Bybee memo

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The Bybee Memo was a document prepared by the United States Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), and specifically John Yoo, in response to a CIA request to the White House.[1] It was submitted on August 1, 2002. The memo takes its name from the then-head of the OLC, Jay Bybee.

The memo describes the limitations on the behavior of US Government interrogators outside the United States as governed by the United Nations Convention Against Torture. The Convention's provisions are implemented in the United States by 18 USC 2340. After surveying the history of 18 USC 2340, the Convention itself, court decisions regarding the Torture Victims Protection Act (28 USC 1350), and the Commander-in-Chief powers of the President, the memo concluded that torture was defined as "acts inflicting...severe pain or suffering, whether mental or physical." Physical pain "must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." Mental pain "must result in significant psychological harm of significant duration, e.g., lasting for months or even years," as well as be the result of one of the specific causes of mental pain contained 18 USC 2340, "namely: threats of imminent death; threats of infliction of the kind of pain that would amount to physical torture; infliction of such physical pain as a means of psychological torture; use of drugs or other procedures designed to deeply disrupt the senses, or fundamentally alter an individual's personality; or threatening to do any of these things to a third party."

The memo also concluded that even though an act is "cruel, inhuman, or degrading," it doesn't necessarily inflict the level of pain that 18 USC 2340 prohibits, and thus does not subject an interrogator to criminal prosecution. Additionally, it stated that a defense of "necessity or self-defense may justify interrogation methods" that violate 18 USC 2340.

Although the memo was later declared inoperative by the Bush administration, the superseding OLC opinion of December 30, 2004 noted that "[w]hile we have identified various disagreements with the August 2002 Memorandum, we have reviewed this Office's prior opinions addressing issues involving treatment of detainees and do not believe that any of their conclusions would be different under the standards set forth in this memorandum."

[edit] References

  1. ^ Slim Legal Grounds for Torture Memos. R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post, July 4, 2004.

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