William J. Haynes, II
Encyclopedia
William James "Jim" Haynes II (born March 30, 1958 in Waco, Texas
) is an American lawyer and former General Counsel of the Department of Defense
during President George W. Bush's administration. Haynes resigned as General Counsel effective March 2008. He has been General Counsel of the Department of the Army, a partner with the law firm of Jenner & Block
, and an associate general counsel of General Dynamics Corporation
. Haynes is currently Chief Corporate Counsel of Chevron Corporation
.
, and moved frequently during his childhood. He participated in the Boy Scouts while growing up, eventually achieving the rank of Eagle Scout. In 1976 Haynes graduated from Parkway High School in Bossier City, Louisiana
, where he played tennis and won a state championship in wrestling. Haynes earned an ROTC scholarship to attend Davidson College
. During college Haynes played varsity tennis and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Kappa
, and he graduated cum laude
in 1980. In 2005, Haynes received Davidson's Distinguished Alumnus Award. He also holds an honorary LLD from Stetson University College of Law.
Haynes received his J.D.
from Harvard Law School
in 1983. During his second year at Harvard, Haynes volunteered at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau
. At the time, the President of the Bureau was Deval Patrick
, the current Governor of Massachusetts
, who was a year ahead of Haynes in law school.
Following law school, Haynes spent a year as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge James B. McMillan, an appointee of President Lyndon B. Johnson
who famously ordered that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County school system
should integrate by means of crosstown busing.
in matters ranging from international research and development agreements, to hazardous waste cleanups, to government contracts. Haynes was twice awarded the Army Meritorious Service Medal
, in 1986 and again in 1988.
After leaving active duty, Haynes briefly worked as an associate at the D.C. law firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan
before being tapped by President George H. W. Bush
to be General Counsel of the Department of the Army
. He was confirmed in early 1990 and remained through noon of inauguration day in 1993, serving as chief legal officer of the Army during a period that witnessed the conclusion of the Cold War
, the liberation of Kuwait during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and the beginning of the contraction of the defense industry.
In 1993, Haynes joined the D.C office of Jenner & Block
as a partner. Upon moving to General Dynamics Corporation
in 1996, Haynes was initially Staff Vice President and Associate General Counsel, and later General Counsel for the company's Marine Group. In early 1999, Haynes spent four months as a volunteer in central Asia working on microcredit programs for Mercy Corps International
, before returning to his partnership at Jenner & Block.
appointed Haynes to be General Counsel of the Department of Defense
, a post from which he oversaw some 10,000 lawyers, and advised on the Department’s internal affairs and its relations with other government and non-government agencies at home and abroad. Because of the position’s wide ranging responsibility for overseeing thousands of ongoing cases, legislative matters, and policy decisions, the DoD's General Counsel has been described as “one of the most powerful and influential lawyers in the entire federal government.”
Haynes was in one of the Pentagon's command centers on September 11, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 77
crashed into the western face of the building. At the time, Haynes was on the far side of the Pentagon
and later, during the 2008 Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Lecture before the American College of Trial Lawyers
, recalled that he felt "a shudder pulse the monstrous concrete structure," and that he sent a deputy of his to a survival site, in case any further attacks were to affect the Pentagon.
In his capacity as General Counsel, Haynes was often sent to meet with foreign officials. In 2003, for instance, he met with British Attorney General
Peter Goldsmith
to discuss the cases of two British men held in Guantanamo Bay. In 2007, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates dispatched Haynes to Turkey to speak with officials there about militants in the country thought to be using U.S.-supplied weaponry.
As General Counsel to the Department of Defense, Haynes advised the Bush administration in its effort to create military commissions that would try detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. The commissions were authorized by Military Commission Order No. 1
, which Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld
issued on March 21, 2002. No detainees were tried under the provisions of that order, and in 2006, the Supreme Court
ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
that Congressional authorization was required before any commissions could commence. Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith
, who briefly worked at the Pentagon as Special Counsel under Haynes, notes in his book The Terror Presidency that Haynes urged getting Congressional approval for the commissions, but that others in the administration felt doing so was unnecessary.
