FIRE JOHN YOO!

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:14:09 -0800

support the organization that makes this blog possible:

Torture: "if you are not pissed off you are not paying attention....and that pisses me off too."

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:42:54 -0800

H. Candace Gorman is a civil rights/human rights lawyer in Chicago (and advisor to War Criminals Watch) who is representing two Guantánamo detainees pro bono. Having represented these two men for years, and with no end in sight, she shut down her civil rights practice to focus solely on getting her two clients out of Guantanamo, closing Guantánamo and bringing those responsible for and assisting with these particular war crimes to justice.

In a speech to high school students in the Chicago area, she explains what motivates her work, reminds us how much remains to be done to return to a rule of law, and answers a student's question: "Doesn't this just piss you off?"

Torture culpability debate embroils Canadian Parliament

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:23:17 -0800

The question of whether Canadian soldiers knowingly handed Afghan captives over to torture in 2006 and 2007 will soon dominate Parliament Hill as two separate hearings resume in coming weeks. The long-simmering issue flared up last fall when Mr. Colvin accused Ottawa of turning a blind eye to warnings of torture risks facing detainees.

see Ottawa knew of alternative Afghan prison-transfer plan

What's really missing from that OPR report?

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:21:01 -0800

Assessment of the legality of the brutality itself:

In a more fundamental sense... both the OPR and Margolis failed to confront the real wrong at issue. They focused exclusively on the manner by which Yoo and Bybee arrived at their result, rather than the result itself. What is most disturbing about the torture memos is not that they employ strained reasoning or fail to cite this or that authority, but that they do so in the name of authorizing torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of human beings. Remarkably, neither the OPR nor Margolis directly considered the illegality of the conduct that was authorized by the memos.

see They Did Authorize Torture, But ...

it doesn't take a lawyer to see that Torture is wrong

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:14:51 -0800

"The prostitution of a judicial system for the accomplishment of criminal ends involves an element of evil to the State which is not found in frank atrocities which do not sully judicial robes." - excerpt from the Decision, U.S.A. v. ALSTOETTER ET AL (Nuremberg)

see Savaging the Tapestry of the Law

March 10: "Torture Judge" protest at Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:42:00 -0800

PRESS CONFERENCE AND RALLY, James R. Browning Courthouse, San Francisco

The media sometimes comments on Judge Bybee's relatively lower protest profile - compared to John Yoo, who lately gets met with protest everywhere from NY and SF to Texas, Chicago, and Johns Hopkins -- and soon (March 19) in Charlottesville, VA. Bybee was Yoo's boss, and had an active role himself in producing legal handiwork promoting torture at the direct behest of the Bush-Cheney White House. Bush appointed him this lifetime federal judgeship as a direct reward for those crimes. Bybee is as much a war criminal as is John Yoo.

About two dozen protesters from World Can't Wait, Code Pink, National Accountability Action Network, Progressive Democrats of America, and others displayed the "Bush and Bybee Museum of Torture" and called for removal of one of the chief architects of the Bush Regime's state torture program. A letter to each of Bybee's associates on the bench was delivered inside the courthouse, asking the Ninth Circuit Chief Judge, Alex Kozinski, to refer Jay Bybee to the Judicial Conference for impeachment.

"When he was employed at the United States Department of Justice, Jay Bybee signed memos that were used as secret laws to legalize blatant crimes. This amounts to an attack on the idea of the rule of law. Our opinion is that such a person should not be a lawyer, let alone a judge." - excerpt from a statement by Disbar Torture Lawyers

March 9: Federalist Society event @ Boalt Hall

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:31:32 -0800

farm4.static.flickr.com

The Ninth Amendment and Unenumerated Rights: A Debate

Prof. Kurt Lash (Loyola Law School) and Prof. Calvin Massey (UC Hastings Law, visiting prof. at Boalt).
Moderated by Prof. John Yoo.
12:40 to 1:40 p.m. in Room 240, Boalt Hall.

