Judicial nomination in doubt amid abuse scandal

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The controversy swirling around Haynes demonstrates how deeply involved Rumsfeld's office may have been in making the rules for the war on terrorism. Critics say the work of those top aides also helped set the tone for a relaxed standard when it came to the treatment of prisoners in the war in Iraq, and elsewhere.

Haynes, 46, has been nominated for a seat on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Va. His selection was approved by a close vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee in March and is awaiting a vote by the Senate. But since the disclosure nearly a month ago of graphic photographs detailing the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, Haynes' future on the federal bench is in doubt; his name was left off a list of 25 judicial nominees who will soon be considered by senators.

"He may be the first political casualty of the prison scandal," said one Senate staff member who has followed Haynes' nomination closely.

Haynes and Douglas Feith, the defense undersecretary for policy, are both on the list of witnesses the Senate Armed Services Committee has asked Rumsfeld to make available. A third top Rumsfeld aide, Stephen Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, has already testified before the committee, which is investigating the prison abuses. Haynes, Feith and Cambone were involved in setting policy for the treatment of detainees, interrogations and intelligence gathering in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/politics/8733559.htm

By NEIL A. LEWIS

Published: May 21, 2004


QASHINGTON, May 20 — A series of Justice Department memorandums written in late 2001 and the first few months of 2002 were crucial in building a legal framework for United States officials to avoid complying with international laws and treaties on handling prisoners, lawyers and former officials say.


The confidential memorandums, several of which were written or co-written by John C. Yoo, a University of California law professor who was serving in the department, provided arguments to keep United States officials from being charged with war crimes for the way prisoners were detained and interrogated. They were endorsed by top lawyers in the White House, the Pentagon and the vice president's office but drew dissents from the State Department.

The memorandums provide legal arguments to support administration officials' assertions that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to detainees from the Afghanistan war. They also suggested how officials could inoculate themselves from liability by claiming that abused prisoners were in some other nation's custody.

`snip~

One of the memorandums written by Mr. Yoo along with Robert J. Delahunty, another Justice Department lawyer, was prepared on Jan. 9, 2002, four months after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. The 42-page memorandum, entitled, "Application of treaties and laws to Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees," provided several legal arguments for avoiding the jurisdiction of the Geneva Conventions.

~snip~

The memorandum, addressed to William J. Haynes, the Pentagon's general counsel, said that President Bush could argue that the Taliban government in Afghanistan was a "failed state" and therefore its soldiers were not entitled to protections accorded in the conventions. If Mr. Bush did not want to do that, the memorandum gave other grounds, like asserting that the Taliban was a terrorist group. It also noted that the president could just say that he was suspending the Geneva Conventions for a particular conflict.

~snip~
more: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/21/politics/21MEMO.html

Democrats Ask to Recall Haynes New Questions for Judicial Nominee


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As the Pentagon's top lawyer, Haynes "clearly was -- or should have been -- involved in many of the issues now in controversy" and should be asked about them before the Senate votes on his nomination, Kennedy said in his letter to Hatch.

Although Hatch has not responded, according to aides to the two Democrats, a Hatch spokeswoman has told reporters that Hatch will not order new hearings. "Senator Hatch has stated that the committee has completed its work on Mr. Haynes's nomination . . . and Mr. Haynes will not be recalled to the committee," said Margarita Tapia.

Kennedy will continue to press Hatch on the issue and, as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, will seek to question Haynes as part of that committee's probe of prison abuses, according to Kennedy aide David Smith.

Separately from the request for a hearing, Kennedy fired off a letter May 7 to Haynes with 21 specific questions about his role in the "establishment and oversight of legal standards of conduct in U.S. military prisons and detention facilities." Kennedy asked Haynes to describe the "full extent" of his role in the prison investigations, when he became aware of conditions at Abu Ghraib, what steps he took in response to Maj. Gen. Anthony M. Taguba's report on the abuses, and whether he approved sleep deprivation and "stress positions" for use in military interrogations.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34518-2004May17.html

to finally admit maybe this guy is not a good choice to sit on the bench.

can be found here:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4989481/

The JAGs told Horton they could only talk obliquely about practices that were classified. But they said the U.S. military's 50-year history of observing the demands of the Geneva Conventions was now being overturned. "There is a calculated effort to create an atmosphere of legal ambiguity" about how the conventions should be interpreted and applied, they told Horton. And the prime movers in this effort, they told him, were DOD Under Secretary for Policy Douglas Feith and DOD general counsel William Haynes. There was, they warned, "a real risk of a disaster" for U.S. interests.