Many seeking to impeach former BYU law graduate Bybee over torture memos

Calls are emerging to impeach Jay Bybee — a Brigham Young University law graduate — as a federal appeals court judge for his earlier writing of memos as a George W. Bush administration lawyer that allowed apparent torture by the CIA of suspected terrorists held in Guantanamo Bay.

Among those calling for his impeachment are the New York Times and Rep. Jerald Nadler, D-N.Y. (chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties). Others in Congress are calling for investigations into the memos and the torture they apparently allowed.

Bybee's memos are even creating waves across the Atlantic. A judge in Spain is considering criminal action against Bybee and others because some detainees claimed Spanish citizenship. And a British terrorism review official is calling for legal action against Bybee.

That comes after the Obama administration last week released four memos on prisoner interrogation written by former President George W. Bush's Justice Department. The Obama administration has abandoned the guidelines established by the memos.

The New York Times editorialized on Sunday saying, "In one of the more nauseating passages, Jay Bybee, then an assistant attorney general and now a federal judge, wrote admiringly about a contraption for waterboarding that would lurch a prisoner upright if he stopped breathing while water was passed over his face."

Nadler issued his call for Bybee's impeachment on Monday. In an interview with the Huffington Post, he said Bybee's writing "was not an honest legal memo. It was an instruction manual on how to break the law."

Yale law professor Bruce Ackerman said Bybee should be impeached back in January as descriptions of some memos were leaked. The Center for Constitutional Rights, a civil rights group, also has started a campaign seeking to impeach Bybee.

Others are calling for investigations by Congress. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy last week called for a commission of inquiry. "We must take a thorough accounting of what happened … to own up to what was done in the name of national security, and to learn from it."

The Reuters wire service reported that Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, known internationally for trying to extradite former Chilean dictator August Pinochet, said he is considering possible criminal action against Bush administration officials, including Bybee — although President Obama spoke out against such a probe.

E-mail: lee@desnews.com