John A. Rizzo
Encyclopedia
John A. Rizzo was a lawyer at the Central Intelligence Agency
for 34 years. He was the acting General Counsel or Deputy Counsel of the CIA for the first nine years of the War on Terror
, during which the CIA held dozens of detainees in black site
prisons around the globe. "Enhanced interrogation techniques
" were approved by the George W. Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel
in the Department of Justice
in memos to Rizzo for use by CIA interrogators at the black sites. Rizzo signed off on all CIA-directed drone strikes from September 2001 until October 2009.
released its report on the assassination of foreign leaders. By 1979, Rizzo became the staff lawyer for the Directorate of Operations
, the CIA's clandestine branch. In the 1980s, Rizzo served as the liaison between the CIA and the congressional investigators looking into the Iran-Contra affair
. In November 2001, Rizzo became acting General Counsel, a position that was traditionally filled by someone from outside the CIA. He was the acting General Counsel of the CIA from late 2001 to late 2002 and from mid 2004 until late 2009. He was Deputy General Counsel in the interim period from 2002 to 2004.
Rizzo was nominated to be General Counsel of the CIA in mid 2007, but Democratic Senator Ron Wyden
(OR) blocked his confirmation by the Senate Intelligence Committee due to Rizzo's involvement in approving the CIA's interrogation practices. The Bush administration withdrew his nomination, however Rizzo continued to serve as acting General Counsel until his retirement in October 2009.
, was captured in Pakistan on March 28, 2002 and taken to a CIA black site
prison in Thailand. Originally interrogated using confidence-building techniques by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
, the CIA personnel and contractors at the black site wanted to use more coercive techniques because they believed Zubaydah was withholding information. One FBI agent called this treatment "borderline torture." FBI agents were pulled from the interrogations in early June.
The Joint Personnel Recovery Agency
, which ran the U.S. military's SERE program to train U.S. personnel to resist harsh interrogation methods, issued a memo with an attachment written to the Pentagon's Office of General Counsel in July of 2002. The memo, which was passed on from the OGC to Rizzo, referred to the use of extreme duress on detainees as "torture" and warned that it would produce "unreliable information."
Rizzo sent a request to the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel
for an opinion whether certain interrogation techniques would violate the prohibition against torture. The OLC issued a memo signed by Jay S. Bybee to Rizzo on August 1, 2002. It approved 10 techniques, including waterboarding.
Rizzo traveled with David Addington
, William Haynes
and Michael Chertoff
to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in late September 2002. One week later, a CIA lawyer told personnel with the military intelligence interrogation team at Guantanamo that "if the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong."
After an internal review of the interrogation videotapes by CIA lawyers in 2005, Rizzo asked the OLC for new statements about the legality of the enhanced interrogation techniques. The Los Angeles Times reported that Rizzo was becoming "increasingly anxious in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks that agency employees were being pressured to use methods that might later place them in legal jeopardy." The OLC issued three memos signed by Steven G. Bradbury
in May 2005 that stated the techniques did not violate the Convention Against Torture.
The New York Times reported that in 2005, Rizzo traveled with other CIA officials, including Kyle Foggo
, to several black sites, assuring CIA employees that their activities were legal.
In late 2005, the CIA interrogation program was halted by CIA Director Porter Goss based on advice from Rizzo. After the Supreme Court's 2006 ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
, the Bush administration decided that the CIA black sites could not be maintained indefinitely. Rizzo told his colleagues that the program was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.
told Rizzo not to destroy the tapes without checking with the White House first. Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., the chief lawyer of the Directorate of Operations, sent a cable to the CIA's Bangkok station ordering the destruction of the tapes on November 8, 2005. Rodriguez informed Goss and Rizzo of the destruction on November 10.
strikes from the start of the program soon after September 11, 2001 until his retirement in October 2009. He claims to have seen one "request for approval for targeting for lethal operation" per month and that roughly 30 individuals were targeted at any given time.
In July 2011, the human rights group Reprieve and Pakistani lawyers called for the prosecution of Rizzo in Pakistan for murder for approving drone attacks that killed hundreds of people.
