lack of accountability from george w. bush to dick cheney to david addington and john ewe. the entire culture and society shifted in a dark direction. dick cheney said famously and ominously, we would have to work the dark side. he was giving voice to a voice being articulated in our papers and cable news channels. i remember the second tower has hardly fallen when i started reading commentators openly contemplating or advocating for torture. the suspension of due process and all kinds of harsh draconian measures. ultimately, the people responsible for the torture regime are the government officials who made the key decisions, but the fertile soil into which the seeds of torture were planted were provided by the commentators, pundits and law professors who made it seem acceptable in the minds of the public in the wake of 9/11.
what i spoke to them about is that failure is not an option. failure is not an option. these are cases that have to be won. i don t expect that we will have a contrary result. laura: the question now is will he reconsider that statement after the ghailani verdict? joining us from dallas, u.c. berkeley law professor john ewe who worked for the justice department during the bush administration, professor yu. it s great to see you. you heard my discussion with the former ambassador to the united nations nancy sodderberg and the criminal defense attorney. first, to this issue that, look, well, you know, these guys are serving time and long distances and he could very well be in jail for life. so the system works. so let s do it in the civilian court system. how do you answer that? first of all, let s just be conscious that the attorney general and the justice department are really lucky that they even got one conviction out of the 200 and some counts.
what i spoke to them about is that failure is not an option. failure is not an option. these are cases that have to be won. i don t expect that we will have a contrary result. laura: the question now is will he reconsider that statement after the ghailani verdict? joining us from dallas, u.c. berkeley law professor john ewe who worked for the justice department during the bush administration, professor yu. it s great to see you. you heard my discussion with the former ambassador to the united nations nancy sodderberg and the criminal defense attorney. first, to this issue that, look, well, you know, these guys are serving time and long distances and he could very well be in jail for life. so the system works. so let s do it in the civilian court system. how do you answer that? first of all, let s just be conscious that the attorney general and the justice department are really lucky that they even got one conviction out
what i spoke to them about is that failure is not an option. failure is not an option. these are cases that have to be won. i don t expect that we will have a contrary result. laura: the question now is will he reconsider that statement after the ghailani verdict? joining us from dallas, u.c. berkeley law professor john ewe who worked for the justice department during the bush administration, professor yu. it s great to see you. you heard my discussion with the former ambassador to the united nations nancy sodderberg and the criminal defense attorney. first, to this issue that, look, well, you know, these guys are serving time and long distances and he could very well be in jail for life. so the system works. so let s do it in the civilian court system. how do you answer that? first of all, let s just be conscious that the attorney general and the justice department are really lucky that they even got one conviction out
anticipated in the washington legal community than this one. it s a four-year investigation of the lawyers who wrote those members in 2002. john ewe. and now a federal appealate court judge that looked at the waterboarding and other interrogation techniques used by the cia against al qaeda suspects. at the very end of the bush administration, little more than a year ago, conclude e ed that and bybee violated standards when they crafted these opinions, used faulty legal reasoning and should be referred to their state bars there was a lot of anticipation about this report. last bush attorney general sent it back to the office of professional responsibility, that s the justice ethics area.