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April 11, 2008 at 07:21:50
by Steve Fournier Page 1 of 1 page(s) |
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The National Lawyers' Guild has called for the disbarment of John Yoo, the former Justice Department attorney who authored the notorious "torture memorandum," used to justify the illegal imprisonment and maltreatment of prisoners held by American military authorities as "unlawful combatants." Yoo, currently on the law faculty of the University of California at Berkeley, is guilty of "complicity in establishing the policy that led to the torture of prisoners," said Guild President Marjorie Cohn, who condemns Yoo as a war criminal. The Guild, the nation's biggest public interest bar organization, is also demanding that the law school, known as Boalt Hall, fire Yoo, and that Congress repeal a law that purports to give him and other torturers immunity from prosecution. The document, which Yoo presumes to refer to as a memorandum of law, is an object lesson in legal bootstrapping. The most sweeping pronouncements–for example, that Constitutional due process of law does not apply to people held captive by the military–are supported by no authority whatsoever, and a substantial proportion of the citations in the 80 pages of text are to opinions from Yoo’s own Office of Legal Counsel and not to cases that ever came before the courts. When there are citations to actual cases, these are steeped in deception, with only a pretense of responsible legal reasoning. The overall presentation seems intended to obfuscate rather than illuminate. Yoo relies principally on a 1942 case that was unprecedented at the time (wartime, officially, pursuant to a congressional declaration) and that hasn’t ever been followed by the Supreme Court. He cites a work from 1612 for the proposition that people who don’t obey laws aren’t entitled to their protection, and he cites opinions from the Israeli Supreme Court laying out what is and isn’t cruel and unusual punishment. Among the most outrageous legal claims made by Yoo:
· The Justice Department has no authority to prosecute crimes committed in the course of military activities (citing Justice Department opinions)
· Congress has no authority to regulate the military, and criminal laws that explicitly cover government employees are to be interpreted to exclude the president and his military subordinates
· Torture during the interrogation of military “detainees” is exempt from criminal laws
· The President can suspend or terminate any treaty or provision of a treaty
Yoo employs the word “detain” (detention is temporary, by definition) when he means “imprison,” and this exemplifies his dishonest use of language throughout. Phrases without legal meaning, such as “unlawful combatant” and “Commander-in-chief power,” are used to justify vast areas of unlawful conduct. Coinages and neologisms have no place in legal writing, but they are a staple of this author.
Taken in sum, Yoo’s arguments, which are without legal merit, amount to a prescription for tyranny. Although the memo has since been “withdrawn,” it served as legal justification for uncounted acts of torture and kidnapping, atrocities for which Yoo is personally responsible.
Yoo includes a ten-page discourse on the definition of assault, concluding that torture in the course of interrogation doesn’t qualify. A third of the opinion is devoted to the Convention against Torture, which the US ratified and which Yoo sifts for loopholes. It turns out this treaty is all but unenforceable against the U. S. president. There’s no legal scholarship in the voluminous arguments meant to support Yoo’s finding on these points, just a lot of miscellaneous musings, almost as if the opinion were bulked up to compensate for the weakness of its logic.
Yoo must have been very confident that this memo would remain forever secret, because the arguments expose the author as an anti-lawyer and an enemy of the rule of law. Or maybe he’s just confident of his own immunity to accountability. He can be fairly certain that there will be no searching legal analysis of his arguments by any major news organization. His memo has already been critiqued and tossed aside by the people who tell us what to believe, as if the document itself were something less than a crime against humanity and an assault on the Constitution.
The House Judiciary Committee has invited Yoo to testify about the memo. Committee staffers are presumably taking the memo apart now piece-by-piece, and we can only hope that they take the miscreant to task for his grievous breach of professional responsibility. The committee might do well to hear from the Guild's lawyers on the Yoo memo.
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It's a start
What I would like to know is if indeed they disbar Yoo and find the memo to be as vapid as it appears does this then lead to further charges either from congress and/or any of international courts and could it be used as a catalyst to get to bush&co? by Mr M (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 66 diaries, 2845 comments [654 recommended, 27 rejected]) on Friday, Apr 11, 2008 at 7:49:09 AM  (0+)
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Reply: Immunity
An Act of Congress gave the torturers immunity from federal prosecution in 2006. One or more states might decide to prosecute for violations of state law, and foreign countries with laws against war crimes might hold American officials accountable, however. by Steve Fournier (32 articles, 17 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 43 comments) on Friday, Apr 11, 2008 at 7:55:34 AM (0+)
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Oh, Thank God
That disgusting pervert deserves all of that and even more by Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4101 comments [130 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Apr 11, 2008 at 7:51:16 AM (0+)
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Many die...
None get disbarred - especially Republicans. by John Hanks (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1760 comments [39 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Apr 11, 2008 at 8:19:40 AM (0+)
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I support such an effort
Laws should be based on morality, fairness, and protection of the common man against abuse by other parties. Yoo is perverting the very purpose of Law and is a disgrace to the profession. He is the type of lawyer that gives lawyers a bad reputation in the eyes of the common man. For a lawyer to twist the meaning of a law to support a particular position is the type of lawyer that is perverted. A good lawyer will stand up for the Law and explain to his client why what he is doing is illegal. I doubt anything will come of this effort; but it is encouraging to see some lawyers standing up for what Laws should be about. by Philip Pease (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 209 comments [10 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Apr 11, 2008 at 9:51:53 AM (0+)
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John Yoo Needs to do...
