Torture Memos & the Jay Bybee Problem

By David Murdock, American News Project
Posted on April 29, 2009, Printed on December 1, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/http://newsproject.org/139096/

How did Jay Bybee breeze through a confirmation hearing for his appointment to the Federal Appeals Court in February 2003? Not a single Democrat questioned Bybee at the session, and the proceedings came to a quick conclusion. The following month he was confirmed by the full Senate.

Just six months prior to the hearing, Jay Bybee had signed legal memos providing cover for CIA agents torturing detainees -- yet Congress voted him to a lifetime on the federal bench.  How did this happen?  And what will become of Judge Bybee now?

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