Where Was the Military Brass Against the Yoo Memo? The Political Leadership?

[marmar]

from AlterNet's PEEK:



Where Was the Military Brass Against the Yoo Memo? The Political Leadership?

Posted by Christy Hardin Smith, Firedoglake at 12:41 PM on April 4, 2008.

If there was objection to the Cheney JAG end-run, why wasn't it getting more media play?




Something highlighted in the NYTimes article on the Yoo memo has been nagging at me:

While resembling an August 2002 memorandum drafted largely by Mr. Yoo, the March 2003 opinion went further, arguing more explicitly that the president's war powers could trump the law against torture, which it said could not constitutionally be enforced if it interfered with the commander in chief's orders.

Scott L. Silliman, head of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke University and a former Air Force lawyer, said he did not believe that the 2003 memorandum directly caused mistreatment. But Mr. Silliman added, "The memo helped to build a culture that, in the absence of leadership from the highest ranks of the Pentagon, allowed the abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere."

Because opinions issued by the Office of Legal Counsel are "binding on the Defense Department," Mr. Silliman said, Mr. Yoo's opinion effectively sidelined military lawyers who strongly opposed harsh interrogation methods.

There were JAG corps lawyers and judges, and upper-level brass, grumbling and pushing back on various issues. But the neocons appear to have engineered and end-run on a policy decision to promote rather than try to prevent torture techniques being used that run contrary to the UCMJ. There were instances of strong pushback -- the Mora work being a prime example, as well as Lt. Commander Swift and others who stood for the rule of law.

But where were the usual retired military brass surrogates speaking for the folks still in uniform, whose personal opinions are restricted from public airing under the UCMJ? Usually they are dispatched whenever there is a fundamental disagreement between civilian and military leadership on an issue of consequence. The Abu Ghraib reaction was fairly swift denunciations and horror, but I'm trying to recall objections prior to those pictures surfacing and not coming up with much. Anyone recall specific instances? If so, let me know.

If there was objection to the Cheney JAG end-run, why wasn't it getting more media play? Because, frankly, the yappy stylings of Huckleberry Graham's petulant hearing question performances when coupled with his over-the-top "yer either patriotic or yer agin' us" MCA defense on the Senate floor leave a lot to be desired in the "public outcry" column. And that goes for John McCain as well. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/81388/

[Captain Hilts]

1. Navy/USMC JAG lawyers went to the NY Bar Assn. to get advice on how to fight this. nt

[flashl]

2. Many active duty in the JAG Corp 'stood up', otherwise why the effort to control them?

Control sought on military lawyers

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is pushing to take control of the promotions of military lawyers, escalating a conflict over the independence of uniformed attorneys who have repeatedly raised objections to the White House's policies toward prisoners in the war on terrorism.

The administration has proposed a regulation requiring "coordination" with politically appointed Pentagon lawyers before any member of the Judge Advocate General corps - the military's 4,000-member uniformed legal force - can be promoted.

[ThomWV]

3. I have to wonder how far down the chain of command the memo went

Somehow I doubt that very many people in the military ever saw Yoo's memo and I'm not sure anyone below Rumsfeld was ever meant to see it. It seems to me that for Rummy it was a get-out-of-jail-free card and once he had his copy in hand he would use intimidation to have the interrogation means he felt appropriate employed without further reference to the memo. I do not see Rumsfeld as presenting his authority to be conditional upon someone Else's opinion.