Addington and Yoo: The Lowlights

Here are some of the lowlights from this morning’s testimony in the House Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Addington testified that he visited Guantanamo Bay to watch interrogations and see how the legal advice he provided was being implemented. But, at the same time, he asserted he did not recall discussing any specific interrogation techniques or the memo itself during his visit, an assertion that Representative Wassersman Schultz found difficult to believe.

Mr. Addington also let slip that he, John Yoo, and then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales had all met to discuss the topics that would later be addressed in the now infamous torture memo.

Finally, in another low point for legal reasoning, John Yoo couldn’t say that an order to bury a person alive would be illegal.

CONYERS: Could the President order a suspect buried alive?

YOO: Uh, Mr. Chairman, I don’t think I’ve ever given advice that the President could order someone buried alive…

CONYERS: I didn’t ask you if you ever gave him advice. I asked you thought the President could order a suspect buried alive.

YOO: Well Chairman, my view right now is that I don’t think a President — no American President would ever have to order that or feel it necessary to order that.

CONYERS: I think we understand the games that are being played.

More to come this afternoon.