Item: "A Republican aide familiar with the Judiciary Committee's schedule said that it is likely to hold hearings for D.C. Circuit Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and 4th U.S. Circuit Court nominee William Haynes after finishing work on immigration."
Ah yes, William Haynes, who the administration and their allies wish to have join Judge Bybee as members of the federal bench that had direct involvement in furthering our inhumane and criminal detainee policy. Repeated opposition will not stop them.
Assumingly, there are not enough conservatives such as the one discussed in a recent New Yorker article:
"Never has there been a counsel with more intellectual courage or personal integrity," David Brant, the former head of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said. Brant added somewhat cryptically, "He surprised us into doing the right thing." Conspicuous for his silence that night was Mora's boss, William J. Haynes II, the general counsel of the Department of Defense.
For those who rail against "liberal" critics of the administration's policy, let us put forth people like Alberto Mara, "a courtly and warm man, is a cautious, cerebral conservative who admired President Reagan and served in both the first and the second Bush Administrations as a political appointee." One of a number of heroes who tried to do their part in upholding the values of this country and the country they served. Mara is no minor character, but the outgoing general counsel of the United States Navy. He notes:
[Cruelty, not just "torture"] destroys the whole notion of individual rights. The Constitution recognizes that man has an inherent right, not bestowed by the state or laws, to personal dignity, including the right to be free of cruelty. It applies to all human beings, not just in America—even those designated as 'unlawful enemy combatants.' If you make this exception, the whole Constitution crumbles. It's a transformative issue."
Back to Haynes, whose connections to Cheney are clear: "In confronting Haynes, Mora was engaging not just the Pentagon but also the Vice-President's office. Haynes is a protégé of Cheney's influential chief of staff, David Addington." Of course, on the detainee treatment matter Torture Czar / Attorney General (and chief bottlewasher) Alberto Gonzales is also part of the mix.
Anyway, Mara warned Haynes (who referenced the matter to Cheney) that the detainee policy amounted to torture and broke the law. Unlike Yoo and others, he did not think the President had the authority to uphold such a policy. Haynes did not just disagree, he made Mara think that Mara's general views were being respected. That a more torture friendly policy was rejected. We the people could not be trust with the truth, but nor did the general counsel of the Navy. And others worried about the policy. Those worried about things such as:
Qahtani had been subjected to a hundred and sixty days of isolation in a pen perpetually flooded with artificial light. He was interrogated on forty-eight of fifty-four days, for eighteen to twenty hours at a stretch. He had been stripped naked; straddled by taunting female guards, in an exercise called "invasion of space by a female"; forced to wear women's underwear on his head, and to put on a bra; threatened by dogs; placed on a leash; and told that his mother was a whore. By December, Qahtani had been subjected to a phony kidnapping, deprived of heat, given large quantities of intravenous liquids without access to a toilet, and deprived of sleep for three days. Ten days before Brant and Mora met, Qahtani's heart rate had dropped so precipitately, to thirty-five beats a minute, that he required cardiac monitoring.
What this all wrought is spelled out in more detail here.
Of course, no mistakes etc., were made. Oh, darn, wait ... Oh well, so many eggs break to make an omelet. Perfect judge material.