NEWSWEEK - OPR Report - ALTERED - To Cover Bush DOJ Malfeasance

[kpete]

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/01/29/holder-under-fire.aspx

OPR Report Altered To Cover Bush DOJ Malfeasance

Mike Isikoff and Dan Klaidman put up a post about an hour ago letting the first blood for the Obama Administration’s intentional tanking of the OPR (Office of Professional Responsibility) Report. In light of Obama’s focused determination to sweep the acts of the Bush Administration, no matter how malevolent, under the rug and “move forward” the report is not unexpected. However, digesting the first leak in what would appear to be a staged rollout is painful:

…an upcoming Justice Department report from its ethics-watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), clears the Bush administration lawyers who authored the “torture” memos of professional-misconduct allegations.

While the probe is sharply critical of the legal reasoning used to justify waterboarding and other “enhanced” interrogation techniques, NEWSWEEK has learned that a senior Justice official who did the final review of the report softened an earlier OPR finding. Previously, the report concluded that two key authors—Jay Bybee, now a federal appellate court judge, and John Yoo, now a law professor—violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted a crucial 2002 memo approving the use of harsh tactics, say two Justice sources who asked for anonymity discussing an internal matter. But the reviewer, career veteran David Margolis, downgraded that assessment to say they showed “poor judgment,” say the sources. (Under department rules, poor judgment does not constitute professional misconduct.) The shift is significant: the original finding would have triggered a referral to state bar associations for potential disciplinary action—which, in Bybee’s case, could have led to an impeachment inquiry.

The news broken in the Newsweek Declassified post is huge, assuming it is accurate, and the sense is that it is. In spite of the weight of the report, the report tucks the substantive content behind the deceptively benign title “Holder Under Fire”. The subject matter is far too significant though for it to have been casually thrown out. Consider this description of the OPR finding on the nature and quality of the critical August 1, 2002 Torture Memo:

****The report, which is still going through declassification, will provide many new details about how waterboarding was adopted and the role that top White House officials played in the process, say two sources who have read the report but asked for anonymity to describe a sensitive document. Two of the most controversial sections of the 2002 memo—including one contending that the president, as commander in chief, can override a federal law banning torture—were not in the original draft of the memo, say the sources. But when Michael Chertoff, then-chief of Justice’s criminal division, refused the CIA’s request for a blanket pledge not to prosecute its officers for torture, Yoo met at the White House with David Addington, Dick Cheney’s chief counsel, and then–White House counsel Alberto Gonzales. After that, Yoo inserted a section about the commander in chief’s wartime powers and another saying that agency officers accused of torturing Qaeda suspects could claim they were acting in “self-defense” to prevent future terror attacks, the sources say. Both legal claims have long since been rejected by Justice officials as overly broad and unsupported by legal precedent.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/01/29/holder-under-fire.aspx

One thing is for sure, with a leak like this being floated out on a late Friday night, the release of the full OPR Report, at least that which the Obama Administration will deem fit for the common public to see, is at hand. Mike Isikoff and Dan Klaidman have made sure the torturers and their enablers can have a comfortable weekend though. So we got that going for us.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/01/29/opr-report-altered-to-cover-bush-doj-malfeasance/

[jtrockville]

1. If we can justify torture, we can justify anything.

This doesn't bode well for our future.

[Mithreal]

18. +1

[babylonsister]

2. So the report, still going through declassification, hasn't been released yet? nt

[EFerrari]

3. So, what are we supposed to make of this?

This is disgusting.

[berni_mccoy]

14. That a Bush hold-over, David Margolis, should be fired and not allowed to practice law

[Robb]

22. Bingo. Reading the whole thing I'm amazed

...that even Isikoff could've stumbled across all this without a little help.

Theory: house cleaning leak, courtesy current administration. "See, look how we didn't fire all these Bush guys, we're all about bipartisanship ... wait, he did what?? Well, we had no idea. Of course we'll fire him."

[librechik]

4. Who here really believes Obama controls the DOJ?

with a weak sister like Holder in charge, the burrowed in baddies can walk all over Obama's good intentions or just make sure they never see the light of day. I still blame Bush. Get those moles out of our justice system, and put somebody willing to discipline criminals in charge, instead of someone eager for a cover up.

[EFerrari]

6. Justice, State and the Pentagon are almost hopelessly corrupt.

We're really just a much bigger Honduras any more. It's stunning.

