John Yoo of the "torture creative class" is not a happy camper right now.

[madfloridian]

Back in 2009 Katha Pollitt wrote an article at The Nation about how those who were the architects of the torture program were faring quite well for themselves. John Yoo was one of them.

Those of the "torture creative class" and how they got rewarded.

Yoo is only one of those who are mentioned, and of course there were Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, and Feith.

What I mean is, I should have been a member of the torture creative class--a conceptual torturer, a facilitator of torture, perhaps an inventor of torture law, an architect of the torture archipelago, a dissimulator, concealer, denier, rationalizer, minimizer and pooh-pooher of torture. As a word person, I could have come up with circumlocutions to confuse the media, bureaucratic phrases like "special methods of questioning" and "enhanced interrogation techniques." According to New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt, just figuring out whether to call a given action "harsh" or "brutal" has kept editors busy for years! Or I could have written copy for the CIA. For example, I could have suggested they call putting people in coffinlike boxes full of insects "studio picnics," because studio apartments are small and picnics have bugs, and I could have nicknamed waterboarding "drinking tea with Vice President Cheney," although come to think of it, waterboarding is a euphemism already. Maybe that's why people didn't catch on that it was the same thing we prosecuted Japanese interrogators for doing in World War II. In the Tokyo trials it was called "the water treatment," or "the water cure," or just plain "water torture." Calling it "water torture" was probably what got those Japanese into trouble. That, and losing the war.

Why should I have joined the torture creative class? Because now I would be having a great life.

She mentions Yoo.

John Yoo. In 2002, while working for the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), Yoo wrote a crucial memo saying that terror suspects weren't covered by US commitments to treaties and agreements banning torture. Now Yoo is a tenured professor of law at Berkeley. Eat your heart out, Ward Churchill! And he isn't hiding away in his office, either. This semester Yoo's a visiting prof at Chapman University School of Law, where he spoke at a public forum and defended torture as necessary to protect the country. "Was it worth it?" he asked, according to the Los Angeles Times. For John Yoo, definitely.

This year UC Berkeley students, alumni and a group of lawyers are protesting John Yoo's faculty chair endowment.

UC Berkeley students, alumni and a group of lawyers in the Bay Area initiated an online petition last week to rescind UC Berkeley School of Law professor John Yoo’s recent faculty chair endowment.

Spearheaded by the Bay Area chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, the petition was launched after Yoo was announced as a newly endowed faculty chair along with four other law professors in June. Yoo has been in the spotlight of controversy ever since he co-authored a series of memorandums, dubbed the “Torture Memos,” during the administration of former president George W. Bush.

Wikipedia has some of the Torture Memos.

This week John Yoo published an op ed in the New York Daily News about his opinion of the torture revelations.

A torture report for the dustbin

The release of a Senate report on Bush-era interrogation policies could have prompted an informed, responsible debate over intelligence and the war on terror. But not the report that saw the light of day Tuesday.

Because of fundamental mistakes made at its very birth, Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s accounting offers a dispiriting, partisan attack on American intelligence agencies at a time when we need them more than ever.

Bizarrely, Feinstein and her staffers refused even to interview the very CIA officials who ordered and carried out the program in question. Because Republicans saw where the train was headed, they refused to participate in the review.

The slanted approach to the investigation sadly colored its conclusions — which are questionable, to put it charitably.

Muckety has a flow chart.

A former editor of the Yale Law Journal and clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, he is beloved by many on the right and mocked by many on the left.

He wrote the torture memos as a deputy assistant attorney general in the George W. Bush administration.

He has responded to the Senate report in a Time magazine post, saying that a president responding to terrorist attacks “must obtain intelligence as soon as possible to stop the next attack. Under these emergency conditions, a chief executive would reasonably give the green light to limited, but aggressive interrogation methods that did not cause any long-term or permanent injury. You might even approve waterboarding in the time of emergency.”

The Senate report found that torture was ineffective in unearthing information that could prevent future attacks, a finding disputed by former Vice President Dick Cheney and others in the Bush administration.

The interactive Muckety map above shows Yoo’s current and former connections.

In 2011 The Guardian UK summed up the problems this torture culture has caused for our country.

The reason why torture is universally prohibited in international and domestic law the world over, however, is not because it is ineffective or counterproductive (though it is). Torture has been universally prohibited because in the aftermath of the second world war, the nations of the world agreed, under the leadership of the United States, that respect for basic human dignity required the absolute prohibition of torture under any circumstance.

