When torture is OK, what world are we living in?
Why and how can "Torture Professor" John Yoo still be teaching law at the University of California (UC) - after he notoriously spent two years enabling the Bush-Cheney regime to craft a torture program and in violation of all existing law and all morality call it "legal"?
On Monday, November 30, the next major "Fire John Yoo" protest at the UC campus will mark the end of this semester's classes, yet hardly the end of this growing political battle. The public is invited to come to UC and join into this action, beginning at noon and lasting into the late afternoon. All people of conscience - of all ages - are welcome to join this protest.
Hours before Yoo's regular 3:20 PM Monday class, starting at noon on Sproul Plaza, World Can't Wait will again raise a bold voice against torture. Orange jumpsuited "detainees" will represent the call to Fire, Disbar, and Prosecute John Yoo as activists and students rally, then march, engaging the campus community over the simple question: where do you stand when it comes to torture designed by government lawyers including John Yoo?
Hours before Yoo's regular 3:20 PM Monday class, starting at noon on Sproul Plaza, World Can't Wait will again raise a bold voice against torture. Orange jumpsuited "detainees" will represent the call to Fire, Disbar, and Prosecute John Yoo as activists and students rally, then march, engaging the campus community over the simple question: where do you stand when it comes to torture designed by government lawyers including John Yoo?
The problem and shame of government-sponsored illegal, immoral torture is, obviously, far bigger than what happens at UC. However, John "Crush the Testicles of a Suspect's Child" Yoo is one of the most well-known of the Bush war criminals to now be back in comfy academic or corporate berths, when they instead deserve to be prosecuted and fully held accountable for their crimes. If through mass political protest and resistance, people can force the firing, disbarment, and prosecution of one such war criminal - it will open new doors for the same kind of struggles elsewhere, hopefully everywhere the torture cabal has landed.
Torture continues to burn a hole in Barack Obama's promises of "change." Guantanamo is still open. The extraordinary rendition program goes on (and now is being defended in court by Obama's Justice Department). With Obama continuing the military commissions, blocking the release of the newest batch of torture photo evidence, and looking for ways to avoid investigating and prosecuting anyone truly responsible for the torture - there is no way that people of conscience can turn their eyes away, just hoping the president or Congress will make the torture go away. They will not.
Why must more and more people take part in political acts of resistance, whether individual or collective, to demand that torture is a war crime and those war criminals responsible be brought to justice? Why should you take off school or work the afternoon of Monday November 30, to come to campus and join this action?
Because the so-called "War On Terror" (read: War OF Terror, War FOR Empire) -- always the justification for the torture apparatus in the first place -- is being expanded in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, and going on and on in Iraq. As the war escalates, so will the death and destruction - and so will the torture, at sites like the hugely expanding US base at Baghram.
Because the world needs to see and hear that there are people living in this country who reject the lie that torture is OK because it makes American lives safer, and who refuse to allow our government to torture in our names.
Because after what he has done to enable torture to destroy the lives of thousands of people - including more than a hundred who have died from the torture - John Yoo is walking free, mentoring and teaching constitutional law to the next generation of lawyers and judges, and the authorities who run UC are protecting him. Many, many people find this shocking and horrifying - yet it will take more than quiet private conversations to make their voices heard.
Walk the UC campus with the "detainees" on Monday, November 30, starting at noon.
The World Can't Wait.
Torture continues to burn a hole in Barack Obama's promises of "change." Guantanamo is still open. The extraordinary rendition program goes on (and now is being defended in court by Obama's Justice Department). With Obama continuing the military commissions, blocking the release of the newest batch of torture photo evidence, and looking for ways to avoid investigating and prosecuting anyone truly responsible for the torture - there is no way that people of conscience can turn their eyes away, just hoping the president or Congress will make the torture go away. They will not.
Why must more and more people take part in political acts of resistance, whether individual or collective, to demand that torture is a war crime and those war criminals responsible be brought to justice? Why should you take off school or work the afternoon of Monday November 30, to come to campus and join this action?
Because the so-called "War On Terror" (read: War OF Terror, War FOR Empire) -- always the justification for the torture apparatus in the first place -- is being expanded in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, and going on and on in Iraq. As the war escalates, so will the death and destruction - and so will the torture, at sites like the hugely expanding US base at Baghram.
Because the world needs to see and hear that there are people living in this country who reject the lie that torture is OK because it makes American lives safer, and who refuse to allow our government to torture in our names.
Because after what he has done to enable torture to destroy the lives of thousands of people - including more than a hundred who have died from the torture - John Yoo is walking free, mentoring and teaching constitutional law to the next generation of lawyers and judges, and the authorities who run UC are protecting him. Many, many people find this shocking and horrifying - yet it will take more than quiet private conversations to make their voices heard.
Walk the UC campus with the "detainees" on Monday, November 30, starting at noon.
The World Can't Wait.
