Yesterday I kicked off an action item, asking people to call and write the members of the House Judiciary Committee or their California members of Congress, informing them that the largest state Democratic Party in the country has voted to support a Congressional inquiry into Jay Bybee and other lawyers for their actions justifying torture, and that they ought to carry this through.  Many people have already contacted their members of Congress and you should do the same.  One thing that would help is to get them on the record.  If you receive any constituent correspondence from your Congressperson about this issue, please forward it to me at david-dot-dayen-at-gmail-dot-com.  We need to build a list of who supports accountability and who does not, of who in the California delegation agrees with their own party and who does not.  We’re starting to get some on-the-record statements, like this nonsense from Illinois Republican Donald Manzullo, who admits that waterboarding doesn’t work, who calls it “more torture than not,” as if there’s a torture continuum of some sort (the fact that CIA interrogators had to add a tracheotomy kit to the proceedings should tell you what they were up to with waterboarding), but who then says that “no laws were broken” (which is patently false), and that, even if there were, nobody should be prosecuted because the whole thing would get “messy.”

MANZULLO: Because then you are going to have to go back and you’re going to have to go through every single interrogation and every single memo and the whole purpose of this is to relive again the fact that somebody made the decision to allow this.

We need on-the-record statements like this for every California Democrat, preferably in writing or on tape.

In other news, John Conyers and Jerrold Nadler announced their support to Attorney General Eric Holder for a special counsel to investigate and prosecute anyone involved in the decision-making process in the Bush Administration that led to illegal torture of detainees.  That letter is here.

Finally, I will be on Angie Coiro’s show on Green960 AM in San Francisco in the 7:00 hour tonight to talk about the CDP resolution, the need for an inquiry and impeachment of Jay Bybee, and the fight to restore the rule of law with respect to torture.  Tune in if you can.

Thanks again to all of you who signed petitions and made phone calls and helped push the resolution to open a Congressional inquiry into Torture Judge Jay Bybee, which the California Democratic Party adopted at its convention yesterday.  I have been told by the authors of the resolution that the pressure from the outside really aided their efforts.  

The passage of the resolution was a beginning, not an ending.  On the flip, come and join us in the next step.

UPDATE: Ryan Grim of The Huffington Post has the full story of the passage of the resolution at the convention.

I view the impeachment of Jay Bybee from the 9th Circuit Court as a moral and legal imperative, but also an entryway into the larger fight for justice and accountability for those who authorized and directed torture in our name.  I agree with Jerrold Nadler that impeachment should not be seen as a compromise measure, a way to satiate those concerned with accountability.  “There can’t be a compromise — you have to follow the law … If the facts say that some former high-ranking official should be prosecuted, the fact people will get angry should be irrelevant … If we do not investigate the torture that is clear that it occured, and if the evidence is there prosecute, not only are we disobeying the law, not only are we being immoral, but we are inviting torture of our people in the future.”

Bybee’s impeachment can start us down the path to restoring the rule of law.  And now the largest state Democratic Party in the country has spoken.  They have said that the myth about torture being a useful tool to extract actionable intelligence from terror suspects is not only irrelevant when it comes to lawbreaking but also entirely false, according to the CIA’s own inspector general.  They have said that Judge Bybee’s appalling judgment and slavish acceptance of John Yoo’s flawed legal reasoning represents a greater evil – the evil of thoughtlessness – and a greater responsibility for the actions committed thanks to his off-handed signature.  They have said that Bybee’s understanding of his own wrongdoing outweighed by his desire to be a federal judge shocks the conscience, and that far from being rewarded for his obedience to his conservative minders, he should bear responsibility for it, to the fullest extent possible.

