John Anthony Rizzo (October 6, 1947 – August 6, 2021)[1] was an American attorney who worked as a lawyer in the Central Intelligence Agency for 34 years.

Wyden opposed Rizzo due to his involvement in approving the CIA's interrogation practices during the war on terror, which included torture.

[17] Sabrina De Sousa says Rizzo was one of the CIA officials that approved the extraordinary rendition of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, from Milan, Italy, to a prison in Egypt.

[20] The memo, which was passed on from the Pentagon to Rizzo, referred to the use of extreme duress on detainees as "torture" and warned that it would produce "unreliable information.

"[21] Due to concerns about potential exposure to criminal liability in connection with the mistreatment of detainees, Rizzo requested a letter from the Department of Justice stating they would "declin[e] to prosecute future activity that might violate federal law."

"[22][23] Rizzo sent a request to the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel for an opinion as to whether certain interrogation techniques would violate the prohibition against torture.

One week later, a CIA lawyer told personnel with the military intelligence interrogation team at Guantanamo that, "if the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Rizzo was becoming "increasingly anxious in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks that agency employees were being pressured to use methods that might later place them in legal jeopardy.

[9] The United States Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006) that the military commissions and Combatant Status Review Panels were unconstitutional because they were not authorized by Congress and also that they deprived detainees of due process and protections under other laws.

On January 21, 2009, one day before Obama was scheduled to sign Executive Order 13491 prohibiting the torture of detainees (so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques") and banning the use of CIA black sites, Rizzo contacted the White House counsel, Gregory Craig.

[38] Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., the chief of the Directorate of Operations, sent a cable to the CIA's Bangkok station ordering the destruction of the tapes on November 8, 2005.

[10] In July 2011, the human rights group Reprieve and Pakistani lawyers called for the prosecution of Rizzo in Pakistan for murder for approving drone attacks that killed hundreds of people.

[43] In November 2011, the National Journal cited unnamed sources in reporting that the Department of Justice had opened an investigation of Rizzo for improperly disclosing classified information about the CIA drone program.