In November 2011, the National Journal cited unnamed sources in reporting that the Department of Justice had opened an investigation of Rizzo for improperly disclosing classified information about the CIA drone program.. The probe was first opened by Rizzo's former office, the General Counsel of the CIA, in March 2011 after a detailed interview Rizzo gave Newsweek. The General Counsel's office forwarded evidence it collected to the DOJ that spring.
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
for 34 years. He was the acting General Counsel or Deputy Counsel of the CIA for the first nine years of the War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
, during which the CIA held dozens of detainees in black site
Black site
In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black project is conducted. Recently, the term has gained notoriety in describing secret prisons operated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency , generally outside of U.S. territory and legal jurisdiction. It...
prisons around the globe. "Enhanced interrogation techniques
Enhanced interrogation techniques
Enhanced interrogation techniques or alternative set of procedures are terms adopted by the George W. Bush administration in the United States to describe certain severe interrogation methods, often described as torture...
" were approved by the George W. Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel
Office of Legal Counsel
The Office of Legal Counsel is an office in the United States Department of Justice that assists the Attorney General in his function as legal adviser to the President and all executive branch agencies.-History:...
in 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...
in memos to Rizzo for use by CIA interrogators at the black sites. Rizzo signed off on all CIA-directed drone strikes from September 2001 until October 2009.
CIA career
A Boston native, Rizzo attended college at Brown University. He earned a law degree from George Washington University Law School. He was hired at the CIA in 1976, just after the Church CommitteeChurch Committee
The Church Committee is the common term referring to the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a U.S. Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church in 1975. A precursor to the U.S...
released its report on the assassination of foreign leaders. By 1979, Rizzo became the staff lawyer for the Directorate of Operations
National Clandestine Service
The National Clandestine Service is one of the four main components of the Central Intelligence Agency...
, the CIA's clandestine branch. In the 1980s, Rizzo served as the liaison between the CIA and the congressional investigators looking into the Iran-Contra affair
Iran-Contra Affair
The Iran–Contra affair , also referred to as Irangate, Contragate or Iran-Contra-Gate, was a political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, senior Reagan administration officials and President Reagan secretly facilitated the sale of...
. In November 2001, Rizzo became acting General Counsel, a position that was traditionally filled by someone from outside the CIA. He was the acting General Counsel of the CIA from late 2001 to late 2002 and from mid 2004 until late 2009. He was Deputy General Counsel in the interim period from 2002 to 2004.
Rizzo was nominated to be General Counsel of the CIA in mid 2007, but Democratic Senator Ron Wyden
Ron Wyden
Ronald Lee "Ron" Wyden is the senior U.S. Senator for Oregon, serving since 1996, and a member of the Democratic Party. He previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1996....
(OR) blocked his confirmation by the Senate Intelligence Committee due to Rizzo's involvement in approving the CIA's interrogation practices. The Bush administration withdrew his nomination, however Rizzo continued to serve as acting General Counsel until his retirement in October 2009.
Enhanced interrogation techniques
The first high-value detainee, Abu ZubaydahAbu Zubaydah
Abu Zubaydah is a Saudi Arabian citizen, sentenced to death in Jordan and currently held in U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.Not neutral: Arrested in Pakistan in March 2002, he has been in US custody for more than eight years, four-and-a-half of them spent incommunicado in solitary confinement...
, was captured in Pakistan on March 28, 2002 and taken to a CIA black site
Black site
In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black project is conducted. Recently, the term has gained notoriety in describing secret prisons operated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency , generally outside of U.S. territory and legal jurisdiction. It...
prison in Thailand. Originally interrogated using confidence-building techniques by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
, the CIA personnel and contractors at the black site wanted to use more coercive techniques because they believed Zubaydah was withholding information. One FBI agent called this treatment "borderline torture." FBI agents were pulled from the interrogations in early June.
The Joint Personnel Recovery Agency
Joint Personnel Recovery Agency
The Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, or JPRA, is charged with the coordinating and advancing capabilities for military, civil, and diplomatic efforts to obtain the release or recovery of captured, missing, or isolated United States personnel from uncertain or hostile environments and denied areas...
, which ran the U.S. military's SERE program to train U.S. personnel to resist harsh interrogation methods, issued a memo with an attachment written to the Pentagon's Office of General Counsel in July of 2002. The memo, which was passed on from the OGC to Rizzo, referred to the use of extreme duress on detainees as "torture" and warned that it would produce "unreliable information."
