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| Torture Lawyer Lands at Chevron June 20, 2008 |
From Guantanamo Bay to San RamonIt may be news to some Bay Area readers that the Pentagon's former chief lawyer, currently on the hot seat over the Bush administration's interrogation policies, now works for San Ramon-based Chevron Corp. The affiliation was mentioned in passing in an AP story in yesterday's Chronicle, 'Harsh U.S. interrogations worried military lawyers.' Unworried, it seems was the Pentagon's then-general counsel William J.Haynes II, who sought the help of military psychologists early on to devise the more aggressive methods -- which included the use of dogs, making a detainee stand for long periods of time and forced nudity. Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's approval of such methods, which contravened the Army's Field Manual (and the Geneva Conventions) was based on a recommendation from Haynes. Haynes resigned from his Pentagon post in February, and -- voila! -- two days after his resignation, he was named chief corporate counsel for Chevron. Few at the time noticed, as Law.com explained: When a company recruits a prominent government official, it's usually eager to put the word out immediately. But Chevron Corp. took more than a month to publicly confirm that it had hired William "Jim" Haynes II, the controversial former general counsel of the Pentagon. Chevron officials say that they didn't make a big deal of Haynes' hiring because they didn't think it was newsworthy. Law.com quoted a Chevron spokesman as saying that while the company is "aware that there are peripheral issues surrounding Jim, they have not been a focus for us." Maybe there's a little more "focus" now. This week Haynes, reportedly an administration ally of Vice President Dick Cheney, testified on his role in the interrogation issue before the Senate Armed Services committee. It was probably not a very comfortable experience, for Haynes or for Chevron. When Haynes avowed that he was merely an advisor not a decision maker on the interrogation policies, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., snapped back: "You did a disservice to the soldiers of this nation. You empowered them to violate basic conditions which every soldier respects -- the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, the Geneva Convention. You degraded the integrity of the United States military." So what attracted Chevron to Haynes in the first place? Chevron's former general counsel, Charles James, who spent time with Haynes when they both worked for the Bush administration, told Law.com back in April: "I've known Jim since we both served in the administration and have always respected his world-class legal talent. I expect that Chevron will benefit from his legal skills, professional maturity and judgment." (Try searching for William "Jim" Haynes II on Chevron's web site.) | June 18 2008 at 11:47 AM
Printed from the East
Bay Express Web site: Chevron Lawyer William Haynes Ducks Senate's Torture QuestionsJune 19, 2008 William Haynes II is a senior lawyer in Chevron's general counsel
office. But up until a few months ago, he was the Pentagon lawyer who
helped authorize and craft a policy of torturing people detained by the
American military. Yesterday, members of the
Senate Armed Services Committee called him in to testify about when
and how he approved the use of dogs, nudity, and other techniques during
interrogations. And wouldn't you know it, one of the sharpest legal
minds in the country suddenly can't remember a thing! According to the
WaPo's Dana Milbank, Haynes gave the following answers to questions from
the public's elected representatives: |