So what do we do now?  Members of the California Democratic Party include 34 members of Congress, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and six men and women who sit on the House Judiciary Committee, where an impeachment inquiry would be remanded.  They need to hear that their party just recommended that they open an immediate Congressional inquiry into Judge Bybee, with all appropriate remedies and punishments available.  In fact, the entire House Judiciary Committee needs to hear this.  Thanks to my friends at Firedoglake, they will.  We have put together a contact list for the entire House Judiciary Committee, and you can, with just a few clicks, compose a letter to any member of that Committee telling them of the CDP’s action and demanding immediate action on an inquiry.

In addition, you can call your members of Congress and tell them that they must support an immediate inquiry into the actions of Jay Bybee, federal judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.  The Congressional switchboard at 1-866-220-0044 can connect you to your member of Congress as well.  Here are some talking points:

• Jay Bybee signed the August 1, 2002 memo approving certain torture techniques to be used on mentally ill terror suspect Abu Zubaydah.

• The CIA’s Inspector General found that the torture of Abu Zubaydah and others foiled no terror plots and sent intelligence personnel on wild goose chases and false leads around the world. (McClatchy, 4.24.09)

• The California Democratic Party is the largest state party in the country, and they have spoken with one voice to demand hearings on Bybee.

• We are required by the Convention Against Torture to investigate and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law those who authorized and committed acts of torture.

• Judge Bybee’s presence on the 9th Circuit disgraces the federal bench and saps at our moral authority in the world.  Congress has a duty to step in and impeach him.

We now have this resolution as a tool.  Let’s use it to pry open the Congress and provide the opening of some accountability for these heinous acts committed in our name.

Several weeks of hard work have paid off, and the California Democratic Party is poised to provide a major tool in the fight for justice and accountability for the Bush torture regime.  The Resolutions Committee included on their consent calendar the resolution to begin a Congressional inquiry into Judge Jay Bybee and other lawyers who wrote opinions justifying and providing the fig leaf of a rationale for torture, with all punishments allowable under the law, including impeachment.  

Without the release of the OLC memo from August 1, 2002, showing Bybee admitting that waterboarding gives the impression of imminent death and allowing it anyway, showing Bybee allowing the CIA to put detainees in a small box with bugs in a Room 101-style exploitation of phobias, I’m not sure this resolution would have passed.  But the release massed a groundswell of support from the grassroots.  My petition to urge the CDP to support the resolution gathered 4,827 signatures in about a week.  Courage Campaign hopped aboard as well and got 9,000 or so sigs on their petition.  Activists called the CDP offices and pushed for passage.  And the party got the message.

Resolutions can go flat if they aren’t picked up and used as a tool.  Today, when it passes the full party on the convention floor in a few hours, we can celebrate.  Tomorrow, we put this to work.  Thanks to everyone who put in the time and effort to get this done.

UPDATE: Here’s the full text of the resolution, on the flip:

CALLING FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF JUDGE JAY BYBEE AND OTHERS FOR THEIR ROLE IN ALLOWING TORTURE AS PART OF “ENHANCED INTERROGATION”

Whereas, former Assistant Attorney General, and current Federal Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Jay Bybee signed the “Bybee Memo,” or “Torture Memo” of August 1, 2002, which advised the C.I.A. that “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment was at times allowable under U.S. law, and authored, co-authored and signed other memos on “extraordinary rendition” and “enhanced interrogation,” more of which are being currently revealed to the American public as the new Administration brings them to light; and

Whereas the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment, the supreme law of the land under Article VI of our Constitution, requires the prosecution of those who authorize torture, and it has been established that waterboarding is torture; and

Whereas, on January 15, 2009 before leaving office, President George W. Bush, in an effort to cover his culpability, and the culpability of others, had his Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice issue a memo stating that certain opinions issued in 2001-2003 with respect to “the allocation of authorities between President and Congress in matters of war and national security do not reflect the current view of this Office;”

Therefore be it resolved that the California Democratic Party supports resolution of inquiry and vigorous investigation of these and related actions by the Congress of the United States, including the full use of Congressional subpoena power authority and all appropriate remedies, to disclose completely the possible criminal actions of Judge Jay Bybee and others to the American people and to take necessary and available action with appropriate remedies and punishment allowed by law; and

Be it further resolved, that a copy of this resolution with its original authorization be sent to the Office of the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, and that copies of the signed resolution be sent to each Democratic member of the California delegation to the United States Senate and House of Representatives.