In November 2002, Haynes wrote a memo for Rumsfeld concerning interrogation techniques to be used at Guantanamo Bay. Haynes's memo, which the Secretary of Defense approved, recommended authorizing several techniques, but advised against the authorization of three more-aggressive techniques, including one that resembled waterboarding
. Such treatment of detainees, Haynes noted, would be inconsistent with American Armed Forces' "tradition of restraint."
That memo led journalist Stuart Taylor to write, in a 2008 article for the National Journal
, that Haynes “is the only former [Bush administration] official whose paper trail also shows that he blocked a request to use waterboarding and two other harsh methods that administration lawyers had advised were legal....” Brookings Institution
fellow Benjamin Wittes
went even further in the pages of the left-leaning New Republic
, calling Haynes’s memo “the reason that the military, unlike the CIA, never waterboarded anybody.”
While the memo drew criticism for recommending techniques used abusively in Iraq and elsewhere, it in fact did not apply to interrogators working anywhere outside Guantanamo Bay. In August 2004, the Independent Panel to Review Department of Defense Detention Operations, which was convened in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal
, issued a report noting that the methods Haynes recommended were “strictly limited for use at Guantanamo” and that officers there “used those...techniques with only two detainees, gaining important and time sensitive information in the process.”
In the wake of the 2011 killing
of Osama bin Laden
, it was suggested that the "enhanced interrogation techniques" approved for use at Guantanamo Bay may have elicited information from Mohammed al Qahtani that helped U.S. intelligence agents find bin Laden's courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti
, and ultimately bin Laden himself.
The panel’s report did fault Haynes for formulating his November 2002 interrogation memo to the Secretary of Defense without giving greater consideration to the input of Judge Advocates General
and the General Counsels of the armed services. The authors of the report suggest that had Haynes done so, the military might not have needed to revise its Guantanamo interrogation standards again in April 2003, following objections from some within the military that the standards adopted in late-2002 might lead to abuse of detainees. As later became clear, however, the Department of Justice
had earlier provided highly-classified, definitive advice to the White House that more aggressive techniques were within the legal bounds of discretion for the President in defense of the country.
Haynes was a part of the so-called ‘Bush Six,’ a group of administration officials who were considered for prosecution by Baltasar Garzón
, a former examining magistrate on Spain’s Central Court of Criminal Proceedings. The six were to be charged with offering legal justifications for torture. After the Obama administration
and the Spanish Attorney General both requested the investigation be dropped, the matter was dismissed in May 2011. Additionally, Garzón has been suspended from his post for exceeding his judicial powers during an investigation of the Franco regime.
In March 2008, Haynes resigned from his position at the Pentagon. His nearly seven years in office made him the longest-serving General Counsel in the history of the Department of Defense. Upon his departure, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
awarded Haynes the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service
, the highest award for a civilian appointee.
Later that month, Haynes joined Chevron Corporation
as its Chief Corporate Counsel.
. During the more than three years Haynes’s nomination was pending, the American Bar Association
evaluated him twice and both times rated him Well-Qualified, the highest rating given to judicial nominees. Haynes also received the support of a number of prominent lawyers, including Cass Sunstein
and former NAACP Legal Defense Fund
chairman William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr.
The Judiciary Committee
approved Haynes’s nomination in November 2003, but he did not received a vote in the full Senate, and although re-nominated in subsequent Congresses, Haynes never again moved past the committee level. Surprisingly, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham
of South Carolina
surfaced as the principal impediment to the appointment. In December 2006, after the Senate adjourned following the Democratic gains of the 2006 elections, Haynes asked President Bush to forego re-nominating him to the Court of Appeals.
was at one point incorrectly attributed to Haynes.
Waco, Texas
Waco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. Situated along the Brazos River and on the I-35 corridor, halfway between Dallas and Austin, it is the economic, cultural, and academic center of the 'Heart of Texas' region....
) is an American lawyer and former General Counsel of the Department of Defense
General Counsel of the Department of Defense
The General Counsel of the Department of Defense serves as the chief legal officer of the Department of Defense , advising both the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on all legal matters and services, and providing legal advice to OSD organizations and, as appropriate, other DOD components...
during President George W. Bush's administration. Haynes resigned as General Counsel effective March 2008. He has been General Counsel of the Department of the Army, a partner with the law firm of Jenner & Block
Jenner & Block
Jenner & Block is a U.S. law firm with offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. Approximately 450 attorneys serve a wide range of clients in corporate litigation, business transactions, and in the public sector. Jerold S. Solovy was the longtime Chair of the firm, but on Sept...
, and an associate general counsel of General Dynamics Corporation
General Dynamics
General Dynamics Corporation is a U.S. defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2008 it is the fifth largest defense contractor in the world. Its headquarters are in West Falls Church , unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, in the Falls Church area.The company has...
. Haynes is currently Chief Corporate Counsel of Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining,...
.
Childhood and education
Haynes was born in Waco, TexasWaco, Texas
Waco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. Situated along the Brazos River and on the I-35 corridor, halfway between Dallas and Austin, it is the economic, cultural, and academic center of the 'Heart of Texas' region....
, and moved frequently during his childhood. He participated in the Boy Scouts while growing up, eventually achieving the rank of Eagle Scout. In 1976 Haynes graduated from Parkway High School in Bossier City, Louisiana
Bossier City, Louisiana
Bossier City is a city in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, United States.As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total population of 61,315. Bossier City is closely tied to its larger sister city Shreveport, located on the western bank of the Red River. The Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan area is the...
, where he played tennis and won a state championship in wrestling. Haynes earned an ROTC scholarship to attend Davidson College
Davidson College
Davidson College is a private liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina. The college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked in the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine, although it has recently dropped to 11th in U.S. News...
. During college Haynes played varsity tennis and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Kappa
Omicron Delta Kappa
Omicron Delta Kappa, or ΟΔΚ, also known as The Circle, or more commonly ODK, is a national leadership honor society. It was founded December 3, 1914, at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, by 15 student and faculty leaders. Chapters, known as Circles, are located on over 300...
, and he graduated cum laude
Latin honors
Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned. This system is primarily used in the United States, Canada, and in many countries of continental Europe, though some institutions also use the English translation of these...
in 1980. In 2005, Haynes received Davidson's Distinguished Alumnus Award. He also holds an honorary LLD from Stetson University College of Law.
Haynes received his J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
from Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
in 1983. During his second year at Harvard, Haynes volunteered at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau
Harvard Legal Aid Bureau
The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is the oldest student-run legal services office in the country, founded in 1913. Located at 23 Everett Street in Cambridge, MA, the Bureau's mission is to provide an important community service while giving student attorneys the opportunity to develop professional...
. At the time, the President of the Bureau was Deval Patrick
Deval Patrick
Deval Laurdine Patrick is the 71st and current Governor of Massachusetts. A member of the Democratic Party, Patrick served as an Assistant United States Attorney General under President Bill Clinton...
, the current Governor of Massachusetts
Governor of Massachusetts
The Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the executive magistrate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The current governor is Democrat Deval Patrick.-Constitutional role:...
, who was a year ahead of Haynes in law school.
Following law school, Haynes spent a year as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge James B. McMillan, an appointee of President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
who famously ordered that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County school system
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is a local education agency headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina and is the public school system for Mecklenburg County. With over 133,600 students enrolled, it is the second-largest school district in North Carolina and the twentieth-largest in the nation...
should integrate by means of crosstown busing.
Early public service and private sector work
Following his clerkship, Haynes was commissioned an Army second lieutenant through the ROTC program and entered active duty in 1984, serving four years advising and representing the Department of the ArmyUnited States Department of the Army
The Department of the Army is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Department of the Army is the Federal Government agency which the United States Army is organized within, and it is led by the Secretary of the Army who has...
in matters ranging from international research and development agreements, to hazardous waste cleanups, to government contracts. Haynes was twice awarded the Army Meritorious Service Medal
Meritorious Service Medal (United States)
The Meritorious Service Medal is a military decoration presented to members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguished themselves by outstanding meritorious achievement or service to the United States subsequent to January 16, 1969...
, in 1986 and again in 1988.
After leaving active duty, Haynes briefly worked as an associate at the D.C. law firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP, rebranded to the abbreviated name of Sutherland, is an AmLaw 100 American law firm. Founded in 1924 by William Sutherland and Elbert Tuttle as Sutherland & Tuttle, the firm originally achieved national prominence on tax issues...
before being tapped by President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
to be General Counsel of the Department of the Army
General Counsel of the Army
The General Counsel of the Army is the General Counsel of the United States Department of the Army and the chief legal counselor of the United States Secretary of the Army...
