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WSJWASHINGTON -- A principal architect of the Bush administration's detainee policies is stepping down, just as military officials gear up for the Guantanamo Bay trial of alleged planners of the Sept. 11, 2001, conspiracy.
Since becoming Defense Department general counsel in 2001, William J. Haynes pushed the Pentagon toward a near-revolution in military law, away from traditional procedures for enemy prisoners and through a series of experiments in detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists outside the Geneva Conventions or domestic law.
Teaming up with like-minded lawyers in the White House and the Justice Department, Mr. Haynes, a Harvard Law School graduate and former Army officer, formed the so-called war council that crafted the administration's legal response to the Sept. 11 attacks. Many of those policies, including establishment of the Guantanamo Bay prison, plans for military commission trials and detention of U.S. citizens as "enemy combatants," were new or hadn't been seen for decades.
The administration argued its changes were necessary to counter the threat of 21st-century terrorism, but Mr. Haynes's reputation suffered as harsh detention practices and aggressive legal positions -- including the argument that the president could set aside laws banning torture -- came to light.
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