The torture memos April 2, 2008 zuzu The Justice Department released the John Yoo-authored torture memos from 2003 today (part 1 and part 2 (pdf)). Links via Jeralyn at TalkLeft. I’d ask if Scott Lemieux and Rob Farley want to retract their earlier comparison of me to John Yoo, but I won’t hold my breath.
John Yoo was on NPR a few months ago. I had to write a sputtering email to them complaining that they failed to explain that he basically authorized torture.
I’m always deriding lawyers, to my best friend’s behest because he’s a lawyer–but this memo makes the American legal system look ridiculous. To find wiggle room around the 5th and 8th Amendments because the detainees are on foreign soil is just absolutely reprehensible.
Glenn Greenwald says what I wanted to say to NPR better than I did: The fact that John Yoo is a Professor of Law at Berkeley and is treated as a respectable, serious expert by our media institutions, reflects the complete destruction over the last eight years of whatever moral authority the United States possessed. Comporting with long-held stereotypes of two-bit tyrannies, we’re now a country that literally exempts our highest political officials from the rule of law, and have decided that there should be no consequences when they commit serious felonies.
John Yoo hangs out at the Boalt Hall School of Law University of California Berkeley. Brendan over at brendancalling is trying to singe a few of his tailfeathers. Check out this link and if you can get behind the program, please, pass it on. http://brendancalling.com/2008/04/02/shaming-and-shunning/ I am so sick of these turkeys screwing up my country and walking off smiling.