Quote:The decision brings to a close a bitterly-debated chapter in the debate about how the Bush administration fought the war on terror in the wake of the Sept 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

After five years of heated internal wrangling, the justice department has rejected calls by its own ethics investigators for tougher measures against the two men.

They had recommended that the cases against John Yoo, now a law professor at the University of California, and Jay Bybee, now a federal appeals judge in Nevada, should be referred to state authorities for further action that could have included revoking their law licences.

Mr Yoo drew up the initial memo authorising extreme interrogation techniques in August 2002 in the febrile atmosphere shortly after the capture of Abu Zubaydah, a top al Qaeda operative. Mr Bybee then signed off on the advice for the White House.

The Office of Professional Responsibility concluded that the two former justice department lawyers ignored legal precedents and provided advice that could have been in violation of US and international statutes on torture.

However, the report also indicated that their advice was effectively preordained at a time of intense political pressure for a justification for brutal interrogation techniques.

A separate inquiry is still under way into whether some CIA operatives broke the law in their interrogations of detainees.

Quote:Mr Yoo drew up the initial memo authorising [violations of several international treaties and conventions and customary international law] in August 2002 in the febrile atmosphere shortly after the capture of Abu Zubaydah, a top al Qaeda operative. Mr Bybee then signed off on the advice for the White House.