Former AG Accused of Playing Politics with Justice

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, now under investigation for allegedly politicizing the Justice Department, ousted a top lawyer for failing to adopt the administration's position on torture and then promised him a position as a U.S. attorney to placate him, highly placed sources tell ABC News.

Gonzales, who was just taking over as attorney general, asked Justice Department lawyer Daniel Levin to leave in early 2005, shortly after Levin wrote a legal opinion that declared "torture is abhorrent" and limited the administration's use of harsh interrogation techniques.

At the time, Levin was in the middle of drafting a second, critical memo that analyzed the legality of specific interrogation techniques, like waterboarding.

Gonzales, however, was concerned about how it would be perceived if Levin were ousted immediately after issuing the opinion — and just before he finished another — so he offered Levin a less significant job outside the Department of Justice at the National Security Council, sources tell ABC News.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5202405&page=1

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Gonzales - another of the war criminals who should be jailed!

[maddezmom]

1. lots of tidbits here from yesterday's hearing n

June 18, 2008
Daniel Levin, you'll remember, is the former acting assistant attorney general who submitted himself to waterboarding because he was so troubled about the question of whether it constituted torture (the White House insisted it does not). The White House later blocked his appointment. A friend watching Levin's testimony now to the House Judicary Committee hearing notes: "Levin just said, in essence, that anyone who thinks waterboarding was used only for a total of three minutes on detainees should go back and learn more. i.e. that is inaccurate and wrong, though he couldn't say very much more."

Update: In a further observation on today's House Judiciary Committee hearing, this friend notes:

Stunning. Levin's explanation of the infamous Footnote 8 from his December 2004 opinion repudiated the notion that his own opinion results in support for all the interrogation techniques that had been in use. That is a famous celebratory point from conservatives, even including really thoughtful folks like Jack Goldsmith. But now Levin is saying that's not what he intended. Instead, his point was that substituting his arguments for the previous arguments that had been used would not have resulted in different conclusions by the authors of those previous arguments. That is, those arguments would have concluded the same. But Levin repudiated the notion that his own opinion supported all the existing interrogation techniques at the time. That is truly stunning.

And in fact, it undercuts, to some extent, one of the central contentions of Goldsmith's excellent book, which was that Yoo's executive overreach was utterly unnecessary. In a sense that remains the case, but only if one continued to buy into other problematic aspects of Yoo's views, which Levin evidently repudiates. In other words, Levin's new opinion did cause alterations in the actual specific techniques that could be used in interrogation. And in fact I believe Levin suggested as much in his opening statement as well.

More below the fold:

Here's the first passage alluding to footnote 8, though it's not explicit, that comes later in the transcript: NADLER: OK.

Now, John Yoo has written that the December 2004 replacement opinion you drafted was done "for appearance sake," in quotes, and that, quote, "No policies or interrogation techniques changed as a result of the withdrawal of the torture memo," close quote.

Mr. Yoo has also said that, quote, "The OLC's reversal was pure politics," unquote.

NADLER: Now, do you agree that nothing changed as a result of your 2004 memo?

(CROSSTALK)

NADLER: Do you agree that the 2004 memo you authored was pure politics?

LEVIN: I certainly don't agree it was pure politics. And I don't think it's accurate that nothing changed as a result of the change in legal analysis.

NADLER: What do you think was the change?

LEVIN: I'm sorry?

NADLER: How would you characterize the change?

LEVIN: Well, unfortunately, I'm not authorized to discuss certain matters. But I believe it is the case that there were certain changes in practices as a result of the change in legal analysis.

NADLER: So as a result of the change in your memo, you think there were changes in practices. That means required changes in interrogation policies?

LEVIN: I believe that's the case, sir. Yes, sir.

more:http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/007564.html

[libnnc]

2. kick because it's all I can do

[tavalon]

3. Alberto?

No! I just can't believe it! Not Alberto! He always seemed so honest, so forthright, perhaps a bit forgetful, but aren't we all?

I'm shocked, I tell ya, shocked!

:sarcasm:

[Pharaoh]

4. the damn is breaking..............

HA! The Bastards!!

[pnwmom]

10. But all the rats have run for the hills. n/t

[totodeinhere]

5. I hope that that sad excuse for a lawyer gets what's coming to him including...

jail time and disbarment. What a disgrace he was as AG.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. And there's a certain sect in the community saying right now,

"But isn't this the way it works?"

[LiberalFighter]

7. Why are you coddling scum like Gonzales? It should be tit for tat (torture)

or he getting shot.

:bounce: :sarcasm:

[AnnieBW]

8. What was that number again?

1-800-WELL-DUH!

[lovuian]

9. Aschcroft and Gonzales are major traitors to the LAW

of this country and others ... their arrogance was astounding

[speedoo]

11. K&R. Thanks for posting this. nt

[williesgirl]

12. k&r - thanks

[L. Coyote]

13. Sounds a lot like a crime.

Error: You've already recommended that thread.

[WheelWalker]

14. Walks like a duck.

On Edit - that's "little 'd' duck."

[defendandprotect]

15. Don't forget Ashcroft --- he is mentioned as being part of the group --

You remember Ashcroft?

The guy with the big fear of the female breast????

[DCKit]

17. Nah, they were just trying to hide the barb wire, rope and duct tape...

they'd restrained her with.

[Kablooie]

16. Investigate all you want. He's immune from prosecution.

He's Bush's friend and the Democrats are far too timid to prosecute anyone who's friendly with Bush.

[iconicgnom]

18. Come January, we might be pleasantly surprised.

I imagine that pure numbers and instinct for survival will suffice, in a lot of cases, for a spine.

The best thing that will come of this election is a redefinition of the notion "political center". I'm way overtired of US politicians and pundits describing the "political center" in terms of a Republican notion, and then as a vanishingly distant and unimaginable point from the position of the "right Republican" who can't see further than some pragmatic justification for the torture that's already been enacted - with the signatures of cabinet level Republicans all over it. What a sad state of affairs when the political center, in the popular sense, is defined by differences from Cheney and Yoo and their idiot mouthpiece, Bush. What a disgrace that is. I look forward to how the political dialogue will change, when Obama if president.