Philip Zelikow, a top State Department lawyer under Condoleezza Rice and the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, had a rather provocative item for Foreign Policy yesterday, explaining that he saw the OLC's arguments in 2005 justifying abusive interrogation techniques, and provided officials with an "opposing" view of the law.
Zelikow said he "felt obliged to put an alternative view in front of my colleagues at other agencies, warning them that other lawyers (and judges) might find the OLC views unsustainable." His perspective, we now know, was ignored.
It's worth noting, of course, that lawyers, especially high-ranking lawyers in positions of governmental authority, are going to disagree quite a bit about legal interpretations. But in this case, Bush officials not only thought Zelikow was wrong, and not only ignored his sound judgment, they went considerably further: "The White House attempted to collect and destroy all copies of my memo."
Zelikow explored this in some detail last night in a fascinating interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC
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