...us all a favor and commit suicide. This man's life as he has come to know it IS OVER. A street hoodlum shooting and killing this man would be an act of a kind and merciful God. I've heard this foole defending his arguments with dispassionate rhetoric, leaving me feeling absolutely empty and despairing for the human species. To all my post-modernist communications friends out there: language does NOT create reality, it serves it. Words are maps and the map is NOT the territory. Lazy people create realities with words. Enlightened people envision a reality worth living and then use words to describe and specify that reality, stimulating those aspects of the vision in others that are truthful and supported by the Truth that sustains us all. The Truth that sustains us all is the only thing that ties all of us together. It can not be defined, only known, as truth knows only itself for nothing less is real in existence. by Richard Volaar (39 articles, 0 quicklinks, 150 diaries, 477 comments [63 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Apr 11, 2008 at 11:33:39 AM (0+)
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Reply: we want to take this prisoner alive
to get further evidence against the purpetrators of crimes against humanity we must interrogate yoo. perhaps he can cite what kinds of procedures to be used against himself. perhaps he will then readily admit to the head of this cabal to destroy our civilization that was set within the bounds of the constitution. we are ready to listen. we are near the promised land and if yoo doesn't get there that will be all right. the eye should be on the prize. the big fish is the one we want to fry (that is figuratively). wolfie hears a yoo by Wolfie (9 articles, 0 quicklinks, 33 diaries, 1208 comments) on Friday, Apr 11, 2008 at 12:50:37 PM (0+)
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There is something profoundly disquieting
about a system which permits a man like Mr Yoo to author legal «memoranda» designed to promote and justify torture while serving (whom ?) in the US Justice (?) Department and then retire to a position of Professor at a prestigious law school. Disbarment would be a fitting sanction, in the absence of a trial for war crimes (at a distance, of course, as befits a lawyer) before an international tribunal.... Henri by mhenriday (0 articles, 17 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 157 comments) on Friday, Apr 11, 2008 at 12:46:10 PM (0+)
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Yoo
Right now Berkley is allowing this man to teach impressionable future lawyers that the law has no meaning or value. I think the school should be sued for malpractice. by Archie (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1750 comments [110 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Apr 11, 2008 at 2:58:11 PM (0+)
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How is UC Berkeley Allows this Stigma
Does UC Berkeley, so-called font of Enlightenment, not realize that having this sophist, who sins against God and man, on its staff drags the University into the gutter? How many thousands may have been tortured now by the American military, the CIA and private contractors after this Fascist paved the way "legally"? How many are yet to be tortured? If he is espousing this on campus, would that not make UC a facilitator of torture? What is the UC student body doing about all this? After having fought for civil rights for decades, are they just shrugging off far deeper violations against human dignity, the right not to be tortured at the whim of a government? What good will it have been to fight for equality if in turn the government swamps the planet, even America, with Star Chambers and Torture Chambers? UC Berkeley, if it chooses wrong here, will have rejected our own Founding Fathers for the methodology of tyrants. by Mac McKinney (53 articles, 113 quicklinks, 240 diaries, 1413 comments [31 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Apr 11, 2008 at 3:28:14 PM (0+)
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disbar
the piece of sh*t. UC Berkeley has aligned itself with him by hiring him- there's plenty of rocks for that scum to work under, by giving him a job teaching the nation's future leaders they are endorsing torture by Better World Order (4 articles, 568 quicklinks, 39 diaries, 1110 comments [56 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Friday, Apr 11, 2008 at 7:36:24 PM (0+)
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I have already posted an article to OpEd News ..
and it has not been accepted. MORE MORE MORE than just firing Yoo needs to be accomplished. TORTUREGATE has more than "smoking guns now" and really, we must all pay attention. I posted this article previously on OpEd News: http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_ladybroa_080215_special_prosecutor_i.htm And truly, if people are NOT going to take the information offered by the esteemed human rights professor, Jordan J. Paust, who are they going to take it from!! Please download and read the pdf. We have plenty of letters to write, faxes to send, phone calls to make and we need to be busier than EVER. I get very very worn out, but I NEVER GIVE UP. Why? Because the wives, mothers and children of detainees are waiting on US to insist that justice be done. That includes places like Ceylon and Gaza, too and Pakistan, too. In the name of all the detainees and their families, I ask you please, take the time to do the right thing! Yoo leaving the U of C, is hardly enough! by ladybroadoak (39 articles, 20 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 394 comments) on Saturday, Apr 12, 2008 at 3:53:16 AM (0+)
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Best news
This is the best news I've heard for a long time. This use of torture has done us grievous harm around the world and to ourselves. My question is what are the attorneys seeking to disbar this creep planning for the future of this Yoo? I rcommend that they use a heavy hand on Yoo heavy enough to make international news. They must use the incident to move into a fast reverse meanwhile doing our best to make amends. by emily horswill (6 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 79 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Apr 12, 2008 at 4:41:19 PM (0+)
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Reply: Yoo
Perhaps a visit to the Hague would suffice by Archie (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1750 comments [110 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Apr 14, 2008 at 11:32:26 PM (0+)
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