Jan 9th is 12th anniversary of memo by Bush Admin lawyers to ignore treaties and laws (torture)

[annm4peace]

January 9 is the twelfth anniversary of the memo written by Delahunty* and Yoo** which told the president that the laws and treaties of the United States would not apply to the treatment of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

And on January 11, 2002, the Guantanamo prison received its first prisoners.

On February 9, 2002, the president endorsed the advice of the lawyers, and so the U.S. went down the path that it had never gone down before.
The policy of abuse, inhumane treatment, and torture was endorsed by the administration

see memo: http://lawofwar.org/Yoo_Delahunty_Memo.htm


from Wikepedia

Delahunty and Yoo's January 9, 2002 draft Memorandum to William J. Haynes, II, General Counsel of the Department of Defense, "Application of Treaties and Laws to al Qaeda and Taliban Detainees" claims that al Qaeda and Taliban members are "not governed by the bulk of the Geneva Conventions, specifically those provisions concerning POWs.".[4][5]

This memo promptly led on January 19, 2002 to a secret order from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to his combat commanders, repeating its conclusions, and specifically ordering that the order be transmitted to "Joint Task Force 160", which at the time was setting up the new detaineee prison at Guantanamo.[6] The Supreme Court rejected this legal reasoning on June 29, 2006 in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which stated, "The conflict with al Qaeda is not, according to the Government, a conflict to which the full protections afforded detainees under the 1949 Geneva Conventions apply[...].

[T]here is at least one provision of the Geneva Conventions that applies here[...]. Common Article 3 [...] is applicable here and [...] requires that Hamdan be tried by a 'regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.'" On July 7, 2006, Gordon R. England of the Defense Department ordered that Common article 3 of the Geneva Convention – which prohibits inhumane treatment of prisoners and requires certain basic legal rights at trial – would apply to all detainees held in US military custody.[7][8]

Delahunty co-authored other related legal opinions which the government has so far refused to release:[4]

I wonder what the new Pope who knows about torture thinks about Delahunty teaching at a Catholic Law School, I wonder if the Pope even knows that a such an immoral person is teaching at a Catholic University.

The New Dean at St Thomas still has refused to meet with a local MN peace group "Tackle Torture at the Top" who asked over a year ago to meet with the Dean and plead their case for the Delahunty to be let go.

You can read more about Yoo's mentor Delahunty on link below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Delahunty

[delrem]

1. I believe the US executive branch continues to produce secret "interpretations", etc.

Is that not so?