Word: lawyerly
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...Protests by the top legal officers in each of the military services - Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines - against questionable interrogation techniques were ignored by the Pentagon's top lawyer, who did not even bother to read memoranda outlining detailed legal objections to their...
...Internal government memos also showed that a high-ranking military lawyer at Guantanamo sought to prevent the International Committee of the Red Cross, which periodically visited the detention facility to monitor the treatment of prisoners, from discovering some of the techniques used against them...
...Later in the same memo, a senior CIA lawyer warns, "If someone dies while aggressive techniques are being used, regardless of cause of death, the backlash of attention would be severely detrimental." To that an officer replies, "Videotapes are subject to too much scrutiny in court," prompting the CIA lawyer to add, "The videotaping of even totally legal techniques will look 'ugly...
...another point Lt. Col. Beaver - who has retired from the military and now serves the Pentagon in a civilian capacity - asks, "Does SERE employ the 'wet towel' technique [a reference to waterboarding]?" The CIA lawyer answers: "If a well-trained individual is used to perform this technique it can feel like you're drowning. The lymphatic system will react as if you're suffocating, but your body will not cease to function...
...Witness Alberto Mora, the Navy's former top lawyer, called the abusive interrogation program a "mistake of massive proportions." He had been one of very few senior Pentagon officials to protest at the time, and his objections led to the cancellation of some of the program's worst aspects. But both Beaver and Rear Admiral Jane G. Dalton, the former top legal advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave answers that were repeatedly challenged by Senators. When both asserted that the use of dogs and stripping prisoners naked had never been authorized at Guantanamo, their attention...