. He was confirmed in early 1990 and remained through noon of inauguration day in 1993, serving as chief legal officer of the Army during a period that witnessed the conclusion of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, the liberation of Kuwait during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and the beginning of the contraction of the defense industry.
In 1993, Haynes joined the D.C office of Jenner & Block
Jenner & Block
Jenner & Block is a U.S. law firm with offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. Approximately 450 attorneys serve a wide range of clients in corporate litigation, business transactions, and in the public sector. Jerold S. Solovy was the longtime Chair of the firm, but on Sept...
as a partner. Upon moving to General Dynamics Corporation
General Dynamics
General Dynamics Corporation is a U.S. defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2008 it is the fifth largest defense contractor in the world. Its headquarters are in West Falls Church , unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, in the Falls Church area.The company has...
in 1996, Haynes was initially Staff Vice President and Associate General Counsel, and later General Counsel for the company's Marine Group. In early 1999, Haynes spent four months as a volunteer in central Asia working on microcredit programs for Mercy Corps International
Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is a global aid agency engaged in transitional environments that have experienced some sort of shock: natural disaster, economic collapse, or conflict. People working for it move as quickly as possible from bringing in food and supplies to enabling people to rebuild their economy with...
, before returning to his partnership at Jenner & Block.
General Counsel of the Department of Defense
Shortly after his inauguration, President George W. BushGeorge W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
appointed Haynes to be General Counsel of the Department of Defense
General Counsel of the Department of Defense
The General Counsel of the Department of Defense serves as the chief legal officer of the Department of Defense , advising both the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on all legal matters and services, and providing legal advice to OSD organizations and, as appropriate, other DOD components...
, a post from which he oversaw some 10,000 lawyers, and advised on the Department’s internal affairs and its relations with other government and non-government agencies at home and abroad. Because of the position’s wide ranging responsibility for overseeing thousands of ongoing cases, legislative matters, and policy decisions, the DoD's General Counsel has been described as “one of the most powerful and influential lawyers in the entire federal government.”
Haynes was in one of the Pentagon's command centers on September 11, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 77
American Airlines Flight 77
American Airlines Flight 77 was American Airlines' daily scheduled morning transcontinental flight, from Washington Dulles International Airport, in Dulles, Virginia to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California...
crashed into the western face of the building. At the time, Haynes was on the far side of the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
and later, during the 2008 Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Lecture before the American College of Trial Lawyers
American College of Trial Lawyers
The American College of Trial Lawyers is a professional association of trial lawyers from the United States and Canada. Founded in 1950, the College is dedicated to maintaining and improving the standards of trial practice, the administration of justice and the ethics of the profession...
, recalled that he felt "a shudder pulse the monstrous concrete structure," and that he sent a deputy of his to a survival site, in case any further attacks were to affect the Pentagon.
In his capacity as General Counsel, Haynes was often sent to meet with foreign officials. In 2003, for instance, he met with British Attorney General
Attorney General for England and Wales
Her Majesty's Attorney General for England and Wales, usually known simply as the Attorney General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown. Along with the subordinate Solicitor General for England and Wales, the Attorney General serves as the chief legal adviser of the Crown and its government in...
Peter Goldsmith
Peter Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith
Peter Henry Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith, PC, QC , is a former Attorney General for England and Wales and Northern Ireland. On 22 June 2007, Goldsmith announced his resignation which took effect on 27 June 2007, the same day that prime minister, Tony Blair, stepped down. Goldsmith was the longest...
to discuss the cases of two British men held in Guantanamo Bay. In 2007, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates dispatched Haynes to Turkey to speak with officials there about militants in the country thought to be using U.S.-supplied weaponry.
As General Counsel to the Department of Defense, Haynes advised the Bush administration in its effort to create military commissions that would try detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. The commissions were authorized by Military Commission Order No. 1
Military Commission Order No. 1
The Military Commission Order No. 1 was an order that came into focus in the 2006 ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States in 'Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.From the ruling, 05-184:...
, which Secretary of Defense
United States Secretary of Defense
The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
issued on March 21, 2002. No detainees were tried under the provisions of that order, and in 2006, the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 , is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay lack "the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military...
that Congressional authorization was required before any commissions could commence. Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith
Jack Goldsmith
Jack Landman Goldsmith is a Harvard Law School professor who has written a number of texts regarding international law, cyber law, and national security law...
, who briefly worked at the Pentagon as Special Counsel under Haynes, notes in his book The Terror Presidency that Haynes urged getting Congressional approval for the commissions, but that others in the administration felt doing so was unnecessary.
In November 2002, Haynes wrote a memo for Rumsfeld concerning interrogation techniques to be used at Guantanamo Bay. Haynes's memo, which the Secretary of Defense approved, recommended authorizing several techniques, but advised against the authorization of three more-aggressive techniques, including one that resembled waterboarding
Waterboarding
Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over the face of an immobilized captive, thus causing the individual to experience the sensation of drowning...
. Such treatment of detainees, Haynes noted, would be inconsistent with American Armed Forces' "tradition of restraint."
That memo led journalist Stuart Taylor to write, in a 2008 article for the National Journal
National Journal
National Journal is a nonpartisan American weekly magazine that reports on the current political environment and emerging political and policy trends. National Journal was first published in 1969. Times Mirror owned the magazine from 1986 to 1997, when it was purchased by David G. Bradley...
, that Haynes “is the only former [Bush administration] official whose paper trail also shows that he blocked a request to use waterboarding and two other harsh methods that administration lawyers had advised were legal....” Brookings Institution
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...
fellow Benjamin Wittes
Benjamin Wittes
Benjamin Wittes is a fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he is Research Director in Public Law. Wittes is also a member of the Hoover Institution's Task Force on National Security and Law...
went even further in the pages of the left-leaning New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, calling Haynes’s memo “the reason that the military, unlike the CIA, never waterboarded anybody.”
While the memo drew criticism for recommending techniques used abusively in Iraq and elsewhere, it in fact did not apply to interrogators working anywhere outside Guantanamo Bay. In August 2004, the Independent Panel to Review Department of Defense Detention Operations, which was convened in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal
Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
Beginning in 2004, human rights violations in the form of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including torture, rape, sodomy, and homicide of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq came to public attention...
, issued a report noting that the methods Haynes recommended were “strictly limited for use at Guantanamo” and that officers there “used those...techniques with only two detainees, gaining important and time sensitive information in the process.”
In the wake of the 2011 killing
Death of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden, then head of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1 a.m. local time by a United States special forces military unit....
of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
, it was suggested that the "enhanced interrogation techniques" approved for use at Guantanamo Bay may have elicited information from Mohammed al Qahtani that helped U.S. intelligence agents find bin Laden's courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti
Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti
Sheikh Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti , also known as Shaykh Abu Ahmed, Arshad Khan and Mohammed Arshad, was a Kuwait-born Pakistani al-Qaeda member and courier for Osama bin Laden. According to secret documents, al-Kuwaiti was one of the few men Osama bin Laden completely trusted and was said to be his...
, and ultimately bin Laden himself.
The panel’s report did fault Haynes for formulating his November 2002 interrogation memo to the Secretary of Defense without giving greater consideration to the input of Judge Advocates General
Judge Advocate General's Corps
Judge Advocate General's Corps, also known as JAG or JAG Corps, refers to the legal branch or specialty of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, and Navy. Officers serving in the JAG Corps are typically called Judge Advocates. The Marine Corps and Coast Guard do not maintain separate JAG Corps...
and the General Counsels of the armed services. The authors of the report suggest that had Haynes done so, the military might not have needed to revise its Guantanamo interrogation standards again in April 2003, following objections from some within the military that the standards adopted in late-2002 might lead to abuse of detainees. As later became clear, however, the Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
had earlier provided highly-classified, definitive advice to the White House that more aggressive techniques were within the legal bounds of discretion for the President in defense of the country.
Haynes was a part of the so-called ‘Bush Six,’ a group of administration officials who were considered for prosecution by Baltasar Garzón
Baltasar Garzón
Baltasar Garzón Real is a Spanish jurist who served on Spain's central criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional. He was the examining magistrate of the Juzgado Central de Instrucción No...
