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don't let Boeing get away with torture

By
Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait
on September 8, 2010 2:28 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Obama wins the right to invoke "State Secrets" to protect Bush crimes
"This is a sad day not only for the torture victims whose attempt to seek justice has been extinguished, but for all Americans who care about the rule of law and our nation's reputation in the world. To date, not a single victim of the Bush administration's torture program has had his day in court. If today's decision is allowed to stand, the United States will have closed its courtroom doors to torture victims while providing complete immunity to their torturers. The torture architects and their enablers may have escaped the judgment of this court, but they will not escape the judgment of history." -- Ben Wizner, staff attorney with the ACLU, responding to dismissal of Jeppesen case in Ninth Circuit Court today

Protest at Jeppesen -- Hold the Torturers Accountable!
Thursday, September 9 at 5:00 PM
in front of Jeppesen office, 225 W. Santa Clara St, San Jose

On Wednesday, September 8, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the lawsuit that charged Jeppesen Dataplan (a Boeing subsidiary) with complicity in the CIA torture flights. The Obama Justice Dept. had asked the court to throw out the lawsuit because it might reveal "state secrets."  What secrets? Bush administration officials have admitted that torture, including waterboarding (almost drowning) was used often, against detainees in various hidden prisons around the world. There should be no secrecy but rather full disclosure of all the facts around the torture flights. All participants--government agencies, corporations like Jeppesen, and individuals who planned and carried out the torture--must be held accountable. 

Torturers return to work

By
Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait
on September 7, 2010 4:36 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
While Academia has been eager to advance the positions of architects of the state torture program institutionalized under the Bush Regime, lesser actors realize their own fortunes through contract work for the CIA. Adam Goldman follows the exploits of officer "Albert", infamous for threatening a prisoner with an electric drill to the head.

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This Thursday, anti-torture activists will confront Boalt Hall's own scandal, the continuing attacks on the Supreme Court by a most un-constitutional duo:

Jesse Choper and John Yoo
September 9
Boalt Hall
Room 110
12:30 pm

Bring your Cal-Berkeley IDs along with your orange attire (additional jumpsuits will be provided).

Yoo Watch ALERT: UC ramps up suppression of public comment

By
Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait
on September 7, 2010 11:31 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
"MUST BRING VALID CAL-BERKELEY ID TO BE ADMITTED"
(note adoption of 'FAIR SPEECH' doublespeak in Daily Cal editorial today)
 




MEGA EVENT: CHOPER & YOO on the Supreme Court: Round Up and Preview
Location:Room 110
 
Thursday, September 09, 2010
12:45 PM - 1:45 PM
Calendar:
Berkeley Law Events
Department:Law

WOW!

Prof. Jesse Choper and Prof. John Yoo will provide a "round up" of the recent U.S. Supreme Court term and preview what's up next.

Find out the latest in environmental, national security, international, orientation, technology, and criminal procedure law.

Professors will also speak of Justice's Kagan's potential influence on the Court. 

THIS IS A MUST SEE (ONLY @ BERKELEY LAW) MEGA EVENT

A sampling of some of the hot cases to be discussed:

•Schwarzenegger v. Video Software Dealers Association-- This case tests a California law that prohibits the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. In April in a related matter, the court rejected arguments by Kagan's office to bar the sale of images of animal cruelty, such as dogfighting.

•Snyder v. Phelps-- This case tests the speech rights of Kansas preacher Fred Phelps, who uses the venue of military funerals to publicize his protests against homosexuality. Phelps and his associates carried signs bearing anti-gay slurs outside services in Westminster, Md., for a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq. The Marine's father sued Phelps for infliction of emotional distress and won a $5 million verdict; an appeals court reversed the decision on free-speech grounds.

•Connick v. Thompson-- This tests the liability of a prosecutor who failed to reveal exculpatory evidence, including blood from a murder scene, in a case that led to the freeing of a Louisiana death row inmate.

the mystery of the missing Yoo emails remains

By
Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait
on September 7, 2010 10:07 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

-- John Yoo | © The Orange County Register/ZUMA Press.

