John C. Yoo, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) of the Department of Justice, writes a legal opinion to provide military interrogators with immunity from prosecution for torture:

       If a government defendant were to harm an enemy combatant during an interrogation in a manner that might arguably violate a criminal prohibition, he would be doing so in order to prevent farther attacks on the United States by the al-Qaeda terrorist network. … In that case, we believe that he could argue that the Executive Branch’s Constitutional authority to protect the nation from attack justified his actions.

       [added 12/9/2023] G. Edward Griffin for this entry.