Torture Team author Philippe Sands has long argued that former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo facilitated violations of international law and Geneva Conventions, and must be held accountable for crimes against humanity. As must Donald Trump, whose Supreme Court has granted presidents almost blanket immunity.  

The Trump administration feels unconstrained by existing laws and norms -- a key aspect of authoritarian and ultranationalist political ideology. Yet despite today's advance of American fascism Sands refuses to give in to despair, saying "I firmly believe that the arc of history will follow the arc of justice." He has come to believe that the law isn't the only avenue for establishing truth and accountability, or necessarily always the best one. 

"Being a lawyer had taught Sands the limits of the law," observed Michael Steinberger. "Being an author had given him even greater appreciation for the power of the written word, and he now thought that books could sometimes be a more effective instrument in the pursuit of redress... In any situation in which a civilian population has been brutalized, the crimes must be acknowledged." 

"You have to find a way to address what happened," said Sands.

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2026/02/03/18883823.php?show_comments=1#18883917 

 "Pity the nation where John Yoo is the voice of reason," proffers national affairs correspondent Jeet Heer. 

"Yoo, of course, is one of the most notorious of the many national security ghouls who served in the George W. Bush administration, where he used his legal expertise to write in 2002 the so-called 'torture memos' that sought to justify the use of waterboarding and other violations of the Geneva Convention in the name of the Global War on Terror. This is not someone typically concerned about following the law."

The Berkeley Law professor jumps through hoops to designate drug cartel crime, when attached to the Maduro regime, acts of war.

Photo credit

British police have arrested hundreds of anti-genocide protestors supporting Palestine Action, classifying the group a terrorist organization. UN experts have called on the UK government to ensure timely emergency care for strikers determined to force members of parliament to take responsibility for abolishing terror laws used to criminalise dissent.

"I do this because I know Guantanamo did not end, it spread," says writer, artist, activist, and former Guantánamo prisoner Mansoor Adayfi.

"I know this road. I have its map etched into my bones. I carry scars that won't heal without justice, without accountability."

As Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel during the George W. Bush administration, professor John Yoo authorized a series of enhanced interrogation techniques depicted in his infamous Torture Memos. The site for detaining foreign 'enemy combatants' outside the reach of US law (Guantanamo) has "metastasized into a symbol of indefinite detention, torture, and the erosion of constitutional protections," descibed historian Michael A. Smith--even for American citizens.

"The time has come to close Guantánamo--not just the physical facility, but the legal and moral architecture it represents." 

Torture remains an American export. More than an 'American mistake', Guantanamo remains a laboratory. Its experiments are being exported, charges Adayfi. Absorbed. Normalised. And reportedly applied against thousands of Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom from Israel's continued occupation of their land.

John Yoo wrote "the torture memos" during the George W. Bush administration, authorizing Camp Gitmo interrogation techniques now extended to undocumented migrants in Trump-sponsored El Salvador prison.

Find a 60 Minutes feature critical of CECOT here 

"UC Berkeley has ignored Yoo's indecent abuse of the law for far too long," charged Percival Constantine. "If Berkeley truly believes itself to be a defender of justice, then John Yoo must be dismissed immediately for professional misconduct. Any institution that employs this lunatic authoritarian has no respect for the law, no respect for justice, and certainly no respect for the Constitution."

The US Supreme Court is scheduled for a major test of the "unitary executive theory" advocated by Berkeley School of Law professor John Yoo, https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/supreme-court-weigh-trumps-firing-ftc-member-test-presidential-power-2025-12-05/. 

"Though Trump has taken the denial of due process to a further extent than recent administrations, he is justifying his deportation strategy using legal frameworks (think John Yoo) established by the George W. Bush administration during the so-called 'war on terror'," asserts scholar-activist Razan Bayan.

Photo: Inmates remain in their cell as Costa Rica's Minister of Security Gerald Campos tours the Centre for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) during a visit on April 4, 2025. Marvin Recinos/AFP via Getty Images

"A man who was tortured at a CIA secret prison and remains imprisoned without charge in Guantanamo Bay can't seek damages from government contractors that designed the torture program ['enhanced interrogation techniques' justified by lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee] because federal courts don't have jurisdiction over the treatment of people deemed enemy combatants," reports Sam Ribakoff at Courthouse News Service.

On Wednesday May 7, for the 28th successive month, a global family of dedicated campaigners held vigils for the closure of the "war on terror" prison at Guantánamo Bay at nine locations across the US and around the world -- Washington, D.C., London, New York, San Francisco, Brussels, Mexico City, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Portland, OR -- with Cobleskill, NY holding an additional vigil on Saturday May 10.

https://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2025/05/12/photos-and-report-the-ongoing-relevance-of-the-monthly-global-vigils-for-guantanamos-closure-may-7-2025/

May 8 @ 4PM PT:

Family members of those killed on 9/11 and advocates for nonviolent and reasoned responses to the terrorist attacks have been traveling to Guantánamo for years to witness the ongoing pretrials. This is a chance to catch up with them and hear about the ever changing and current situation.

The webinar is moderated by Prof. William Hudon,
Chair of "Friends of Peaceful Tomorrows"

Register for the webinar by CLICKING HERE.

"Migrants who are here illegally are criminals, as far as this administration is concerned. I understand the previous administration didn't see it that way, so it's a significant 'culture shift' to recognize law-breakers as criminals, but that's what they are." - White House press secretary Katherine Leavitt

"The concept of indefinite detention is a direct affront to the principles of justice," writes Mansoor Adayfi, artist, activist, and former Guantánamo prisoner. "Holding individuals without charge or trial defies the very foundation of legal systems worldwide. It denies detainees the opportunity to defend themselves and subjects them to years -- sometimes decades -- of suffering with no resolution in sight."

People in orange jumpsuits protest against Guantanamo military prison outside of the US Capitol in Washington, DC on April 5, 2023 [File: Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz]