Washington: Two top Bush-era lawyers who authorised waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics exercised "poor judgment" but should not be disbarred, an internal Justice Department review showed.
An initial investigation by the department`s ethics watchdog, the Office of Professional Responsibility, found that Jay Bybee and John Yoo engaged in "professional misconduct”, a finding that could have stripped them of their law licenses.
But the agency`s top career lawyer overruled the recommendations and concluded instead that while the controversial memos were "flawed”, the pair did not act recklessly or knowingly provide incorrect advice, and thus should not be referred to state bar associations for disbarment or face criminal punishment.
"These memos contained significant flaws," Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis wrote in a 69-page memo dated January 5 and released on Friday.
"But as all that glitters is not gold, all flaws do not constitute professional misconduct.... I conclude that Yoo and Bybee exercised poor judgment by overstating the certainty of their conclusions and underexposing countervailing arguments."
The long-awaited and repeatedly delayed release of the final report by the ethics unit, which capped a two-year review, was hundreds of pages long and included e-mails exchanged between the Justice Department, the White House and the Central Intelligence Agency. It was dated July 29.
It also cleared Steven Bradbury, who headed the Justice Department`s Office of Legal Counsel where Yoo and Bybee worked.
Together, they followed a broad interpretation of executive power in outlining the legal standards for interrogations of top terror suspects and providing the legal justification for the methods used.
The report criticised former attorney general John Ashcroft, then-chief of the Justice Department`s Criminal Division Michael Chertoff and others for not critically examining the memos or recognising the documents` shortcomings. But it did not cite the officials for misconduct.
In April, President Barack Obama`s administration released four partially blacked out memos authored by government lawyers at the height of his predecessor George W Bush`s "war on terror”.
The documents blew the lid on harsh CIA terror interrogation techniques approved by the Bush administration, including waterboarding -- a simulated drowning method -- sleep deprivation and the use of insects.
The lawyers argued that a long list of coercive techniques did not equal torture as they did not amount to inflicting severe mental or physical pain.
Bureau Report
