Torture lawyers want report amended

WASHINGTON, May 6 (UPI) -- A group of former Bush administration officials are said to be urging U.S. Justice Department officials to soften an ethics report on interrogation tactics.

The former White House aides are seeking to alter a report that criticizes government lawyers who approved harsh detainee interrogation tactics, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Sources told the newspaper that John Yoo, Jay Bybee and Steven Bradbury are asking senior Bush administration appointees to write and phone Justice Department officials.

The Post reported that a draft report, prepared in January before Bush's departure, recommends disciplinary action by state bar associations, rather than criminal prosecution, against two former department attorneys in the Office of Legal Counsel.

The memo say the lawyers might have committed misconduct in preparing and signing the so-called torture memos, which offered legal support for waterboarding and slamming prisoners against a wall.