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-- A. Serwer
Jay Bybee speaks, and contrary to what his friends told The Washington Post, he doesn't feel bad at all:
“The central question for lawyers was a narrow one; locate, under the statutory definition, the thin line between harsh treatment of a high-ranking Al Qaeda terrorist that is not torture and harsh treatment that is. I believed at the time, and continue to believe today, that the conclusions were legally correct.”This is of course, the Goldfarb approach: "It's not torture if it's a bad person." I'm no lawyer, but I'd love for Mr. Bybee to point to the area in the torture statute where it says "conduct is not torture if used on a person of great moral turpitude." In the future, when repressive regimes waterboard captured American citizens, strip them naked and shackle them from the ceiling, they will no doubt thank Bybee for setting a precedent that whether or not such conduct is torture is based on an arbitrary assessment of the individual's moral inclinations or ideological affiliations.
-- A. Serwer
