PDA's Susan Harman gets in judge's face:Somehow, Torture advocate and political appointee to the Federal Court of Appeals Jay Bybee manages to keep out of the limelight; but his importance as an architect of the U.S. Torture Program does not go completely unnoticed.Â
In July of 2009, Susan confronted Yoo's former boss at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena. "Three of use sat quietly through the case that Bybee was hearing," she explained, "When it was finished, I said to Judge Bybee, 'When will you resign? Every senator I've talked to said they would not have confirmed you had they known about the torture memos."
Although Bush has left office, torture is still happening under the Obama administration. Susan believes that as a deterrance against future abuses of executive power, the architects of the torture policy must be pursued. "Obama has already used all the powers that Bush took from the legislative and judicial branches of government," Susan said, "And he's added preventive detention as an executive power which circumvents the judiciary." Susan believes that the best strategy is to go after the second tier of authority. "This means going after and disbarring the twelve lawyers who advocated the torture of detainees during the Bush regime, " she added.