Though the OPR [Office of Professional Responsibility] noted that the supposedly destroyed records included "relevant documents" to its investigation, nothing of the sort was included in the files Justice handed to CREW [Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington]. These emails are remarkable if only because they are so mundane--and because virtually none of them have anything to do with Yoo's official Justice Department work. If the messages are at all representative of Yoo's stint there, they suggest that the bulk of his time was devoted to arranging speaking engagements, authoring journal articles, and, as CREW put it in a release, "expanding his credentials" for his return to academia...

see Yoo's Got Mail?

don't be a member of the "torture creative class--

By
Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait
on September 7, 2010 10:05 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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...

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take part in BERKELEY SAYS NO TO TORTURE week, Oct 10 thru 16

What can YOU do to add your strength to "Berkeley Says No to Torture" Week?

  • Organize a teach-in, debate, lunchtime speak-out . . .
  • Arrange a poetry event, film showing, orange jumpsuit "No More Guantanamos" vigil . . .
  • Spark debate over "NO TO TORTURE" on Facebook and other conversations . . .
  • Spread the wearing of orange ribbons against torture (raise $$ for anti-torture organizations) . . .
  • Ask anti-war military veterans to volunteer for the week's Speakers Bureau . . .
  • Organize a congregation to hold a service, a vigil, or a public banner display . . .
  • Write op-eds for local and campus news media . . .
  • Recruit artists to hang a show on the week's theme . . .
  • Organize spoken-word artists for "Poetry Against Torture" events . . .
  • Make a giant freeway banner,  and let thousands see your message . . .
  • Ask your local politicians to support Berkeley City Council on Sept. 21 when it can vote to sanction this week of action, and ask them when they'll do the same in your city . . .
 And if you don't live, work, or study in Berkeley - you can still take part in any or all of these activities, and also you can spread them to your own community.

DONATE to the campaign! Make checks payable to: "World Can't Wait SF" Mail to: 2940 16th Street, Room 200-6, San Francisco, CA 94103 and write "Berkeley Says NO" on subject line of your check so it goes to the right place.

Bybee too

By
Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait
on September 4, 2010 12:18 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
while [Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge] Bybee concludes that simulated drowning of prisoners was perfectly lawful (a position repudiated even by the Bush Justice Department before it left), he concludes that leaving a bottle of water for a person stranded in a desert so as to forestall death is a crime. -- Scott Horton

no-more-deaths-water-080510.jpg

Associated Press
In this Aug. 5, 2010, photo, NoMoreDeaths volunteer Katie Maloney checks water jugs at the group's camp before heading out to supply water stations for illegal immigrants near Arivaca, Ariz., about 13 miles north of Mexico. At 59 deaths, July 2010 was the second-deadliest month for border-crossers in Arizona - second only to July 2005, when 68 bodies were found.

Yoo Watch:

By
Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait
on September 2, 2010 3:18 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Hillsdale, Michigan
"Civil Liberties and Islamic Terrorism: A Debate"
  • Friday, September 17 2010
  • 10:45 a.m. ET ⁄ 7:45 a.m. PT 
  • The debate, which will consist of opening statements, responses, and questions from the moderator and audience, will engage the statement, "Resolved, the Patriot Act has strengthened and continues to strengthen the security and liberty of the American people."
      
    Moderator:Will Morrisey, Hillsdale College
      
    Debaters:Bob Barr, Former U.S. Congressman
     John Yoo, University of California, Berkeley
  • Thanks for the heads-up Reverend Manny!
Beverly Hills/Hollywood

September 22, 2010, 6:30pm

Open to Members* and Guests of Members only.  Invite is non transferrable.  Must RSVP to kelsie@gen-next.org to attend. Adding program to calendar does not constitute RSVP.

Where: TBD - Beverly Hills/Hollywood
RSVP: Kelsie

John Yoo, Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice & Professor of Law at Berkeley

* Membership - Dynamic, exceptional and successful individuals unified by a positive and ambitious plan for the future. Membership is by invitation-only and requires an annual contribution of $10,000.