The acts of torture that John Yoo and other Bush administration officials so proudly defend are nothing less than war crimes that, in the absence of accountability, continue to undermine the United States' claim to respect the rule of law.

[PoliticAverse]

1. It's not like he has to worry about the administration prosecuting him. n/t

[madfloridian]

2. That is for sure.

[sabrina 1]

4. No, but who knows, many of the Latin American dictators and their

torturers got away with it too for a long time. 50 years or so in many cases. But when some of these countries managed to get out from under those dictatorships and had time to establish themselves as free countries, they began to prosecute them and are still doing so.

I'm sure Cheney, Yoo and the whole gang of criminals are watching what is happening to their old buddies in Latin America, and now this report which establishes them in history at least, as law breakers, are not resting as easy as they thought they could.

I would like to sign the petition to remove this despicable character from his job at Berekley.

Our top Colleges and Universities seem to be filled with these questionable characters.

[Iliyah]

47. They can not openly travel outside of the United States of America

and have not. Quietly and secretively yes. Cheney went to UK for the Iron Lady's funeral, in and out. . .

Its a matter of time. Over 300 thousand and more killed, for that effing OIL.

[sabrina 1]

51. Yes, that is true. And I do believe it is a matter of time. The fatal lies

they told that got so many human beings killed, they should not be walking free anywhere.

Maybe this report was a first step.

I get the feeling that many people in government have been simmering with anger over what they did but could not speak out.

One who does, and doesn't hold anything back, is Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff, Col. Wilkerson. He makes no secret of his hatred for Cheney nor does he pull any punches when he calls him a liar AND a War Criminal.

I have a feeling more will be joining him now.

[madfloridian]

56. I have admiration for Col Wilkerson.

He has spoken out before many others got the guts to do so.

[tecelote]

26. Maybe the next Warren Administration will prosecute.

[adirondacker]

3. Kick and Highly Rec!

Thanks Mad!

[Octafish]

5. John Yoo said it's OK to crush a child's testicles, if the president says so.

The guy passes himself off as a moderate these days.

[MisterP]

8. hey! you criminalize policy differences, and next thing you know the GOP will start being MEAN!

[Scuba]

13. Hey, he's a "patriot" who was under "pressure".

[rhett o rick]

40. John Yoo would have loved Nazi Germany. However, they probably wouldn't

have like him. Funny that.

[whathehell]

43. OMG he didn't really say that, did he?

[Octafish]

46. Yoo so stated for the record.

Cassel: If the president deems that he's got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person's child, there is no law that can stop him?

Yoo: No treaty...

Cassel: Also no law by Congress -- that is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo...

Yoo: I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that.

SOURCE: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/29/971038/-Yoo-President-can-order-child-s-testicles-crushed-not-contractor-transparency#

[sabrina 1]

52. Wow! That man is a monster!

I guess he never heard of the Geneva Conventions, I believe it is Common Law 3 that deals with torture.

And to think he is actually influencing the minds of young people in this country.

[AtomicKitten]

6. IIRC Obama persuaded Spain not to prosecute the architects of torture.

From The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/06/george-bush-torture

[madfloridian]

17. Thanks for link. Did not realize that.

[hifiguy]

21. Whatta guy!

I did not vote for this, and I can't imagine anyone here who did. Yet some still make excuses.

[cui bono]

48. And he called the torturers "patriots".

[Jack Rabbit]

7. Save it for the [president of the tribunal, professor

If you think the Senate report is partisan, then we'll to it that you and your pals are tried by an international tribunal so that there won't be any Democrats hearing your case.

[madfloridian]

9. Video John Yoo CNN...says they were acting outside orders. Baloney I say.

From Dec. 11

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2014/12/11/ex-doj-official-senate-report-examples-very-troubling-if-true/

He really doesn't believe the reports. Well, if I were a torture program architect I wouldn't want to believe them either.

Well, those are very troubling examples. They would not have been approved by the Justice Department – they weren't approved by the Justice Department at the time. But I have to question whether they’re true because I can’t take at face value the committee’s report because there were no Republicans involved.

