Follow up on the Interfaith Peacemaking Forum

[Nancy]

Brian-
Signed both torture petitions. Thanks for posting. See ya with the rest the crew tonight. Peace & Condolences to Armenian Readers & their familiies, Nancy

[Brian]

You might have seen excerpts from this Washington Post article in today's Los Angeles Times. Bybee had regrets about the torture memo he signed long before it was released last week by President Obama:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/24/AR2009042403888.html

But he's still not speaking -- he's hired a lawyer at Latham and Watkins. He's not proud of what he did -- but he's not apologizing either. Bybee appears to be a decent human being who may be at least partially responsible for crimes committed in our names.

Life is complicated. However, torture is always wrong -- and illegal under U.S. laws and treaties we've signed.

[Brian]

I keep thinking about that Washington Post story about Bybee's latter-day qualms over his torture memo, which nobody seemed to know about when he was confirmed as a federal appellate judge in 2003.

I just read it again to determine whether this is a fair question: Since he isn't inclined to talk by nature and was no doubt advised to keep quiet by his lawyer downtown, are the sources of the story attempting to influence the jury pool for his inevitable prosecution? Here come all of his friends and admirers to explain what a nice guy he is and how conflicted he was about writing the memo while waiting for a judgeship to open up.

Roberta posted this impeach-Bybee link by Credo on March 6. It's still active, maybe more than ever. In case you missed it the first time and want to influence the number of billable hours at Latham and Watkins:

act.credoaction.com/campaign/impeach_bybee/?rc=internalpage

[anni]

;D

Done!

[Jeanne]

Done.

It's good that he feels remorse, or is acting as if he does. I think of judges as having worked through that kind of stuff before they get to the bench. So I vote for impeachment which is much milder than torture.

And what about the one who's teaching in Orange County? Influencing future judges? Hmmm.

[Brian]

Apr 27, 2009 21:31:14 GMT -8 Jeanne said:

It's good that he feels remorse, or is acting as if he does. I think of judges as having worked through that kind of stuff before they get to the bench. So I vote for impeachment which is much milder than torture.

Carrying more water for the effort, Move On started another online petition drive this week to impeach Bybee:

pol.moveon.org/bybee/index.html?rc=homepage

I'm signing all of these. And this is the first initiative from Move On that I've supported for months, so it's my way of telling them what's important to me. I'm still disgusted that they declared victory and gave up on trying to get troops withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan when we have more in both countries than in 2006.