Lawyer for State Dept Disputed Detainee Memo (WP Obtained Lawyer's letter)

[Khephra]

Lawyer for State Dept. Disputed Detainee Memo
Military Legal Advisers Also Questioned Tactics

By R. Jeffrey Smith

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 24, 2004; Page A07


A letter about detainee policy sent in 2002 from the State Department's legal adviser to the Justice Department's deputy assistant attorney general made no attempt at bureaucratic pleasantries.


William H. Taft IV said that Justice's legal advice to President Bush about how to handle detainees in the war on terrorism was "seriously flawed" and its reasoning was "incorrect as well as incomplete." Justice's arguments were "contrary to the official position of the United States, the United Nations and all other states that have considered the issue," Taft said.

Taft's Jan. 11 letter, obtained by The Washington Post, was omitted from the hundreds of pages of documents released Tuesday by the Bush administration. The release was part of an effort to present the administration's policies on detainees since Sept. 11, 2001, as fully compliant with domestic and international law.

A fuller picture -- of senior administration officials who sought to reinterpret the law and sanction tougher treatment of detainees in the face of strongly expressed dissents by the State Department and the military services -- emerges from the State Department letter and other previously undisclosed memos.

more..............

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A759-2004Jun23.html

[Leilani]

1. They dump hundreds of pages

except the important ones.

[struggle4progress]

2. Career State and Pentagon employees seem to have ...

much more integrity than the Administration's hacks.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. I'm sure Taft's great-grandfather is rolling in his grave

I can't imagine President and Justice William Howard Taft condoning such stuff. When one realizes how long the Taft family has been in conservative Republican politics, it makes one wonder if maybe there might be a break up of the GOP coming as the old line conservatives distance themselves from the neo-cons and Shrub.

[amber dog democrat]

4. I am certrain Grover Cleveland would have felt the same way too.

You make an excellent point, and while I will not agree with much of the conservative positions on fundamental issues, they DO have my respect.

The moral cowards who currently make up the adminstrations are a danger to themserves, the US and the World.

[mom cat]

5. LINK TO FULL TEXT: http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/061104C.shtml