William J. Haynes: Lawyers Group Targets Ex-Pentagon Counsel For Sanctioning Torture

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Sunday, 19 April 2009 06:00

By William Fisher

Lawyers who reject President Barack Obama’s decision not to seek prosecution of officials who may have participated in the torture of terror-suspect prisoners are seeking justice through another avenue: Sanctions against government lawyers who created the “enhanced interrogation” policies of former President George W. Bush.

Their first target is former Defense Department General Counsel William J. Haynes II.

The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) has filed a complaint against Haynes, asking the State Bar of California to investigate him and revoke his status as Registered In-House Counsel. Haynes is now an attorney with Chevron Corp. in San Ramon, Calif.

The Los Angeles Times reports that a similar complaint is being prepared in Pennsylvania against former Justice Department lawyer John C. Yoo, the University of California Berkeley law professor, for his role in drafting the legal guidelines that approved enhanced interrogation techniques including waterboarding during his service in the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) during the Bush Administration.

Marjorie Cohn, President of the NLG, told us, “The lawyers who provided the high Bush officials with 'legal' cover were participants in formulating the policy of torture and cruel treatment. They should be the targets of criminal investigations and should also be disbarred for their ethical violations.”She also noted that the complaint filed with the Pennsylvania state bar against John Yoo “has been put on hold pending the release of the report of the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which is apparently highly critical of Yoo, Jay Bybee and Stephen Bradbury, authors of the torture memos."Haynes served as the DOD General Counsel from May 24, 2001 until his abrupt resignation on February 25, 2008.

He resigned days after an article accusing him of rigging trials of enemy prisoners at Guantánamo Bay appeared in “The Nation” magazine.

Haynes was the DOD’s chief legal officer and legal adviser to then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.