The Daily Californian reports on day's protest action here

UN expert says 9/11 suspects should face civilian court,

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:35:25 -0800

slams US for not looking into torture claims:

Washington's fight against terrorism is "undermining the absolute prohibition of torture." - Manfred Nowak, UN special rapporteur on torture

patience of torture decriers running thin

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:14:24 -0800

the ACLU pushes back:

The Obama administration's plan to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-conspirators as criminals rather than military prisoners has the potential to send a powerful message about the rule of law... offer an opportunity for Americans... to rethink the nature of terrorism...

see KSM Trial Could Erode Civil Liberties

the so-called "war on terror" isn't a "war" of any kind

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:51:43 -0800

President Obama's advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said, a step that would reverse Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s plan to try him in civilian court in New York City.

see Will Obama cave on terror -- again?

Torture is wrong. Of anyone. Anywhere.

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:43:59 -0800

A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for the alleged torture by U.S. forces of two Americans who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm...

said his decision "represents a recognition that federal officials may not strip citizens of well settled constitutional protections against mistreatment simply because they are located in a tumultuous foreign setting."

see Illinois judge won't toss torture suit naming Rumsfeld

no amnesty for those who torture

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:17:32 -0800

Philippe Sands

"How did a state conceived in awe of The Rights of Man make psychopaths of its children?" That is the question posed by Philippe Sands QC and a professor of international law at University College London.

see Torture Team: Betrayal of American Values

Psychologists challenge United States torture program,

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:36:35 -0800

tell Holder to reject [OPR] report and hold torture lawyers accountable or be

complicit

Nothing is more important than "full investigations" to the 60,000 individuals that have been through the U.S. sponsored kidnap, detain, torture and monitor "system," including those on the U.S.'s 32 'ghost ships,' according to Reprieve's Director, Clive Stafford-Smith.

making the case against Torture: "if you're willing to break the law, you might wind up a 9th Circuit judge"

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:29:21 -0800

PDA's Susan Harman gets in judge's face:

see Jay Bybee Questioned As Prelude to

Prosecution

Somehow, Torture advocate and political appointee to the Federal Court of Appeals Jay Bybee manages to keep out of the limelight; but his importance as an architect of the U.S. Torture Program does not go completely unnoticed.

In July of 2009, Susan confronted Yoo's former boss at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena. "Three of use sat quietly through the case that Bybee was hearing," she explained, "When it was finished, I said to Judge Bybee, 'When will you resign? Every senator I've talked to said they would not have confirmed you had they known about the torture memos."

Although Bush has left office, torture is still happening under the Obama administration. Susan believes that as a deterrance against future abuses of executive power, the architects of the torture policy must be pursued. "Obama has already used all the powers that Bush took from the legislative and judicial branches of government," Susan said, "And he's added preventive detention as an executive power which circumvents the judiciary." Susan believes that the best strategy is to go after the second tier of authority. "This means going after and disbarring the twelve lawyers who advocated the torture of detainees during the Bush regime, " she added.

BAAT Press Release: Berkeley Law Students and Bay Area Lawyers Demand Full-Scale Investigation of Professor Yoo

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:23:25 -0800

"The facts revealed in the OPR report are shocking to law students like myself," said National Lawyers' Guild Boalt Chapter Co-chair Liz Jackson at a press event at Boalt Hall. Jackson was referencing the new report from the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility about Boalt Hall Professor John Yoo's involvement in drafting the memoranda that justified torture of detainees in American custody during the Bush Administration. "We are taught to rigorously examine all sides of a controversy and advise clients candidly about the state of the law. The OPR report finds that Yoo did just the opposite. Because his client was the President, and the issue was torture, such professional misconduct had vile consequences."

"The serious breach of professional standards committed during the preparation of the torture memos is well-documented in the public record," stated second year Berkeley Law student Tam Ma. "I hope my fellow taxpayers will join me in calling on the University of California to examine the details of the OPR report and evaluate whether a lawyer-professor who seriously breaches standards of professional conduct should be teaching future lawyers."

In a publicly-released statement in August 2009, Berkeley Law Dean Christopher Edley stated: "When the Attorney General releases the results of DOJ's internal ethics investigation, I and many others will review it carefully and consider whether there are implications for this campus." It is time for Berkeley Law and the University of California administration to review and consider the report's findings...