Court: Ex-Bush aide protected from torture lawsuit { John Yoo }

Associated Press ^ | 5/2/12 | PAUL ELIAS

[SmithL]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- An appeals court on Wednesday tossed out a convicted terrorist's lawsuit accusing a high-ranking Bush administration lawyer who wrote the so-called "torture memos" of authorizing illegally harsh treatment of "enemy combatants."

Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo is protected from such lawsuits because the law defining torture and the treatment of enemy combatants was unsettled in the two years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, when the memos were written, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.

The memos have been embroiled in national security politics for years after laying out a broad interpretation of executive power.

A Yoo memo from 2001 advised that the military could use "any means necessary" to hold terror suspects. A 2002 memo to then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales advised that treatment of suspected terrorists was torture only if it caused pain levels equivalent to "organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death."

Yoo also advised that the president might have the constitutional power to allow torturing enemy combatants.

Most famously, Yoo was the principal author of a memo sent to the CIA in August 2002 authorizing "waterboarding," in which water is poured over the face of a bound detainee and simulates drowning. President Barack Obama banned its use in 2009.

The unanimous ruling of the three-judge panel reversed a lower court decision allowing Jose Padilla's lawsuit to go forward. Padilla is serving a 17-year sentence on terror charges.

[SmithL]

The 9th got one right!

[SmithL]

Fisher, Raymond C.

Born 1939 in Oakland, CA

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Nominated by William J. Clinton on March 15, 1999, to a seat vacated by David R. Thompson. Confirmed by the Senate on October 5, 1999, and received commission on October 12, 1999.

Education:
University of California at Santa Barbara, B.A., 1961
Stanford Law School, LL.B., 1966

Professional Career:
Law clerk, Hon. J. Skelly Wright, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1966-1967
Law clerk, Hon. William J. Brennan, Jr., Supreme Court of the United States, 1967-1968
Private practice, Los Angeles, California, 1968-1997
Special Assistant to Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr., California, 1975
Member, Los Angeles City Civil Service Commission, California, 1984-1989
Deputy general counsel, Independent Commission on the L.A.P.D. (Christopher Commission), 1990
President, Los Angeles Police Commission, California, 1995-1997
Associate attorney general, U.S. Deptartment of Justice, 1997-1999

[Ken H]

He tried to blame his boss, Mr. Yeow.