He informed the PBS program “Frontline” in 2011: “To me, the extra intriguing query — and, I feel, unknowable query — is, Might the identical info have been elicited with out using these terribly controversial methods? And, as I say, I feel that’s in the end unknowable.” (He did at one level acknowledge a former F.B.I. interrogator’s conclusion that the methods had no impact on their topics.)
Mr. Rizzo by no means ducked accountability; he as soon as mentioned he was “the authorized architect of the proposed record of methods and performed the lead function in acquiring authorized approval for his or her use.”
However the backlash value him a promotion. For seven years he had held the titles of deputy counsel after which appearing normal counsel. However when President George W. Bush sought to raise him to normal counsel, congressional opposition compelled him to withdraw the nomination. Mr. Rizzo continued to function appearing counsel till he retired in 2009.
To guard company staff, Mr. Rizzo sought annual reassurance from the lawyer normal that the interrogation methods “didn’t ‘shock the conscience’ or violate worldwide treaty obligations or violate U.S. home legislation,” Invoice Harlow, a former spokesman for the company, mentioned by electronic mail.
“When the lawyer normal declined to take action within the spring of 2004,” he added, “the company promptly suspended this system.”
Hina Shamsi, director of the Nationwide Safety Venture of the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposed Mr. Rizzo’s nomination and likewise sued psychologists who had formed the interrogation program, mentioned in an electronic mail, “As an alternative of adhering to legislation and ethics, his actions shamefully subverted them in an effort to offer authorized cowl for the Company’s unlawful and immoral actions.”
Common Michael V. Hayden, a former C.I.A. director, wrote on The Cipher Transient this week that “many an operations officer would let you know that John walked them again from a few of their extra inventive approaches to intelligence challenges, however there have been many extra who proceeded with the boldness that John, and extra importantly the legislation, had their again.”