Guantanamo Bay: John Yoo’s biggest mistake?

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties met for a third time to discuss interrogation tactics authorized for Guantanamo Bay prison detainees and whether these tactics constituted torture. Committee member Jerry Nadler, Chairman of the Subcommittee( D-Ny.) presided over the hearing and said that the morals of the U.S. have been “besmirched” by techniques used by interrogators at Guantanamo. He said the more he learns about these techniques and the secretive way they were authorized, the more appalled he becomes. The witnesses included John Yoo, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, and David Addington, Chief of Staff to the Vice President.

Yoo deflected a number of specific questions regarding his involvement with the creation of guidelines for interrogation techniques, specifically his involvement with the Bybee memo of 2008, which some committee members believed he was significantly involved in. He said that he was not at liberty to discuss certain issues because he was bound both by attorney/client privilege and the inability to reveal classified information. Yoo said that neither Congress nor the judicial system had provided guidelines which defined torture or acceptable interrogation techniques. He said that because of that he had no template to draw from while making the regulations for interrogation and the definitions of torture. He fell under immediate criticism from members of the committee for not consulting with the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary committees in 2002, who were Senator Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) and Congressmen James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.).

Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich.), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, showed his obvious frustration when both Yoo and Addington tried to evade his questions. He raised his tone of voice and interrupted the witnesses multiple times. He was not the only one to express frustration; Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) also raised his voice a number of times and demanded straight answers from the witnesses.