[katandmoon]

8. Who nominated Holder?

[liberalmuse]

9. Bush has appointees dug in all over the Pentagon and DOJ.

We probably would be shocked at how many. I just remember Bush putting them in place like mad just before his final term ended.

[JDPriestly]

10. My guess is that the changes in the report are motivated by political strategy.

President Obama set the guideline: no accountability for the Bush administration.

This is President Obama's definition of "looking forward."

It is a tragic error. I wonder whether President Obama has completely forgotten history to say nothing of his Sophocles.

[librechik]

11. I know, but I just can't believe he initiated the policy--it's completely wrong

he got talked into it somehow...he couldn't be that dumb, could he?

sigh--or trusting...

[ooglymoogly]

29. Is this the same David Margolis; Does not make sense; Link to an 07

Dailykos article. My bet, the decision came from above. And for those saying he is a Bu$h appointee and holdover, this article says different.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/5/62425/22619

[berni_mccoy]

13. David Margolis, a Bush Hold-over, is responsible here. He should be fired.

[rusty fender]

24. Obama has said, many times, that no one is above the law.

Is Obama lying when he says that?

[Lorien]

25. Yes. Bush and Cheney are still free. nt

[librechik]

31. check out post #29 re margolis

[Hissyspit]

41. David Margolis:

I had forgotten about Margolis.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:eAFqIGxF8mkJ:www.de...

From Iran-Contra cover-up

The man who replaced Louis Freeh as FBI director that summer was Robert Mueller, a man whose name was way near the bottom of the list of people the FBI considered best for the job. But Mueller had qualities that put him at the very top of G.W. Bush's list. In the 1980s, Mueller was third in command in the FBI under under George Terwilliger. Mueller apparently put in a lot of overtime working to keep the Iran-Contra scheme under wraps, and then, once things got sticky for Reagan, helped the Dept. of Justice's Domestic Criminal Secition Chief Dave Margolis and International Criminal Section Chief Mark Richards limit liability for Reagan, and then Bush, Sr. According to political watchdog Al Martin, Mueller personally handled damage containment for Bush Sr. during Bush's potentially scandalous dealings with Jordanian coffee merchant Mansour Barbouti. Barbouti was involved in the illegal exportation of chemicals used in chemical weapons to both Iraq and Iran.

So, while on the FBI payroll technically, Mueller appeared to have worked in actuality as a master cover up artist for Republican presidents involved in scheming and intrigues. So...what better man could Bush, involved up to his eyebrows in scheming and intrigues, want? If Mueller could shield Bush, Sr. and Reagan from consequences while just the No. 3 man - just imagine the tracks he could sweep clean as FBI director!



http://denverpost.ezboard.com/fdenverpostnewsfrm8.showM...

Lee Radek has been Chief of the Public Integrity Section for a very long time. He has acted with his confederates within the DoJ, namely Dave Margolis, then Chief of the Domestic Criminal Section and Mark Richards, then Chief of the International Criminal Section of the DoJ. These three men, operating under the auspices of Deputy Attorney General George Terwilliger, essentially managed the Iran-Contra Cover-up for the Department of Justice.

I have talked with Dave Margolis several times. The only thing he ever did was threaten me. He would say to me that if I revealed anything to congressional committees, or if I leaked any thing out into the press, that I would be subject to all sorts of unpleasant things. Everything was "national security" with these guys.

...
Radek, Margolis, Richards and Scruggs were all involved in the so-called Reagan-Bush kidnapping policies that started in 1986 and were extant until 1991. It involved kidnapping both US and foreign citizens on foreign soil. After the US Supreme Court in its 1986 landmark decision gave the administration the right to use "extralegal" procedures to bring foreign fugitives before American courts. There were 21 in all who were kidnapped, mostly those who were under indictment for cocaine trafficking in the United States. The commonality is that all of these cocaine traffickers were controlled by the CIA. In their own defense, they had all begun to leak out information to Congress and the media about their connections to the CIA. That's why they were targeted for kidnapping.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Career Lawyer Gets Oversight of CIA Probe

David Margolis, a lawyer at the Justice Department for 40 years, was named Friday to oversee a special prosecutor's investigation of who in the Bush administration disclosed the name of an undercover CIAofficer.

Margolis, whose title is associate deputy attorney general, is taking the place of Deputy Attorney General James Comey, whose last day of work was Friday. Comey will be Lockheed Martin's new general counsel. Comey made the designation of Margolis. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has stepped aside from the probe because he was White House counsel when Valerie Plame's name was leaked in 2003 and he has testified to the grand jury investigating the unauthorized disclosure.

Comey gave broad discretion to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago when he was appointed to investigate the leak in December 2003. Margolis is not expected to alter Fitzgerald's mandate in what are likely to be the final months of his investigation. The grand jury ends its term in October. No one has been charged in the Plame case. However, it's known that Karl Rove, a top aide to President Bush, and Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, discussed Plame with reporters before her name was first published by columnist Robert Novak in July 2003.

[Mithreal]

19. If you want to continue policies of the last administration, keep Bush appointments.

I lack the imagination to understand why Obama has not cleaned house in DOJ. Does anyone know a reason that casts Obama in a good light for this epic failure? President Obama and Holder won't do a damn thing about Siegelman either and there were 100s of politically targeted prosecutions during the Bush years and "our" President doesn't want to look back?

:wtf:

Someone who knows what is going on, please explain. We are being made the fools by accepting excuses.

[pscot]

34. Ifr Obama wanted them gone, they'd be gone

Even if they can't be fired, they could certainly be put in a basement office with no phone, or tasked with conducting an on-site examination of the Bulgarian court system. This isn't Bush moles. It's administration policy.

[librechik]

35. we just saw what happened when we tried to ever so slightly tap on Bybee and Yoo

flummoxed. I repeat, Obama does not control Justice.

[bbgrunt]

39. it's hard to figure what Obama's "good intentions" are.

[leftstreet]

5. K&R

Interesting!

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Not unexpected, but still a pisser.

[glinda]

12. Bybee and Yoo and members of the Federalist Society same as Alito and gang.

[The Wizard]

15. First they tortured foreigners

and I didn't say anything because I wasn't a foreigner........
Brushing immorality under the rug fails to clean up the stain on our moral fiber.
‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’

[Mithreal]

20. +1

[Bluenorthwest]

16. So why is Obama's God not in this mix?

His faith says 'crime pays'? Looks that way? I'm tired of hearing about ethics and morality only when the DLC types want to verbally trash gay people in the name of their fake faith. Gets old. In the face of evil, they seek to cover up and mitigate. In the face of love, they seek to deny, terminate, reject and slander. This they call Christianity.

[Mithreal]

17. Yes We Can

[Lorien]

26. ...apply the rule of law to the people, but not the powerful. nt

[Mithreal]

27. +1

[G_j]

21. boy does this sound familiar!

:puke:

[Overseas]

23. K&R. because it is still tough to "move forward" past war crimes

committed in our name by the Bush Cheney Gang.

[ooglymoogly]

28. And this and many decisions like this, my fellow DUers is

why many of us do not trust a word that comes out of this administrations mouth. Is it better than Bu$sh? Sure. But that is damning with faint praise. We are now confronted with a much smarter Bu$h and Rahm and others like him who make up this administration are the circumstantial evidence of that.

[Mithreal]

32. +1

The beast has a new head and a few new tricks.

[ooglymoogly]

30. As far as David Margolis is concerned: This article might interest you, hearkening back to '07

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/5/62425/22619
Concerning Michael Isikoff;
My personal opinion of Isikoff is that he has an agenda and is careless with the facts; Or more exact, manipulates the facts. The fact in question in my mind is about David Margolis; His record and this do not square.

[Hissyspit]

40. David Margolis:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7604655&mesg_id=7609114

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4250106&mesg_id=4250357

[glinda]

33. If anyone knew of this they better come out as they could be implicated also.

[Hissyspit]

36. Politization of the DoJ:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4250106&mesg_id=4250259

[Hissyspit]

38. "Politicization"

I mean.

[varelse]

37. K&R

"A rapidly changing trajectory" indeed :eyes:

[Goldstein1984]

42. Bush/Cheney and their ilk will be held accountable...

If not legally, then by historians.

The Iraq Inquiry in Great Britain is not going well for Tony Blair, Bush/Cheney's lap dog. The results of that inquiry, not under the influence of American politicians, will be a huge part of how future generations view the war crimes committed over the past eight years. As well as the war crimes that continue to occur as Obama fails to cease the war crimes committed by Bush/Cheney.

History is going to sort this out. My grandchildren will know the entire and true history of the first decade of the 21st century. My family and friends hate it, but my Facebook page is a steady, in-their-faces stream of reality about torture, extraordinary rendition, assassination without due process using Predator drones, inept execution of illegal wars, erosion of civil liberties...