July 1, 2008

The Yoo-Sands Controversy

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Yesterday, I reported on former deputy Attorney General (and torture memoranda author) John Yoo’s none-too-subtle attempt to discredit critic and author Philippe Sands by suggesting he’d lied to a House subcommittee. As an attempt to clear the air, Sands has written a letter to John Yoo, which he’s also submitted for the congressional record, and I’ve obtained a copy. The text appears below.

Over hundreds of hours I conversed or debated with many of those most deeply involved in that memo’s life. They included, for example, the combatant commander and his lawyer at Guantanamo, Major General Dunlavey and Lieutenant Colonel Beaver, the commander of United States Southern Command in Miami, General Hill, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Myers, the undersecretary of Defense, Mr. Feith, the general counsel of the Navy, Mr. Moorer, and the deputy assistant attorney general at DOJ, Mr. Yoo.

I believe that is an accurate statement. It does not indicate that I interviewed you for the book, and there is no other point in my testimony in which I so indicated. For the avoidance of doubt, in my book Torture Team (which I appreciate you have not read), I refer to our debate in conversation at pages 184-5.

I hope you will forgive me for having troubled you with this point. I would not have done so but for the fact that Representative King appears to have concluded that I made “a false statement” to the Committee , and your exchange with him has caused me to receive a number of enquiries by email, raising issues of integrity or veracity.

I am perfectly happy to proceed on the basis that any statement you made (and any error it might have contained) was in good faith, and would be grateful if you could perhaps so communicate to Representative King and the Chairmen of the Committee and the Sub-Committee, and thereby clear up the misperception.

With best wishes,

Philippe Sands

cc. Representative John Conyers, Chairman, Judiciary Committee
Representative Jerrold Nadler, Chairman, Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Sub-Committee
Representative Steve King, Member, Chairman, Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Sub-Committee

—Brian Beutler is the Washington correspondent for the Media Consortium, a network of progressive media organizations, including Mother Jones.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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