October 2016 Archives

Saturday October 29th World Can't Wait San Francisco and friends took a stand against 'Torture Professor' John Yoo and his handlers at UC Berkeley Law School. "Today we represent the views and the hearts of many more tens of millions of people who know that torture is a war crime, and a crime against humanity. International and UN law both prohibit torture, under any and all circumstances, without exception," read the protest flier. 

"Indict, Prosecute, Disbar... No More Torture in Our Name," chanted about 20 witnesses to university apologists for the lawless detention policy at Guantanamo prison camp and 'black sites' around the globe. John Yoo, a key player in the criminal enterprise of the Bush-now-Obama Regime, codified specific torture tactics used on wrongfully captured human beings, many of whom were sold to the U.S. government by bounty hunters.

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Protest organizers staged a 'Boalt Hall Museum of Torture,' displaying the 10 'advanced interrogation techniques' approved for use by judge Jay Bybee, Yoo's boss during his stint at the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel.

John Yoo should be in prison, awaiting trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity; not mentoring the next generation of lawyers and judges. It is our responsibility to call out criminal and enabler alike.
"Persuading any given individual is only part of the purpose of a discussion like this one. In fact, there's a much more important function: by subjecting dogmatic, fearful, irrational opinions to the light of reason, we expose them for what they are. And over time, views that were once respectable become untenable, and then increasingly disreputable, until finally even the few people who still cling to them are too embarrassed to utter them in polite society. This is the very history of the fight against racism, bigotry, and intolerance." And torture, author Barry Eisler adds.

Indict John Yoo for War Crimes
Saturday October 29, 1:00 pm
Boalt Hall, Room 105  

For years Berkeley Law administrators feigned helplessness to respond to charges of ethical misconduct against professor Yoo. That academic hand-wringing has been supplanted by promotion of the un-constitutional construct of 'unitary executive theory' advanced in defense of imperial warfare. Failure to hold the author of the 'Torture Memos' accountable contributes to the lawlessness exhibited by today's endless wars for Empire. 

Many of us remember Barry's participation in Berkeley's "Say No to Torture" Week. The author of Inside Out continues to expose the crimes of our government to readers outside the usual cadre of human rights activists -- including students struggling to find their role in construction of a just, and habitable, future.  

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It is up to us to call out criminals and enablers alike. Please respond to this solicitation with determined commitment to repudiate the illegitimate ramblings of an unrepentant war criminal. Contact World Can't Wait to tell us how you want to contribute to this Saturday's action, sf@worldcantwait.net. We especially need volunteers to present the contents of our Bush/Bybee Torture Museum, those 'enhanced interrogation techniques' reviewed and approved by Berkeley's own state torture architect. 

John Yoo Belongs in Prison, Not Mentoring the Next Generation of Lawyers and Judges!
Thanks to the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a lawsuit against CACI Premier Technology today, for the corporation's role in torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

CCR lawyers note that prior dismissal of Al Shimari v. CACI et al. represented a return to the widely discredited Bush-era legal theories of Torture Memo author John Yoo. Today's ruling repudiates application of immunity for private contractors: "The military cannot lawfully exercise its authority by directing a contractor to engage in unlawful activity." 

"The prohibition on torture and inhuman treatment is a universal and absolute legal requirement; it is not a policy judgment left to the discretion of the military or its contractors," said Center for Constitutional Rights Legal Director Baher Azmy.
"It's breathtaking that the body-bags keep piling up, without any attempt to go after the systemic problems -- racism, police brutality, excessive use of force, a sick gun culture that makes them the first not the last resort (clearly not in Garner's case, but in most others) -- that have brought us to this tragic place," comments AhBrightWings on the chocking death of Eric Garner by New York police officer Daniel Pantaleo.

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"The same mentality that has infected foreign policy is rife here. It's not just that we, as a nation, have empowered ourselves to break international laws without consequences, regret, or apology...we don't hold ourselves to our own best laws, refuse to acknowledge the anguish these deaths cause, and continue on in the same criminal manner. It's a Bully Culture writ large.

"If the 'law says' that Wilson can gun down an unarmed man, if the 'law says' that a police officer can choke to death a man crying out that he can't breathe, if the law says that Martin, armed with Skittles, can be killed because someone else 'feels scared' (of course he does; he just killed an unarmed kid) then the law is, to quote Dickens, an ass."

'Lawfare' employed in service to the U.S. War of Terror is a damning example of the distortion of constitutional principles advanced by the Berkeley Law project to dissemble UC complicity in crimes against humanity. Subscription represents a serious breach of the professional standards demanded of law students.

UC Berkeley Billboard

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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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This page is an archive of entries from October 2016 listed from newest to oldest.

September 2016 is the previous archive.

November 2016 is the next archive.

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