[Infowarrior] - DOJ 2003 Torture Opinion (PDF, complete)

[Richard Forno]

(AKA one of the "infamous Yoo Memos" from 2003)

March 14,2003

Memorandum for William J. Haynes II,
General Counsel of the Department of Defense

Re: Military Interrogation of Alien Unlawful Combatants Held Outside the
United States

Single 18MB PDF of the just-declassified 81 page memo can be found at:

www.infowarrior.org/users/rforno/DOJ-OLC-TortureOpinion-2003.pdf



>From a WaPo article tonight, for a bit of background:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040102
213.html

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The memo--which was rescinded just nine months after it was issued--provides
an expansive argument for nearly unfettered presidential power in a time of
war, contending that numerous laws and treaties that forbid torture or cruel
treatment should not apply to the interrogations of enemy combatants
overseas.

The 81-page document was sent to the Pentagon's general counsel on March 14,
2003 by John C. Yoo, then a deputy in the Justice Department's Office of
Legal Counsel, and became the legal foundation for the Defense Department's
use of aggressive interrogation practices.