JOHN YOO EMAILS "FOUND"

By
Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait
on September 2, 2010 1:29 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

c/o Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW):

31 Aug 2010 // Yesterday, as part of a lawsuit CREW brought against the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the missing John Yoo emails, DOJ produced 927 pages of emails located in Mr. Yoo's mailbox. While this production suggests DOJ finally may have located what it told the Office of Professional Responsibility several years ago was missing, it sheds no light on Mr. Yoo's role in drafting the torture memos or, indeed, on anything Mr. Yoo may have done while at DOJ. Instead, the vast majority of these 927 pages consists of email traffic regarding Mr. Yoo's frequent stints as a lecturer and the various and sundry articles he published while employed by DOJ. It seems that Mr. Yoo, while on the federal payroll, was busy expanding his credentials for the next job on which he had set his sights - a return to academia...

Click here to read the letter to CREW's Chief Counsel Anne Weismann from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Click here to read the emails from John Yoo.

Torture "Law" examined

By
Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait
on September 1, 2010 7:34 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
[The] Obama administration doesn't want to put a stop to the [Omar Khadr] case, such as by pushing a plea bargain, because it would be seen as "improper interference." But if the case is itself "improper" or even illegal, then the choice is to stop it now or see a conviction reversed later by a court on appeal. The latter choice might save the administration some immediate embarrassment before the midterm elections; but it will leave Omar Khadr cooped up even longer in a military prison on fictitious crimes. -- Daphne Eviatar 

Students speak out against Torture: Tam Ma

By
Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait
on September 1, 2010 1:16 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Feb 24, 2010 at  SacBee -- Letters to the Editor 

 
A UC Berkeley law student says professor John Yoo, left, should receive a failing grade for his actions, despite being "cleared" in a government report.

UC should rethink 'cleared' Yoo

Re "Justice ruling clears Bush lawyers" (Page A6, Feb. 20): The headline buries the relevant facts of the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility report. Far from "clearing" John Yoo, the report concludes that he committed "intentional professional misconduct."

As a law student at the University of California, Berkeley, where John Yoo is a tenured professor, I am taught to thoroughly examine all facets of a legal controversy and provide my clients with candid advice about the state of the law. To do otherwise would be an extreme breach of professional responsibility. Yoo's conduct, detailed in the report, goes against everything I am taught.

The report finds that Yoo "knowingly provided incomplete and one-sided advice" and "put his desire to accommodate the client above his obligation to provide thorough, objective and candid legal advice, and that he therefore committed intentional professional misconduct."

I would receive a failing grade if I did the same thing on a law school assignment.

I hope my fellow taxpayers will join me in calling on the University of California to examine the report and evaluate whether a lawyer- professor who seriously breaches standards of professional conduct should be teaching future lawyers.

- Tam Ma, Sacramento

UC Berkeley Law School

The Human Consequences of America's Torture Camps

By
Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait
on August 31, 2010 6:39 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Dignified, but broken, "one must wonder whether [the survivors] will ever fully move on 
from what they suffered in that hell we call Guantanamo." -- Peter Jan Honigsberg

Witness to Guantanamo

Peter recalls his meeting with one of the leading architects of abuse here

other war criminals in the news: David Addington

By
Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait
on August 30, 2010 11:19 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Once described by U.S. News and World Report as the "most powerful man you've never heard of," Addington served as legal counsel to Cheney from the beginning of the administration until 2005, when he became chief of staff to the vice president...

Heritage Foundation picks up former Cheney aide

Threatening a child with gang rape "looks bad",

By
Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait
on August 28, 2010 11:48 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
U.S. Wary of Example Set by Tribunal Case

"Optically, this has been a terrible case to begin the [military] commissions with," said Matthew Waxman, the Pentagon's top detainee affairs official during the Bush administration.


Updates on the Omar Khadr case here

U.S. Torture Program Thrives on Fear

By
Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait
on August 27, 2010 2:33 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
'We're at war!' For almost a full decade, this has been the all-justifying cliché for everything the U.S. Government does -- from torture, renditions and due-process-free imprisonments to wars of aggression, occupations, assassination programs aimed at U.S. citizens and illegal domestic eavesdropping. -- Glenn Greenwald

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