LAS VEGAS, April 25 (UPI) -- U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Jay Bybee, has expressed regret for signing off on a key Bush administration "torture memo,"colleagues say.
Bybee, who in 2002 was head of the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, signed the legal justifications for harsh interrogations for suspected terrorists released this month by the Obama administration. The memos' contents have created a Washington uproar and resulted in calls for Bybee's impeachment.
Bybee has voiced some regrets over the memos in the past few years, friends and colleagues told Saturday's Washington Post.
"I've heard him express regret at the contents of the memo," an unnamed fellow legal scholar and longtime friend told the Post. "I've heard him express regret that the memo was misused."
"I got the impression that he was not pleased with that bit of scholarship," said another unnamed Bybee associate. "I don't know that he 'owned it.' … The way he put it was: He was head of the OLC, and it was written, and he was not pleased with it."
Bybee refused comment, the Post said.
