Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 24, 2004; Page A01
At the request of the CIA, the Justice Department drafted a confidential memo that authorizes the agency to transfer detainees out of Iraq for interrogation -- a practice that international legal specialists say contravenes the Geneva Conventions.
One intelligence official familiar with the operation said the CIA has used the March draft memo as legal support for secretly transporting as many as a dozen detainees out of Iraq in the last six months. The agency has concealed the detainees from the International Committee of the Red Cross and other authorities, the official said.
The draft opinion, written by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and dated March 19, 2004, refers to both Iraqi citizens and foreigners in Iraq, who the memo says are protected by the treaty. … International law experts contacted for this article described the legal reasoning contained in the Justice Department memo as unconventional and disturbing.
[The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) is also responsible for one of the infamous "torture memos" that came out earlier this year, in which it was argued that the President has the authority to violate international treaties in his role as commander-in-chief.]
This raises the question of what else the OLC has been up to. We asked them, but for some reason they seemed unwilling to talk when we called for comment, saying only "You media types don't understand. We were young, and in love. It all seemed so simple back then." They then put the phone down on the desk, and we could hear weeping in the background for a few minutes.
Questions have been raised as to how the OLC, which is traditionally staffed by graduates of the nation's most prestigious law schools, could come up with such a string of embarassingly bad opinions. One possibility is that, under Attorney General Ashcroft, recruiters have sought to hire attorneys from more ideologically-friendly law schools.
A quick check of the OLC recruiting web site indicates that instead of Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, the OLC this year is recruiting on the campuses of Texas Fanatical University, Beadle Bumble's School of Law and Questionably Illegal Interrogation Techniques, and Gap-toothed Phil's School of Shills, Lawyers, and Carnival Barkers.
Not surprisingly, the quality of OLC's work has been in decline lately. In addition to the memos already cited, OLC has recently decide that:
--President is not bound by local laws on corpse disposal; may bury as many murdered National Guard archives-keepers as he "deems necessary" in Rose Garden.
--Campaign Finance Laws do not apply to Bush-Cheney '04 if money is spent "With fingers crossed."
--Rock beats scissors AND paper because Rock is "cool."
--So-called "law" of gravity not in any of our law books. Why?
--"I am the Law" pickup line from OLC staff illegal to refuse.
--Federal Laws trump State Laws; Book of Revelation Trumps Federal Laws.
--Line in Constitution that says Treaties are law of the land is "obvious typo" and can be ignored. Also, obeying amendments is "optional."
--OLC staff automatically pass Bar Exam, despite what numerical scores indicate.
--We don't care what the ABA says, we are not the dumbest lawyers on Earth.
Outraged responses to this story can be e-mailed to Webmaster@muskratnews.com
Remember, Kids, the part in bold is actual 100% news-flavored media product.
The rest is the fakey part.
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