[News] Ex-Defense counsel who OK'd torture, now at Chevron

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Report rips ex-Defense counsel, now at Chevron

Andrew S. Ross

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

A little over a week ago, the Senate Armed Services Committee 
released a report, "Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. 
Custody." The product of an 18-month investigation, the report 
concluded that "former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other 
senior U.S. officials share much of the blame for detainee abuse at 
Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."

One of the "senior U.S. officials" prominently featured in the report 
is William J. Haynes II, currently the chief corporate counsel for 
San Ramon's Chevron Corp.

 From 2001 until February, Haynes was general counsel for the 
Department of Defense. The general counsel "provides oversight, 
guidance, and direction regarding legal advice on all matters arising 
within the Department of Defense, including the Office of the 
Secretary of Defense," according to the Pentagon's job description. 
In Haynes' case, that included advising on interrogation techniques 
used on U.S.-held detainees in the U.S. war on terror, and in the 
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The bipartisan report - signed by Democrats and Republicans, 
including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. - found that Haynes' opinions on 
the legality of various interrogation techniques were a key 
contributor to their being given the go-ahead. For example, 
then-Defense Secretary Rumsfeld authorized the techniques only after 
Haynes recommended their approval, according to the report. It also 
states that Haynes' office sought information on harsh interrogation 
techniques even before a list of such techniques was drawn up by 
military officials for possible use at Guantanamo Bay. In the 
report's conclusions, the senators said they found some of Haynes' 
actions "deeply troubling."

 From the report:

-- In December 2001, Haynes' office "had already solicited 
information on detainee 'exploitation' from (a U.S. military) agency 
whose expertise was in training American personnel to withstand 
interrogation techniques considered illegal under the Geneva Conventions."

-- On Nov. 27, 2002, "notwithstanding the serious legal concerns 
raised by the military services, Mr. Haynes sent a one page memo to 
the secretary, recommending that he approve all but three of eighteen 
techniques in the GTMO request. Techniques such as stress positions, 
removal of clothing, use of phobias (such as fear of dogs) and 
deprivation of light and auditory stimuli were all recommended for approval."

-- "Secretary Rumsfeld's December 2, 2002 approval of Mr. Haynes' 
recommendation contributed to the use of abusive techniques in 
Afghanistan and Iraq."

-- Haynes' "effort to cut short the legal and policy review of the 
GTMO request was inappropriate and undermined the military's review process."

-- "Further, Mr. Haynes' reliance on a legal memo produced by GTMO's 
Staff Judge Advocate that military lawyers called 'legally 
insufficient' and 'woefully inadequate' is deeply troubling."

The response: Haynes, hired as Chevron's chief corporate counsel soon 
after he left the Pentagon, could not be reached for comment. Kent 
Robertson, a Chevron spokesman said, "We aren't in a position to 
speak to the report."

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in June, 
Haynes said he did "not remember" requesting information on harsh 
interrogation techniques in 2001. He said he had "misgivings" about 
the process for approving interrogation techniques. "This is not 
something that I did as a rubber stamp, or did lightly. I continue to 
stew on that, frankly," he said. However, he added at another point 
in his testimony, "As the lawyer, I was not the decisionmaker. I was 
an adviser."

He also defended the recommendations he made to Rumsfeld. "There is a 
paucity of law that was applicable at the time, and my job, as the 
lawyer, is not to say no, but to say, 'Where is the area or 
discretion available to the client?' - in this case, the secretary of 
Defense. And that was my determination, and I stand by it."

Reactions: The Wall Street Journal, in a lengthy editorial Friday, 
castigated the Senate committee report as "politically 
predetermined." It said the "real purpose" of the committee chairman, 
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., "is to lay the groundwork for war crimes 
prosecutions of Bush officials like ... Jim Haynes who acted in good 
faith to keep the country safe within the confines of the law." In a 
statement dated the same day, six GOP members of the committee 
dissented from the report's conclusions. "The implication that this 
abuse was the direct, necessary or foreseeable of policy decisions 
made by senior administration officials is false and without merit."

The Journal's editorial and the GOP letter came a day after a New 
York Times editorial, which said the Senate report provides "a strong 
case for bringing criminal charges against ... Rumsfeld; his legal 
counsel, William J. Haynes; and potentially other top officials." The 
editorial doubted that such a step would be taken, but hoped the 
incoming Obama administration would "appoint an independent panel to 
look into these and other egregious violations of the law."

Further reading: To read the executive summary of the Senate Armed 
Services Committee report (most of the investigation details remain 
classified), go to 
<http://links.sfgate.com/ZFTC>links.sfgate.com/ZFTC. To read Haynes' 
testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, go to 
<http://links.sfgate.com/ZFTF>links.sfgate.com/ZFTF. For the Wall 
Street Journal editorial, go to 
<http://links.sfgate.com/ZFTD>links.sfgate.com/ZFTD. For the New York 
Times editorial, go to <http://links.sfgate.com/ZFTE>links.sfgate.com/ZFTE.

Tips, feedback: E-mail 
<mailto:bottomline at sfchronicle.com>bottomline at sfchronicle.com

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/23/BUGC14SMVV.DTL

This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle




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