Rizzo sent a request to the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel
Office of Legal Counsel
The Office of Legal Counsel is an office in the United States Department of Justice that assists the Attorney General in his function as legal adviser to the President and all executive branch agencies.-History:...
for an opinion whether certain interrogation techniques would violate the prohibition against torture. The OLC issued a memo signed by Jay S. Bybee to Rizzo on August 1, 2002. It approved 10 techniques, including waterboarding.
Rizzo traveled with David Addington
David Addington
David Spears Addington , was legal counsel and chief of staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney, and is now vice president of domestic and economic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation....
, William Haynes
William Haynes
William Haynes may refer to:* William J. Haynes, II , American lawyer, General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense* William S. Haynes, American silversmith and flute maker* William E. Haynes , United States Representative for Ohio...
and Michael Chertoff
Michael Chertoff
Michael Chertoff was the second United States Secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush and co-author of the USA PATRIOT Act. He previously served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as a federal prosecutor, and as assistant U.S. Attorney...
to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in late September 2002. One week later, a CIA lawyer told personnel with the military intelligence interrogation team at Guantanamo that "if the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong."
After an internal review of the interrogation videotapes by CIA lawyers in 2005, Rizzo asked the OLC for new statements about the legality of the enhanced interrogation techniques. The Los Angeles Times reported that Rizzo was becoming "increasingly anxious in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks that agency employees were being pressured to use methods that might later place them in legal jeopardy." The OLC issued three memos signed by Steven G. Bradbury
Steven G. Bradbury
Steven G. Bradbury is an attorney at the Washington, D.C office of Dechert LLP.Bradbury was head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the United States Department of Justice during the George W. Bush administration. Appointed the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for OLC in April 2004, he...
in May 2005 that stated the techniques did not violate the Convention Against Torture.
The New York Times reported that in 2005, Rizzo traveled with other CIA officials, including Kyle Foggo
Kyle Foggo
Kyle Dustin "Dusty" Foggo , is a former American government intelligence officer convicted of honest services fraud in the awarding of a government contract and sentenced to 37 months in the federal prison at Pine Knot, Kentucky...
, to several black sites, assuring CIA employees that their activities were legal.
In late 2005, the CIA interrogation program was halted by CIA Director Porter Goss based on advice from Rizzo. After the Supreme Court's 2006 ruling 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...
, the Bush administration decided that the CIA black sites could not be maintained indefinitely. Rizzo told his colleagues that the program was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.
Videotapes of early interrogation sessions at Black Site
In early 2005, White House Counsel Harriet MiersHarriet Miers
Harriet Ellan Miers is an American lawyer and former White House Counsel. In 2005, she was nominated by President George W. Bush to be an Associate Justice of the U.S...
told Rizzo not to destroy the tapes without checking with the White House first. Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., the chief lawyer of the Directorate of Operations, sent a cable to the CIA's Bangkok station ordering the destruction of the tapes on November 8, 2005. Rodriguez informed Goss and Rizzo of the destruction on November 10.
Targeting of drone strikes
Rizzo signed off on all CIA directed droneUnmanned Combat Air Vehicle
An unmanned combat air vehicle or combat drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle that is designed to deliver weapons without an onboard pilot. Currently operational UCAVs are under real-time human control, but future version may enable autonomous operation, for example with pre-programmed route and...
strikes from the start of the program soon after September 11, 2001 until his retirement in October 2009. He claims to have seen one "request for approval for targeting for lethal operation" per month and that roughly 30 individuals were targeted at any given time.
In July 2011, the human rights group Reprieve and Pakistani lawyers called for the prosecution of Rizzo in Pakistan for murder for approving drone attacks that killed hundreds of people.
In November 2011, the National Journal cited unnamed sources in reporting that the Department of Justice had opened an investigation of Rizzo for improperly disclosing classified information about the CIA drone program.. The probe was first opened by Rizzo's former office, the General Counsel of the CIA, in March 2011 after a detailed interview Rizzo gave Newsweek. The General Counsel's office forwarded evidence it collected to the DOJ that spring.