[News] Ex-Defense counsel who OK'd torture, now at Chevron
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Tue Dec 23 14:10:23 EST 2008
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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