LINK ROUND-UP: “The Struggle Over the Torture Memos”: “At its annual meeting in Atlanta last week, the American Bar Association called for a bipartisan investigation into the Bush administration’s internal deliberations about interrogation and detention that may have led to the torture of prisoners in Iraq.

“At the same time, 180 prominent lawyers, judges and law professors signed a statement calling for the administration to release any remaining confidential memos relating to the treatment of prisoners and detainees. …

“But Walter Dellinger, who headed the office during the Clinton years, notes that in every administration, about 20 percent of its memos have usually remained unpublished. Of these, a small percentage include classified information and the rest involve requests for legal advice when the executive branch never took the action in question and would prefer the advice not be disclosed.

“‘One reason for not releasing the unpublished memos is that an administration may sometimes come up with a truly stupid idea, and a strongly worded legal memorandum can dissuade them from taking the proposed action,’ Mr. Dellinger said. ‘If you know the memos will be made public and could be used against the United States in court, the executive may be reluctant to ask for candid advice on matters of questionable legality, and lawyers may be reluctant to give it.'”

whole thing

Ramesh Ponnuru has an inspiring little piece on embryo-destructive stem cell research, here: “…The meeting with Souder did not go exactly as planned. They didn’t persuade Souder to support the funding. Instead, he persuaded them to oppose it.”

The Old Oligarch reminds me that I’m speaking at JournalCon DC. I’m on the Saturday 10 AM panel, “Getting It in Writing: Personal and Professional Writing.”