You know, investigations in the intelligence committee are traditionally bipartisan and the worst thing, from a lawyer’s perspective, from my perspective, is the committee didn’t interview any witnesses. And so, you have these reports, but they never gave a chance to the very participants, the people being accused, to explain themselves. And so I would want to know more about what happened in any of these cases and to see what really happened.

But I agree with you if there were people who had to undergo what you just described, none of those were approved by the Justice Department, I don’t believe they were approved by headquarters at CIA, too.

Instead, what you had, I think, was a lot of chaos and miscommunication going on in the very first months after 9/11 when both people in the White House, the executive branch and Congress were demanding that the CIA become aggressive and get started on going after al Qaeda.

[Hekate]

10. Tonight one of the guests on MSNBC referred to Yoo as a "political hack," which ....

...I thought was apropos. Hack, whore, murderer by proxy.

I'm sure he sleeps soundly, though. His kind always do.

[madfloridian]

11. He must really have a cruel streak.

Anyone who would create a system of torture must have cruelty within them.

[heaven05]

38. We all have meaness within us

it's just that MOST people have a conscience and empathy/compassion that counterbalances the mean. People like Yoo have no conscience, empathy or compassion for others. Sociopaths/psychopaths can muster none of those qualities and he is an instructor at Berkeley!!! What's he teach, how to be an architect of torture in ten easy steps.....

[whathehell]

44. Yes, what is his background?...Was there some recognizable path to his fascism?

Always curious about that sort of thing.

[napkinz]

12. ...

[madfloridian]

23. That is just sickening.

Thanks for the link.

[Gothmog]

14. Yoo should be disbarred

[rhett o rick]

41. Oops. I thought you said "disballed". Shame on me. nm

[Gothmog]

55. Yoo is a disgrace to the Bar

Yoo is a bad lawyer and it is a stain on the legal profession for this man to be a member of the bar

[hootinholler]

15. Fuck Yoo

With a feeding tube.

[liberal_at_heart]

16. K&R

[madfloridian]

18. Here is more about the groups calling for his firing from Berkeley.

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2014-12-11/article/42848?headline=Organizations-Call-for-Firing-Berkeley-Law-Professor-John-Yoo-Author-of-DOJ-torture-memo--From-Cynthia-Papermast

What: Call for DOJ Prosecution of Professor John Yoo for Torture; Press Conference and Actions

Where: UC Law School, Bancroft @ College Ave., Berkeley. Event will be in front of Law School; in case of rain it will be inside the school

When: 12 Noon, Friday, December 12, 2014

Press conference to call for the prosecution of John Yoo for torture and other violations of U.S. and international law and for UC Berkeley to rescind the endowed chair recently given to Yoo.

12 Noon Alumni of UC and groups opposed to Yoo will speak.
(Note: a partial list of endorsing groups follows; other invited groups will speak and endorse.)

12:30 pm Actions at UC Law School immediately following press conference, including:

Mock waterboarding and forced feeding of volunteers in orange jumpsuits.
Codepink will attempt to pink slip (fire) and citizen's arrest Professor Yoo for complicity in torture.
Delivery of over 100 signatures of UC alumni and current students and members of the Berkeley community to Law School Dean Choudry and to Chancellor Dirks calling for Yoo to be investigated by UC and prosecuted by Eric Holder and the Department of Justice.
Alumni of UC who no longer donate to UC because of Yoo will speak at the press conference
"Broadside Balladeer" Vic Sadot leading sing-along of "Tell John Yoo That Torture is a Crime"

[msanthrope]

19. They should go after the foreign programs....particularly those in countries

that are signatories to the International Convention on Torture.

[hifiguy]

20. Yoo should never see anything but the walls of a cell.

in solitary for the rest of his days. That he is on any law school faculty anywhere is disgusting beyond words.

Why does it not surprise me that he clerked for Uncle Ruckus?

[OregonBlue]

22. I recommend that none of them leave the country. I suspect the international criminal court may not

see things quite the same way as Yoo and his cronies. After all, we prosecuted and executed Japanese soldiers for these very same thing.