At a press avail following her speech at the California Democratic Party convention, I asked Sen. Boxer about the Resolutions Committee passing support for a Congressional inquiry into the actions of torture judge Jay Bybee and the imposition of all possible penalties including impeachment.  She said “I’m very open to that…. there is an ongoing investigation at the Justice Department into his work (at the Office of Professional Responsibility -ed), and we’ll see how that goes.  But I’m very open to that.  And I’ll remind everyone that I didn’t vote for him when his nomination came up.  I was one of 19 to do so.”

Needless to say, the support from Sen. Boxer will be a great help in the Resolutions Committee, when they prioritize the top ten resolutions to send to the floor of the convention tomorrow.

The other interesting tidbit from the presser was that Sen. Boxer offered no indication of her endorsement on the ballot measures for the special election on May 19.  She says she and Sen. Feinstein haven’t studied the measures yet, and that they will get together in Washington and offer a joint statement once they make their decision.  “I’ll let you know when I go public.  But let me say this – the budget process in California is dysfunctional, because of the super-majority needed to pass a budget and tax increases.  And until we get to the root causes of changing that, it’s very difficult to do anything.”  This pretty much tracks with what we’ve been saying for a long time.  Until you pass #1, it won’t matter if you pass #2-#10.

Other topics covered included torture investigations (Boxer supports the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that Sen. Leahy recommended), the fate of cram-down provisions in the Senate (“Sen. Durbin is doing a heroic job… the banks are still a major lobbying group.”), potential opponents in her 2010 re-election (I hope nobody runs against me!”), and the news of a budget reconciliation deal on health care in the Senate (she didn’t have much to say on that other than that reconciliation should always be on the table, as it was during the Reagan years, and that the situation is “in flux.”)  Boxer was at her most eloquent answering a question about the rule of law and the impression that those at the highest levels of power, be it the banksters or the torture regime, were above it.  “The law must prevail… the people should feel that something’s wrong, if nothing is done on torture.  If we don’t like a law, we repeal it, we don’t ignore it.”

…more from davej.

The very, VERY good news is that the resolution to impeach Jay Bybee from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals passed the Resolutions Committee with only small changes to the language.  Any impeachment process must begin with a Congressional inquiry that gets remanded to the House Judiciary Committee.  That’s exactly the language we got, a resolution supporting a Congressional inquiry into Bybee and the other lawyers who justified torture.  To everyone that signed petitions, you helped make this happen. We’re not done yet, however.  In order to get to the floor, the resolution must get ranked among the top ten at a “prioritizing” meeting today.  Many more than ten resolutions passed in committee, so it will be a fight to get the Bybee resolution on the floor.  I will be testifying in the committee today and lobbying for passage, armed with the thousands of signatures and personal testimonials gathered over the past week.

This could be as consequential as anything done in this convention, despite it happening off the floor and relatively outside of scrutiny.  A resolution of support from the full CDP would be powerful.  I’ll keep you updated.

…Maybe some of Jay Bybee’s anonymous friends will show up to speak on his behalf.

I’ll do a fuller convention preview post in the morning, but just a final mention – I have a petition to tell the CDP to support the resolution to impeach federal Judge Jay Bybee, who sits on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals despite having been one of the architects of the flawed legal justification for torture committed in our name.  There are musings about independent commissions and special prosecutors in Washington, but I believe we must press on all fronts, and the impeachment of Bybee, who sits on the 9th Circuit in San Francisco, is particularly acute here in this state.  Currently I have 4,435 signatures – please sign by midnight tonight and I will present yours and everyone else’s name at the Resolutions Committee tomorrow at 3pm.  If we get this resolution passed, we will have a powerful tool to force California members of Congress to initiate hearings in the House Judiciary Committee to impeach Bybee.  I think it’s absolutely possible that we make this happen over the weekend – but the leadership of the CDP needs to know that there’s a large and powerful constituency behind this effort.

Please sign the petition if you haven’t already.  And the Courage Campaign has their own petition, with around 8,500 signatures at last count.  13,000 people arguing for impeachment is a powerful number – let’s go for more.

As we read with growing horror the most recent torture memos released by the Obama Administration, knowing that there are more revelations to come, I think a lot of us are asking the question that mcjoan asked yesterday.  “Now what?”  How can we address this moral rot that continues to eat away at our legitimacy?  What can be done?  Mcjoan offers a couple suggestions.

The process by which our government came not only to torture, but through torturous logic try to convince themselves that it was legal is not just the product of evil. It’s the product of excessive, unchecked power that has proven far too easy to seize, to hold, and to exercise.

And we can’t allow that to happen again.

That’s why, at the very least, there must be investigations. Whether through the special prosecutor that the ACLU has called for, or Senator Leahy’s proposal for a commission of inquiry, America has to know how this happened, gruesome step by gruesome step. There is no other way to prevent it from happening again.

Mcjoan is right that our corroded, accountability-free zone in Washington will require an incredible amount of effort just to bring us to these steps.  We need to counter the establishment pressure to move away from this evil with our own pressure, to support the rule of law, to recognize that justice delayed is justice denied, and that a failure to hold accountable these acts will result in them returning, in spades, in the future.  Without this accounting, in a very real sense our democracy dies.

And there is an actual mechanism, a way to leverage grassroots anger and push the elected officials who can make these decisions, at least in one case.  We can prove the desire for accountability in the country and take a systematic approach to restore democracy and the rule of law.  And it starts with Jay Bybee.

over…

As many people noted yesterday, Jay Bybee, the former head of the Office of Legal Counsel whose name appears as the author of the August 1, 2002 memo justifying and authorizing clear acts of torture by the CIA (some argue that John Yoo wrote the memo, but Bybee signed it), now works as a federal judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, with a lifetime appointment.  He sits in judgment when we have clear evidence that his judgment is fractured.  In just this particular memo, he agreed that waterboarding “constitutes the imminent threat of death” and still allowed its use.  He twisted the research of sleep deprivation experts to justify the torturous delivery of harm to prisoners through this technique.  He found the rationales to explain away his own legal exposure and that of his superiors, while clearly understanding these techniques to be wrong when applied by other countries.

And that’s just this memo.  More are expected.

One focus of scrutiny could be the period from April to August of 2002, when C.I.A. officers interrogated Abu Zubaydah before the Justice Department gave its official written endorsement of the interrogation program. According to a Justice Department inspector general’s report, F.B.I. officials who watched some of the interrogation sessions in a Thailand safe house reported that the C.I.A. interrogators had used several harsh techniques.

The Justice Department is also expected make public an internal ethics report that officials say is highly critical of top Bush lawyers who drafted the interrogation memos, including Jay S. Bybee, John C. Yoo and Steven G. Bradbury. Legal experts said there is an outside chance that the report could include referrals to state bar associations, which have the power to reprimand or disbar their members.

Because Bybee holds a lifetime appointment conferred by the Senate (by a 74-19 vote), I would argue it is the requirement of the Congress to act and right this horrific wrong.  Bybee was confirmed in March 2003, well before these memos came to light.  This new information alone should be grounds for an impeachment and removal of Jay Bybee from the 9th Circuit Court.

Impeachment would require a majority vote in the House, and removal would need a 2/3 vote in the trial in the Senate.  I agree with Jonathan Zasloff that there are likely 34 Republicans in the Senate willing to go on record as objectively pro-torture, and thus removal would be less likely to be successful.  I also agree that the Congress should be compelled to do this anyway.

Regardless of the Obama Administration’s decision on prosecution, then, impeachment hearings and a Senate trial for Bybee would signal a necessary reassertion of Congresional authority and would ensure at least some minimal accountability.

Alas, emphasis there should be on the “minimal.” I would hope that the House would impeach, but Senate Republicans would clearly vote no to prevent removal.

I don’t know how the politics work on this. The Beltway media will clearly spin this as the Democrats obsessed with the past and not concerned about the supposedly grave national security implications. On the other hand, Republicans would be forced to defend an incompetent, ethically-challenged judge.

But maybe, given how unclear the politics are, it might be best to do, you know, the right thing. John Conyers should start scheduling preliminary hearings right away.

As it happens, the California Democratic Party can speak with one voice about this next week.  Grassroots activists submitted a resolution to be decided at next week’s convention in Sacramento that would call for the impeachment of Jay Bybee from the 9th Circuit.  This resolution has already been accepted, UNANIMOUSLY, by the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.  It can pass at the state level.

Resolutions are somewhat toothless unless used properly AFTER the fact.  In the resolution (which I’ll put below), it is stipulated that “a copy of this resolution with its original authorization be sent to the Office of the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and the Majority Leader of  the United States Senate, and that copies of the signed resolution be sent to each member of the California delegation to the United States Senate and House of Representatives.”  California members of the HJC include Zoe Lofgren, Maxine Waters, Howard Berman, Brad Sherman, Adam Schiff and Linda Sanchez.  The last five, at least, have part or all of LA County in their districts, and could be told RIGHT NOW that their local party has resolved unanimously to impeach Bybee.  Should the entire state party agree, all the California members, including the Speaker of the House, and the two Senators (both of whom voted against confirming Bybee) can be told the same.  And resolutions like this could spring up all over the country, increasing pressure from the bottom up for the Congress to act.

It starts next week in Sacramento.  The Resolutions Committee meeting will be held at 3:00 on Friday, April 24, at the Sacramento Convention Center, 1400 J St., Sacramento, CA.  If you’re in the area or if you are a delegate, you can come to the meeting and advocate for the resolution.  But the decision will likely be made beforehand.  Only a few resolutions get out of committee and to the floor of the convention, and the others are tabled, or combined, or referred to a separate committee.  We CANNOT let this happen.  The ledership of the California Democratic Party needs to hear from constituents on this issue.

Sacramento Office

(916) 442-5707 phone

(916) 442-5715 fax

Los Angeles Office

(310) 407-0980 phone

(310) 407-0981 fax

email contact form

I’ve also created a petition at Petition Online urging the CDP to pass this.

Petition

We have an opportunity to use the party apparatus to push for accountability and send it up to leaders in Washington.  I urge everyone to get on board with this.  Thanks.

RESOLUTION TO IMPEACH JUDGE JAY BYBEE

Passed Unanimously by LACDP, 4/14/09

Whereas, the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the people a right to petition the government for a redress of grievances; and,

Whereas the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment, the supreme law of the land under Article VI of our Constitution, requires the prosecution of those who authorize torture, waterboarding is torture, and both former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Richard B. Cheney have admitted to authorizing waterboarding; and,

Whereas former Assistant Attorney General, and current Federal Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Jay Bybee signed the “Bybee Memo,” or “Torture Memo” of August 1, 2002, which advised the C.I.A. that “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment was at times allowable under U.S. law, and authored, co-authored and signed other memos on “extraordinary rendition” and “enhanced interrogation,” more of which are being currently revealed to the American public as the new administration brings them to light; now,

Therefore be it resolved that the Los Angeles County Democratic Party urges that the United States House of Representatives begin impeachment proceedings against Judge Jay Bybee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, charging him with facilitating the authorization of torture while employed by the United States Department of Justice; and,

Therefore be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution with its original authorization be sent to the Office of the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and the Majority Leader of  the United States Senate, and that copies of the signed resolution be sent to each member of the California delegation to the United States Senate and House of Representatives.