A grassroots coalition will file complaints today with the Washington, D.C. bar against two Central Intelligence Agency lawyers for their involvement in authorizing the use of controversial interrogation techniques against detainees in US custody.<\/p>\n
Velvet Revolution, a coalition of over 150 grassroots groups, will register complaints against CIA lawyers Jonathan M. Fredman and John A. Rizzo. Fredmen, who is currently counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, served as the Associate General counsel for the CIA from 2001-2004. Rizzo is the current Acting General Counsel for the CIA but is retiring this month. His nomination to become full General Counsel has been held up for years over his alleged role in enabling the CIA\u2019s controversial interrogation program.<\/p>\n
DC lawyer and activist Kevin Zeese, along with a former Reagan administration Associate Attorney General Bruce Fein, held a press conference this morning at the National Press Club in which they discussed the complaints they will be filing later today.<\/p>\n
The complaints to be filed against Fredmen and Rizzo describe the role both men played in authorizing the CIA to use techniques generally considered torture against detainees in US custody, captured during the Bush administration.<\/p>\n
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano, in a statement to RAW STORY Monday, said, \u201cWe\u2019ll give this the attention it deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n
A call placed to the Director of National Intelligence\u2019s office was not immediately returned.<\/p>\n
Detainee Crucified<\/strong><\/p>\n Among the more startling revelations during the press conference today was an article describing how a detainee in Iraq had been \u201cessentially crucified\u201d during CIA interrogation.<\/p>\n According to a June 22 article in The New Yorker<\/em> magazine, cited during the press conference today, an Iraqi prisoner in US custody was crucified \u2014 dying from asphyxiation while hanging from his arms during a CIA interrogation.<\/p>\n \u201cAn Iraqi prisoner named Manadel al-Jamadi died on November 4, 2003, while being interrogated by the C.I.A. at Abu Ghraib prison, outside Baghdad,\u201d the New Yorker<\/em>\u2019s Jane Meyer wrote<\/a>. \u201cA forensic examiner found that he had essentially been crucified; he died from asphyxiation after having been hung by his arms, in a hood, and suffering broken ribs. Military pathologists classified the case a homicide.\u201d<\/p>\n No charges have been sought against the interrogators from the CIA who participated in the death of al-Jamadi or CIA officers involved in other cases.<\/p>\n Zeese, the Velvet Revolution, the Bill of Rights Committee, Fein, and others also called on the dismissal of both Fredman and Rizzo from the Obama administration during the press conference today.<\/p>\n Rizzo is already on his way out. But the man nominated by President Obama, former Justice Department lawyer Stephen W. Preston, was loath to criticize his predecessor or the CIA\u2019s activities during his May confirmation hearing.<\/p>\n Questioned whether he felt waterboarding constituted torture, Preston answered<\/a>, \u201cI have not reached that conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n Zeese said the \u201crule of law\u201d must be applied in the case of the two men who led the CIA\u2019s legal efforts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe call for dismissal of two torture architects still working in the Obama administration,\u201d said Zeese. \u201cThe United States must face the reality of the extent of the torture program under the Bush-Cheney administration. War crimes were committed. The toxic poison of torture will not be removed from the body politic unless the rule of law is applied.\u201d<\/p>\n Rizzo Complaint<\/strong><\/p>\n John A. Rizzo has been a CIA lawyer for roughly 30 years. The Los Angeles Times<\/em> has called him<\/a> the \u201cmost influential career lawyer in CIA history, having risen to the top of the agency\u2019s legal ranks while leaving his mark on classified programs from proxy wars in Central America to Predator strikes in Pakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n Rizzo is currently the Acting General Counsel for the CIA and was Deputy General Counsel for the CIA prior to his current role. The complaint, which will be filed with the DC bar today, cites Rizzo\u2019s authority as legal counsel in authorizing torture techniques.<\/p>\n \u201cSpecifically,\u201d it reads, \u201cMr. Rizzo ignored over two centuries of historical and legal precedents, fell short of the bar of the \u2018good faith\u2019 imperative, and advanced suspect legal constructs and prescriptions for detainee interrogation well outside of legal norms, thereby providing the false cover of claimed legality for those who then engaged in acts and policies that, in fact, violated the following laws, both in letter and spirit:<\/p>\n 1. The United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT), Articles 1, 2, 3 and 16 (ratified in October 1994), implemented by Sections 2340-2340A of title 18 of the United States Code.<\/p>\n 2. The Geneva Conventions, Article 3, (ratified in August 1955)<\/p>\n 3. The Eighth Amendment against \u201ccruel and unusual punishment\u201d<\/p>\n 4. The \u201cSeparation of Powers\u201d constructs and imperatives of the U.S. Constitution<\/p>\n 5. The United States Criminal Code, Title 18, Prohibitions Against Torture (18 USC 2340A) and War Crimes (18 USC 2441)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The complaint against Rizzo further cites examples in which Rizzo allegedly participated in meetings authorizing torture or authored approval of certain techniques.<\/p>\n \u201cOn September 25, the most high-level senior Bush administration lawyers met at the Guantanamo Bay facility and included legal counsel from the President\u2019s office (Alberto Gonzales), the Vice-President\u2019s office (David Addington), the Department of Defense (Michael J. Haynes II), and the Department of Justice (Alice Fisher),\u201d it reads. \u201cWith Mr. Rizzo representing the CIA which was overseeing the program, this group was there to observe and \u201cgreen light\u201d a brutal interrogation program, one that had begun months before with Zubadayah but was continued in a carefully prescribed program (minus waterboarding) with detainees at Guantanamo Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n The full complaint can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fredman Complaint<\/strong><\/p>\n Fredman, meanwhile, was senior counsel within the Counterterrorism Center at the CIA during the Bush administration. According to the complaint, \u201cFredman approved a policy of torture and oversaw the details of its carefully prescribed application of violence, intimidation and humiliation intended to \u2018enhance\u2019 interrogations and aggressively coerce detainees at Guantanamo Bay (Cuba), Abu Ghraib (Iraq), Bagram AFB (Afghanistan), and \u2018extraordinary rendition\u2019 or \u2018black\u2019 sites in Thailand, Diego Garcia, Poland, Syria, Egypt and elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n The complaint against Fredman also cites alleged involvement in authoring legal opinions and participating in meetings where these techniques were decided on.<\/p>\n \u201cAccording to the first of two May 10, 2005 \u201cBradbury memos\u201d addressed from the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) of the Department of Justice to Mr. Rizzo at the CIA, the so-called \u201cenhanced techniques\u201d included dietary manipulation, forced nudity, stress positions, abdominal slaps and waterboarding,\u201d the complaint says. \u201cThe second May 10th memo addressed the use of combinations of these techniques. Together with the August 2002 memo authored by John Yoo and Jay Bybee, these memos set forth both the claim of legality and detailed guidelines for a brutal and abusive program of detainee treatment. This legal analysis, approved and advanced within the CIA by Mr. Rizzo and Mr. Fredman at CTC, gave the formal \u2018in-writing\u2019 green light to a program that led to documented abuses and scores of deaths within the detainee\/interrogation system.\u201d<\/p>\n