On Wednesday, May 13, 2009 the Alliance for Justice hosted a panel of scholars and legal experts at the National Press Club to discuss the options for holding Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jay S. Bybee accountable for his role in authoring memos that gave the Bush White House permission to illegally torture detainees.
“Physical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death1.”
Left to Right: Steven Bradbury, William J. Haynes, Jay Bybee, Robert Eatinger
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Jay Bybee, DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel Assistant Attorney General Nov. 2001 - Mar. 2003
As head of the OLC, Bybee oversaw and participated in the crafting of the legal justification for the torture program, including arguments that Geneva Convention protections did not apply to detainees. The most notorious of his memos, signed on August 1, 2002, approved of the use of waterboarding, walling, cramped confinement, insects placed in a confinement box, and more. Other memos Bybee crafted or helped craft provided the legal foundation for the U.S. to “render” detainees to countries where they faced a high risk of torture — and where many were, in fact, tortured.*
The Culpable 
Name: Jay S. Bybee