"...It was primarily a separation-of-powers concern that fueled the inter-branch drama of 2004 to 2008, during which a shrinking majority, over increasingly sharp dissents, pushed back against the Bush administration and Congress to assert the court's own institutional authority. -- Linda Greenhouse, Yale Law School professor and commentator for The New York Times

Goodbye to Gitmo?

Hell NO! President Obama's attempt to sweep the "mess" of Guantanamo under the carpet only serves to exemplify his culpability in obstruction of justice for crimes of the Bush regime.

see Why the 9th Circuit got Padilla wrong

The European Court of Human Rights, based in Strasbourg, France, held a Grand Chamber hearing in the case El-Masri v. "The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" on May 16, 2012.

This represents the first case to come before the court against a European nation for complicity in the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program.

see Victim of Torture Gets His First Day in Court

Mr Masri's case is still pending at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

John Yoo's commencement address (satire)

All claim to be protected by the "golden shield" offered by their inside man, John Yoo, part of a group of lawyers who aggressively pushed the lawlessness of the "war on terror." Abusing his position as a lawyer in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, whose mandate is to provide impartial legal advice to the executive branch, Yoo instead attempted to redefine torture and approved its use -- including the use of waterboarding, an ancient torture technique and a form of controlled drowning -- on an alleged "high-value detainee," Abu Zubaydah, in two memos, dated August 1, 2002, that will forever be known as the "torture memos"...

see Andy Worthington's Bush Administration on Trial

names of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Yoo, Bybee, Addington and Haynes to be entered and included in the Kuala Lampur War Crimes Commission's Register for public record

By now everyone at Boalt knows exactly what the orange ribbon means.  Constant protest, agitation and education everywhere Yoo goes have made it clear: "No Torture In My Name."

More photos here... thanks Ashley!

Over the past few weeks we have witnessed a resurgence of argument by Bush administration pundits that torture "works" to keep Americans safe. To attempt to justify use of this universally prohibited practice in the interest of national security is a legal and moral travesty, as unconscionable as the brutality inflicted upon those captured.

Torture is inhumane and immoral...period. Why is one of the central perpetrators of a systematic torture program (still) teaching at Boalt Hall?

There Is No Defense for Torture

Many people know the name of John Yoo, but most do not know his full role in the criminal enterprise known as the Bush Regime. Yoo is associated with the infamous 81-page "torture memo" written while he was a Department of Justice lawyer, on a two-year leave from the UC Berkeley Law faculty. He is one of the many Bush administration attorneys who provided legal justification and cover for the illegal actions of the Bush regime during its eight years in power, including the lies prefacing the immoral and illegitimate war on Iraq. 

Well guess what, no surprise, John Yoo is at it again, promoting an exaggeration of Iran's nuclear capabilities and agitating for U.S. military action against Iran. 

"It's amazing how lies grow. You start with a small one that seems easy to cover, then you get boxed in and tell another one. Then another. People believe you at first, and then act upon your lies, and you catch yourself wishing you'd simply told the truth."  - 'The Client' by John Grisham 

The University of California's advocacy for the current U.S. Torture State began with a rather banal defense of its employee John Yoo, whose conduct and work at the Bush/Cheney Justice Department fell far outside established ethical standards. Berkeley Law Dean Christopher Edley sticks with his misapplication of the principle of "academic freedom" to provide safe harbor to his subordinate, despite repeated rebuttals from those, including numerous constitutional lawyers, who correctly understand that unethical, criminal and immoral action in the service of government are not protected.

Dean Edley taught Barack Obama at Yale and provided consultation services for his presidential campaign, and has upheld the President's decision to avoid investigation of criminal actions of the Bush administration. But political calculation must not be the basis for decisions involving the most basic principles of universal human rights. World Can't Wait urges people of conscience to reject the pretext of Fear being sold to the American public and to repudiate the illegal practices being used in the global "war" on terror.

"this is the reality of the country we live in: those in elite political and intellectual circles exist in a special bubble where they can commit radical, far-reaching crimes of the highest order and never be subject to prosecution or punishment. The rest of us poor saps are lorded over by this law...

Routine Exoneration for Government Criminals

Even the New York Times finds Wednesday's decision by Ninth Circuit judges to grant immunity to torture advocate John Yoo "misguided and dangerous" and finds the ruling based on "an unworkable standard."

in unsettling example of moral turpitude, judges pass the buck:

Today, the 9th Circuit Court, of which Jay Bybee is a member, ruled that Yoo is protected from the lawsuit, claiming that the law defining torture and the treatment of enemy combatants was unsettled when Yoo wrote the memos...

Ninth Circuit Court harbors war criminal, protects his coconspirator

How America Came To Torture Its Prisoners

"I am deeply disturbed that you have chosen to give a platform to ex-CIA director Jose Rodriguez to defend the practice of water boarding and the destruction of 92 videos in which this torture practice is used. While it is your right to have this individual on your show I'd like to point out that the record of the mainstream covering the stories of those who have endured torture and indefinite detention has been sorely lacking. For example a large number of the American public has been kept from the fact that the torture and indefinite detention of many under the Global War On Terrorism was done so under erroneous and suspect circumstances. Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell stated that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld all knew that most of those detained were innocent. Wilkerson is quoted as saying,  "more and more clear many of the men were innocent, or at a minimum their guilt was impossible to determine let alone prove in any court of law, civilian or military." . And yet nearly 200 remain in Guantanamo and over 2000 in Bagram under the Obama Presidency.

That the debate over torture is reduced to whether it works or not with regard to national security is a travesty and is as unconscionable as the torture and indefinite detention inflicted upon those captured. It is inhumane and immoral...period. Furthermore I should hope you would ask Jose Rodriguez that if there was nothing wrong with water boarding then why feel compelled to destroy the 92 videos? I shall also hope that in the near future you choose to interview those who have been detained and tortured.

Sincerely,

Jill McLaughlin, World Can't Wait National Steering Committee

The so-called "debate" about whether torture helped to keep us safe is reemerging... Washington's Blog quotes top military and intelligence interrogation experts who posit that not only does torture not "work" in terms of providing truthful information, torture has been continuing under President Obama.

see No Defending the Indefensible

The time has come to finally say loud and clear: the same things that were crimes under Bush are crimes under Obama. Outrages under Bush are outrages under Obama.  All this MUST STOP.  And all this MUST BE RESISTED by anyone who claims a shred of conscience or integrity...