, a former examining magistrate on Spain’s Central Court of Criminal Proceedings. The six were to be charged with offering legal justifications for torture. After the Obama administration
Presidency of Barack Obama
The Presidency of Barack Obama began at noon EST on January 20, 2009 when he became the 44th President of the United States. Obama was a United States Senator from Illinois at the time of his victory over Arizona Senator John McCain in the 2008 presidential election...
and the Spanish Attorney General both requested the investigation be dropped, the matter was dismissed in May 2011. Additionally, Garzón has been suspended from his post for exceeding his judicial powers during an investigation of the Franco regime.
In March 2008, Haynes resigned from his position at the Pentagon. His nearly seven years in office made him the longest-serving General Counsel in the history of the Department of Defense. Upon his departure, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
Robert Gates
Dr. Robert Michael Gates is a retired civil servant and university president who served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011. Prior to this, Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and under President George H. W....
awarded Haynes the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service
Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service
The Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service is the highest award that is presented by the Secretary of Defense, to a private citizen, politician, non-career Federal employee, or foreign national...
, the highest award for a civilian appointee.
Later that month, Haynes joined Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining,...
as its Chief Corporate Counsel.
Fourth Circuit nomination
In 2003, Haynes was nominated by George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth CircuitUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:*District of Maryland*Eastern District of North Carolina...
. During the more than three years Haynes’s nomination was pending, the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
evaluated him twice and both times rated him Well-Qualified, the highest rating given to judicial nominees. Haynes also received the support of a number of prominent lawyers, including Cass Sunstein
Cass Sunstein
Cass R. Sunstein is an American legal scholar, particularly in the fields of constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, and law and behavioral economics, who currently is the Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration...
and former NAACP Legal Defense Fund
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City....
chairman William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr.
William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr.
William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr. was the fourth United States Secretary of Transportation, from March 7, 1975 to January 20, 1977, and the second African American to serve in the Cabinet...
The Judiciary Committee
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary is a standing committee of the United States Senate, of the United States Congress. The Judiciary Committee, with 18 members, is charged with conducting hearings prior to the Senate votes on confirmation of federal judges nominated by the...
approved Haynes’s nomination in November 2003, but he did not received a vote in the full Senate, and although re-nominated in subsequent Congresses, Haynes never again moved past the committee level. Surprisingly, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Olin Graham is the senior U.S. Senator from South Carolina and a member of the Republican Party. Previously he served as the U.S. Representative for .-Early life, education and career:...
of South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
surfaced as the principal impediment to the appointment. In December 2006, after the Senate adjourned following the Democratic gains of the 2006 elections, Haynes asked President Bush to forego re-nominating him to the Court of Appeals.
Incorrect attribution of essay
An essay about Islam and terrorism entitled "Why the Peaceful Majority is Irrelevant" by blogger Paul E. MarekPaul E. Marek
Paul E. Marek is a Canadian blogger and op-ed commentator best known for his widely reproduced essay, Why the Peaceful Majority is Irrelevant. He is a second generation Canadian, his grandparents having emigrated from Czechoslovakia prior to the Nazi invasion of 1938.-The essay:Marek published Why...
was at one point incorrectly attributed to Haynes.
See also
- Director of Operations, Planning and Development for Military CommissionsDirector of Operations, Planning and Development for Military CommissionsThe Director of Operations, Planning and Development for Military Commissions was a new position, created on 19 September 2008.The position was to be filled by a flag officer, who was to report directly to the Department of Defense's General Counsel, who was at the time William J...
- Equal Justice for United States Military Personnel Act of 2007
External links
- Department of Defense official biography
- "Counter-Resistance Techniques, Memo for the Secretary of Defense" by William J. Haynes II
- Final Report of the Panel to Review DoD Detention Operations
- "Four Judicial Nominees Ask to Withdraw", New York Times, Jan. 9, 2007
- "Jim Haynes’s Long Twilight Struggle," Harper's, February 8, 2008
- "Rigged Trials at Gitmo", The Nation, February 20, 2008
- "Pentagon General Counsel Resigns", The Nation, February 26, 2008
- "Our Leaders Are Not War Criminals," National Journal, June 28, 2008
- "Presumed Innocent?", The New Republic, March 24, 2010