM on 05/01/2009

I'd like Obama to clearly, literally, and symbolically hand the decision about investigating the torturer deciders and operatives to the GOP.

[robeson]

09:23 AM on 04/27/2009

Oh so sorry, Uncle Albert.

[LJB1977]

08:39 AM on 04/27/2009

So the ""Torture" Judge regrets his memo. So do the "grunts" who were jailed because they "obeyed orders" and paid for it, so do the people who were trotured and so do we citizens. Question is "What is Judge Bybee prepaired to DO about his regret? He should resign in SHAME or, we can IMPEACH him for his shame, which is now OUR SHAME. Do the right thing, JUDGE BYBEE, RESIGN!!!

[brandnewstuff]

08:07 AM on 04/27/2009

Anger is having a man on a Fed. Bench who broke International law, Constitutional Laws and Federal Criminal Stautory Laws. Bybee has to be impeached.

[Prakosh]

07:47 AM on 04/27/2009

Poor Bybee so maligned. All he did was what he was told to do. He was asked by Bush to write a memo that made it possible to torture with impunity. He wrote a memo allowing the administration to torture with impunity. Then the administration began torturing or if you believe some reports were already torturing but now had the legal cover they sought. Now Bybee either knew what he was doing was giving them legal cover to torture and that they would torture in which case he is too ethically challenged to continue in his job as Federal judge. Or he did not understand that what he was doing was giving them legal cover to torture, in which case hs is just too stupid to continue as a Federal judge, In either case the next headline I want o read concerning Mr Bybee is this: Impeachment hearing for Judge Bybee scheduled.

[springsm]

05:57 AM on 04/27/2009

He regrets it now, but he still signed that memo amd is still a sitting judge...give us a break. He is regretting getting "found out" and he speaks with crooked tongue.

[rbrinega]

01:34 AM on 04/27/2009

I understand the slippery slope which leads to throwing one's principles overboard when faced with groupthink. And the Bush White House was nothing if not groupthink central. And I could see Judge Bybee's regret especially if he sees it as facilitating the torture of at least two men (266 waterboarding sessions between them) and the resultant bad "intel" (maybe the word should be "unintel") which led to the non-connection connection of Sadam Hussein and Al Qaeda and the ensuing disastrous, deadly Iraq war. At least I hope that is his regret (and having read the article, sadly, I'm not so sure). If it is, he should resign from the bench to prevent the taint of this terrible moment of moral weakness taint his judgeship. Because his judgeship is *surely* tainted.

The thing that I don't understand is that John Yoo isn't picketed everywhere he goes near the UC Berkeley campus. Big-time weasels need to be confronted. I suspect that If you look up weasel nest in the dictionary, you'll see a group picture of the Bush White House.

[ObjectiveRealist]

11:36 PM on 04/26/2009

Too little, too late, and not nearly enough moral clarity to be entrusted with decisions critical to the justice and liberty of any of his fellow citizens, ever again.

[MideastDove]

09:22 PM on 04/26/2009

I'll foregive him once he rats out the rest of them and serves his time.

[PoliticalAmazon]

09:12 PM on 04/26/2009

In the comments, he NEVER says he's sorry he signed the memo because of the harm done to people who were just suspects, or because torture has made our soldiers less safe in the world.

He's sorry because the memo was published and now people can associate him with okaying torture.

He's sorry because people know the kind of a$$hat he is, and what he will do to keep a job.

But not because he caused pain and suffering to others, or because he has put our soldiers at more risk in an already incredibly dangerous job.

[pegster62]

07:31 PM on 04/26/2009

I say let FLOTUS be the special prosecuter. And as punishment make him go hunting with Dick for a week.

[Mildmannered]

05:10 PM on 04/26/2009

is it too late for Bush to give Bybee one of those Medals of Freedom?

[jnutlfam2]

04:48 PM on 04/26/2009

Awww---fishsticks!!

[Taz2]

04:32 PM on 04/26/2009

Has anyone considered that this could be a case of "Qui Pro Quo"?

Bybee gives Cheney-Bush Legal Cover and they Appoint him Judge!!! Just a thought!

[MideastDove]

09:23 PM on 04/26/2009

Sounds like a transaction.

[LeftLeaner]

03:21 PM on 04/26/2009

As usual, another creton getting caught, regrets their actions.

Puuuuuuuuuuuullllllllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzz.

This song has played too many times already.

When caught, the conscience ignites.