Addington has been a key player behind widely criticized U.S. policies that have led to torture and other abuse of detainees held in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch.

He reportedly helped draft an opinion by then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales stating that the Geneva Convention didn’t apply to some detainees in the war on terrorism.

“This was somebody who worked very hard to make sure the advice of senior military officials and national security professionals on the question of interrogation policies was ignored,” Malinowski said. “The result was an unmitigated disaster for the United States.” ~Knight-Ridder