Saturday, May 12, 2007
Whole World in His Hands
Sometimes seemingly unrelated items have a way of converging many years later under circumstances that in hindsight seem obvious. The signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the authorization of the Central Intelligence Agency by the president of the United States in 1948 simultaneously set our country on two conflicting paths that would secretly cross many times during the Cold War, before colliding head-on in the Global War on Terror.
Occasionally these conflicting paths converge in the conduct of an individual that seemed almost destined for notoriety. In 2002, that person was U.S. Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, now known for advising the White House that the president of the United States is no longer accountable to the U.S. Congress, no longer bound by international treaties or rules, no longer constrained by the Geneva Conventions or any other humanitarian law, and may at his discretion authorize the inhumane treatment of prisoners of war and other detainees of armed conflict--even in the absence of any evidence or charges against them-- including brutal physical and psychological torture, as long as the victims aren't murdered.
For his role in supporting President Bush, this loyal legal counsel in the Department of Justice was appointed to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in 2003. In this article, Meridian Magazine proudly featured the fellow Mormon, former eagle scout, now federal judge, the honorable Jay S. Bybee, who remarked on his new responsibility, "I take very seriously the fact that I have people’s economic interests, liberty, and very lives in my hands.”
Occasionally these conflicting paths converge in the conduct of an individual that seemed almost destined for notoriety. In 2002, that person was U.S. Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, now known for advising the White House that the president of the United States is no longer accountable to the U.S. Congress, no longer bound by international treaties or rules, no longer constrained by the Geneva Conventions or any other humanitarian law, and may at his discretion authorize the inhumane treatment of prisoners of war and other detainees of armed conflict--even in the absence of any evidence or charges against them-- including brutal physical and psychological torture, as long as the victims aren't murdered.
For his role in supporting President Bush, this loyal legal counsel in the Department of Justice was appointed to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in 2003. In this article, Meridian Magazine proudly featured the fellow Mormon, former eagle scout, now federal judge, the honorable Jay S. Bybee, who remarked on his new responsibility, "I take very seriously the fact that I have people’s economic interests, liberty, and very lives in my hands.”
