WASHINGTON -- Justice Department lawyers showed "poor judgment" but did not commit professional misconduct when they authorized CIA interrogators to use waterboarding and other harsh tactics at the height of the U.S. war on terrorism, an internal review released Friday found.
The decision closes the book on one of the major lingering investigations into the counterterrorism policies of George W. Bush's administration. President Barack Obama campaigned on abolishing the simulated drowning technique of waterboarding and other tactics that he called torture, but he left open the question of whether anyone would be punished for authorizing such methods.
An initial review by the Justice Department's internal affairs unit found that former government lawyers Jay Bybee and John Yoo had committed professional misconduct, a conclusion that could have cost them their law licenses. But the Justice Department's top career lawyer reviewed the matter and disagreed.
"This decision should not be viewed as an endorsement of the legal work that underlies those memoranda," Assistant Deputy Attorney General David Margolis wrote in a memo released Friday.
Well they may have walked right up to the line that separated criminal activity- but line that matters now is the one between "poor judgment" and weather whether John Yoo and Jay Bybee face ethical sanctions from their respective state bar association-
Maybe the judges need to be waterboarded... Or some politicians. Of course when the next American Revolution breaks out, I am sure it won't be any prettier than the first.
If waterboarding saved one American life then it's worth doing and many of those in the armed forces have been treated to the same treatment as part of their training.
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