Bybee is now a federal judge?!?!?!

[Sapphire Blue]

Many DUers probably already know this, but I was unaware :blush: until reading Sy Hersh's book, 'Chain of Command' (just started it)...

In Chapter 1:

(Bush later nominated Bybee to be a federal judge, and he now sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.)

The Bybee memorandum to Gonzales, written in early August 2002 (Bybee was then head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Council):

"Certain acts may be cruel. inhuman, or degrading, but still not produce pain and suffering of the requisite intensity to fall within {a legal} proscription of torture," Bybee wrote to Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House Counsel. "We conclude that for an act to constitute torture... it must inflict pain that is difficult to endure. Physical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death."

I'm surprised bush didn't nominate Bybee to the Supreme Court!