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Lawyers who authored interrogation memos should be disbarred: coalition

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] A coalition of progressive organizations Monday filed disciplinary complaints with five state bar associations seeking the disbarment of 12 former US government officials associated with the legal rationales behind the Bush administration's use of enhanced interrogation techniques. Complaints filed by the Velvet Revolution with the bar associations of New York, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, and the District of Columbia allege that former attorneys general John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales and Michael Mukasey, former Office of Legal Council lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee, former vice presidential chief of staff David Addington, former Pentagon official Douglas Feith, and other government officials violated the Rules of Professional Conduct by advocating the use of torture and should be disbarred as a result. The group said that the recent release of CIA memos authorizing the use of enhanced interrogation techniques "clearly demonstrate that these attorneys conspired to violate laws against torture and that their actions resulted in torture and death." Last week former JFK speechwriter Ted Sorensen told an audience at the University of Nebraska College of Law that the lawyers from the Department of Justice (DOJ) who had authorized the use of enhanced interrogation techniques had "disgraced not only their country but their profession." Last month, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee renewed his call for the formation of a non-partisan "truth commission" to investigate torture allegations. Also last month, UN special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak insisted that under international law the US must prosecute DOJ lawyers who drafted the memos. President Barack Obama has said that he would not rule out the possibility of prosecuting lawyers who authored the memos. Obama had previously said that he would not pursue prosecutions of CIA interrogators, a pledge which drew sharp international criticism.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on May 18, 2009 (boomark / email).