CIA's lawyer, John Rizzo. John Rizzo's pride in legalizing torture

"As we constantly said, Yoo's legal memo came after the order to the CIA to torture. The CIA's lawyer Rizzo realized they had to have more protection when it would eventually come to light so he insisted on the backstopping Aug 1 memo. Before Rizzo's book was out, Lubin testified that the "I was only providing legal advice in good faith" defense does not protect a lawyer who is serving to help commit or cover up the crime.
It worked so well, Obama's legalizers have continued the same modus operandi with their OLC memos legalizing drone assassination, etc. And the militarized law schools in the U.S. teach a "national security law" that perverts the most basic of legal principles, that torture, assassinations and wars of aggression are prohibited. "
- Coleen Rowley, retired FBI agent and member of MN's Tackle Torture at the Top

"What a dandy John Rizzo is and was--with the cuff links, decoratively folded handkerchief and every hair in place, and now he's so proud that he was able to legalize torture for a time! And get away with it! I sure hope there's a god that catches up to these sadistic psychopaths some day! They sure have had their fun wielding power and playing God." - MN's Tackle Torture at the Top

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/01/a-new-memoir-by-john-rizzo-the-cias-lawyer.html

The C.I.A.’s Lawyer: Waterboarding and Memory
Posted by Steve Coll

C.I.A. memoirs have become a well-populated genre. As with mysteries or science fiction, most entries are at least diverting, as long as you are willing, on occasion, to suspend disbelief. On the intelligence-memoir shelf, the best reads usually come from rogues—for example, “A Spy for All Seasons,” by Duane (Dewey) Clarridge, of Iran-Contra notoriety, or Robert Baer’s two volumes of notes on his black-sheep career in the C.I.A.’s Directorate of Operations. (Baer’s work inspired the film “Syriana.”) Later this month will arrive another volume, “Company Man,” an often revealing and funny memoir by John Rizzo, who worked as a lawyer at the C.I.A. for thirty years. Like Clarridge and Baer, Rizzo writes in the acerbic, nothing-to-lose voice of a borderline scoundrel. In fact, he is a deeply loyal agency insider. Between 1976 and his retirement, in 2009, he helped nine different C.I.A. directors to paper over crises, manage Presidents and White House staffs, and outlast congressional inquiries.