The NO TO TORTURE - JOHN YOO MUST GO! Coalition

The NO TO TORTURE - JOHN YOO MUST GO! coalition was initially convened by members of the Bay Area chapters of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and the World Can't Wait. The immediate impetus was the release of torture memos written by UC law professor John Yoo, one of the main architects of the legal justification for U.S. torture policies that have shocked the conscience of the world, and the NLG's announcement of its demands that Yoo be dismissed, disbarred, and put on trial for war crimes.

Coalition meetings have quickly expanded to include Boalt and UC alumni, students, and scholars; the Coalition for an Ethical American Psychological Association; two organizations who work for rights of torture survivors; Act Against Torture; the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute; and other community, human rights, and anti-war activists. The coalition seeks to give effective support to the NLG's demands, and to rally this support throughout the UC community and from the legal profession and the larger community as well.


Work of the NO TO TORTURE - JOHN YOO MUST GO! Coalition:

  1. The coalition's first action in May was a mobilization at the BOALT HALL GRADUATION, initially called by Act Against Torture. Over 200 protestors, many in hoods and orange jumpsuits representing torture victims, greeted the graduates and their guests offering orange ribbons and fact sheets, and performing street theater. We called on graduates to help stop torture. A small plane flew over the stadium towing a banner: Shame on Yoo and UC - End Torture Now!


  2. ON JUNE 27, the coalition hosted a TOWN HALL featuring attorney Stephen Rohde, constitutional lawyer, writer, activist and past president of the ACLU of Southern California. He and other experts debated issues of academic freedom, university tenure and culpability for torture.


  3. Early this Fall, a major WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL will gather legal and human rights experts to present evidence against John Yoo and the Bush administration on the matter of torture. This tribunal will attract national media coverage.


  4. The coalition is taking out dramatic PUBLIC ADVERTISEMENTS about this campaign, so that hundreds of thousands of people will learn more about, and join into, the demand for U.C. to stop harboring war criminals.

All of this will stir up controversy and national attention. UC is already managing a potential public relations nightmare over John Yoo. The NY Times recently editorialized that his continuing presence at Boalt is inexplicable, and a wave of media attention has made Yoo's name synonymous with the legalization of torture. UC alumni are beginning to withhold donations in protest.

But far more than UC's public prestige is at stake. Torture is a war crime, under any readings of international and US law. It is being carried out in the name of "protecting American lives and it is being defended and justified, and made legal by the government of the United States. Wherever there are people of conscience who do not wish to silently tolerate this criminal situation, we must speak up and we must act.

Many have asked: "Isn't John Yoo only one of many responsible for the torture?" THE NO TO TORTURE -  JOHN YOO MUST GO! coalition supports and respects all efforts to end torture and bring all those responsible for this crime to justice. We focus on John Yoo as one particularly notorious example of the problem (and it is especially horrifying to realize he is being allowed to teach and to mentor the next generation of lawyers and judges). But the essential question is the legalization of torture by the U.S. government, and whether this new legal and moral standard will be tolerated in silence -- or powerfully repudiated. By supporting this coalition, you say "No!" to torture and to war crimes being committed in our name, and you will help bring many more people to say it with you.

UC Berkeley Billboard

press conference, protest, photos, video, reports

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Events & Calendars

War Criminals Watch Events



Important Reading

Physicians for Human Rights
Broken Laws, Broken Lives

NLG White Paper
ON THE LAW OF TORTURE...

The President's Executioner

Detention and torture in Guantanamo





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