[jwirr]

24. What is wrong with Berkley? I think they need another revolution.

[madfloridian]

25. Yoo claims the torture produced good results. Attacks Feinstein.

http://time.com/3626957/yoo-senate-torture-report-feinstein/

Any President who followed Feinstein’s advice would fail in his or her fundamental duty to protect the security of the United States

Suppose you are a President who has just witnessed 3,000 American deaths in a terrorist attack by a shadowy enemy. Intelligence strongly indicates that follow-on attacks will come. You have little information on future attacks, but you know that the enemy will employ unconventional tactics that violate the very laws of war. The enemy disguises its operatives as civilians, it attacks civilians and peaceful targets by surprise, and is willing to use any weapons, including chemical and biological. Then, just a few months after the attacks, an amazing stroke of good fortune falls into your lap: The U.S. captures the first high-ranking leader of the enemy.
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What would you do? According to Senator Dianne Feinstein’s report on Bush-era interrogation policies, released today, you should allow only police station-style questioning. Designed to build a rapport between the interrogator and the detainee, these methods can take weeks, if not months, if they work at all. If al Qaeda leaders refuse to cooperate, the CIA and FBI will have to wait. You cannot treat them differently, the Feinstein report implies; you must give them the same benefits that our Constitution reserves for American citizens suspected of garden variety, domestic crimes. If another attack occurs, perhaps worse than the first, the President must still wait for the al Qaeda leaders to cooperate willingly.

Any President who followed Feinstein’s advice would fail in his or her fundamental duty to protect the security of the United States. A President charged with this responsibility cannot wait weeks, months, or never; he must obtain intelligence as soon as possible to stop the next attack. Under these emergency conditions, a chief executive would reasonably give the green light to limited, but aggressive interrogation methods that did not cause any long-term or permanent injury. You might even approve waterboarding in the time of emergency (remember, again, that this is three months after the attacks) if limited only to enemy leaders thought to have information about pending attacks.

As a member of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel at the time of the 9/11 attacks, I thought that the CIA’s proposed interrogation methods were within the bounds of the law—just barely. They did not inflict serious, long-term pain or suffering, as prohibited by the federal statute banning torture. We realized then that waterboarding came closest to the line. But the fact that the U.S. military has used it to train thousands of U.S. airmen, officers, and soldiers without harm indicated that it didn’t constitute torture. Limiting tough interrogation methods only to al Qaeda leaders thought to have actionable information, during a time when the nation was under attack, further underscored the measured, narrow nature of President Bush’s decision.

The Feinstein report cannot deny that most Americans agree President Bush acted reasonably under these emergency conditions. Indeed, if the American people concluded that Bush had made a grave mistake, it could have turned him out of office in the 2004 elections (which took place after the stories about tough interrogations first leaked).

He thinks waterboarding came closest to crossing the line. Is he claiming not to know about everything else?

The man is all over defending the indefensible.

[WillyT]

27. K & R !!!

[madfloridian]

28. Big thank you, WillyT

[BillZBubb]

29. Sad that Berkeley keeps this war criminal. Stanford keeps Condoliar too.

[madfloridian]

32. They are of the power class that is never held accountable.

[Starry Messenger]

30. k&r

[True Blue Door]

31. What would it take to get him deported?

As a naturalized citizen, there are all sorts of mechanisms available.

[sabrina 1]

53. If he is convicted of a felony, that might do it!

[True Blue Door]

54. There's got to be an easier way.

[olddots]

33. this guy should not be allowed to slip thru the cracks

Dicky and him should share a very small cell for a very long time .

[madfloridian]

34. ....

But they won't.

[SwankyXomb]

49. Or a short time

until they are hanged like the war criminals they are.

[jtuck004]

35. Another traitor. n/t

[Divernan]

36. Hey law students! Boycott the fucker's classes!

[locks]

37. And he was rewarded with

an interview on FOXNews tonite so he could tell us how much fun war crimes can be.

[SomethingFishy]

39. Yeah sure, the report was partisan, irresponsible, shameless, blah blah blah..

I've heard em' all. The only one I haven't heard was "The report is wrong". Except from Dick "They will greet us as liberators, the insurgency is in it's last throes, and the war will pay for itself" Cheney, who hasn't gotten anything right in the last 50 years.

[rhett o rick]

42. John Yoo is a war criminal.

From
http://warisacrime.org/warcriminals

[Thespian2]

45. Thank you.

We must never stop our efforts until people like Yoo are in their rightful place...jail.

[xocet]

50. K & R!

Bush et al need to be prosecuted for their war crimes: unfortunately, Josh Earnest was going on and on today during the White House press briefing about how the USA's moral authority has been/is being rebuilt.

(The video is not yet posted, but it will probably eventually show up here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings . )