A coalition of progressive organizations May 18 filed disciplinary complaints with five state bar associations seeking the disbarment of 12 former US government officials associated with the legal rationales behind the Bush administration's use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. Complaints filed by the group Velvet Revolution with the bar associations of New York, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, and the District of Columbia allege that former attorneys general John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales and Michael Mukasey, former Office of Legal Council lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee, former vice presidential chief of staff David Addington, former Pentagon official Douglas Feith, and other government officials violated the Rules of Professional Conduct by advocating the use of torture and should be disbarred as a result.

The group said that the recent release of CIA memos authorizing the use of enhanced interrogation techniques "clearly demonstrate[s] that these attorneys conspired to violate laws against torture and that their actions resulted in torture and death." (Jurist, May 18)

See our last post on the torture scandal.

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