Pretty much all tenure contracts have a moral turpitude clause. Just sayin'.

I know Mukasy believes we can never prosecute people who were acting on the advice of the DOJ, but this reads like a mob lawyer advising his client how to break the law and get away with it. I remember Goldsmith's retraction specifically mentioned that the OLP should give objective analyses of the law, not ways to avoid prosecution for activities that would otherwise result in criminal convictions. Couldn't Yoo and Addison and Gonzales be prosecuted for criminal conspiracy?

So... let's say then we have a narcissistic sociopath leading the country. Just sayin'. He has, in effect, no conscience to shock, and thus anything he does is vitally necessary "for the security of the nation" and "within his powers as Executive." Or just because he feels like it, and there is no other power or governing branch with the authority to stop him.

That's just one chilling angle.

They claim the President has absolutely unlimited power in war-time. They also claim the President has the defacto right to launch wars and keep them going. Thus, they are claiming America essentially has an elected dictator.

The other chilling part is how casually absolute guilt is presumed on the part of any old poor schlub picked up and turned over to the US. Every one of them is for-sure a terrorist? Every one of them has vital information for which torture is justified? And even if guilty, what does it say about a nation, a people, that they engage in the most abhorrent of acts?

The self-assured and utterly banal way in which pure evil is justified with lazy reasoning and moral relativism disgusts me beyond measure.

Yoo's faculty info from UC Berkeley, in case you'd like to drop him a line. I did.

http://www.law.berkeley.edu/faculty/yooj/

According to the last entry on the page, here's what Prof. Yoo has been teaching over at Boalt Hall in Berkeley-

International Civil Litigation
International Law
Constitutional Law
Foreign Relations Law
Civil Procedure
International Trade
Separation of Powers Law

What’s this nonsense about “in time of war”? Did Congress declare a war that we haven’t been told of? If not, it's not wartime, and the whole foundation of Yoo’s exercise in fatuousness evaporates.

I appreciate Technowitch's point. It's always bothered me that everyone our troops pulled in is automatically branded a terrorist. I think FIASCO pointed out that there were commanders in Iraq who tried to discern who was a "bad guy" and who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And there were commanders who just picked people up, dropped them off (at Abu Ghraib) and said "Let someone else sort 'em out. I have a war to fight."

Of course, if there's no due process on the battlefield and you get a clear hand from you commander-in-chief to do whatever you want, then nothing legally bad can happen to you, right?

Go read about Nuremberg.

Seriously -- can we see some of the major players in jail for this? Because that's what needs to happen.

And please, no snide and snarky replies on how it won't happen. I'm as sick of that shit as I am of Bush.

We need solid, honest info, preferably from those out there with law backgrounds. Let's start with Yoo, get him 15-to-life. How can it be done?

i love the irony: Yoo says on page 3 of the tpm-posted memo, that disallowing certain defenses of necessity (by a government official accused of torture) would be a violation of due process and then: the laws should be strictly construed in favor of the defendant (quoting cited-text concerning the government official again), but um apparently due process only applies to those acting illegally under the aegis of the government.

maybe that isn't irony isn't the right term.

Speaking of narcissistic sociopaths, John Yoo gave a talk at the University of California, Irvine, a couple of years ago. The invitation was quite controversial and he was interrupted once by a group of students carrying a banner through the auditorium accusing Yoo of being a war criminal. He was unfazed. However, a short while later, as a photographer was positioning himself to take his picture, Yoo turned to him and said, "Be sure to get my good side." I yelled out from the audience: "You don't have a good side." I was referring to his character, but Yoo thought I was calling him ugly and took great offense. He actually winced and said something like-- "Now that was over the line." Being called a war criminal didn't bother him, but impune his good looks and he gets upset. I must've shocked his conscience...

I just wonder if Yoo would have had a different view of torture and Presidential rights if he'd been born into a Japanese family that had suffered from WW2 relocation instead of being Chinese? You have to wonder what leads a person down a path such as the one he's taken. There's something very very wrong with this man.

And I can't help but envision him in a WW2 German or Stalinist uniform. Able to justify anything. Did he cheat in high school and college in order to justify the outcome of his grades? Is there anyplace where he draws a line?

Perhaps "Professor" Yoo should sit out some of his own classes and take a few ethics classes. I've heard they teach some good ones at UC.

An absolutely horrifying treatise.
And not jack shit will be done to rectify any of the damage done.

Good for the history books but the dems chose to focus on elections instead of accountability.

Bad move and the history books will show they did nothing about w's crimes.

You get what you vote for.

Marietz @ 12:23--

First off, Yoo isn't Chinese - he's Korean.

Second, Yoo taught me foreign affairs law at the U of C law school when he was visiting. In one of our last classes, a reasoned debate about Presidential powers in war time ended with Yoo pretty much defending Korematsu and the decision to intern the Japanese during WW2.

My takeaway - ethics classes won't save him, because the man just does not see the legal infirmity upon which his extreme positions re: Presidential powers rests. For instance, most of his defenses of his theory involve formal answers that are just tone deaf to reality. (Ex: you don't like Presidential power? Congress has purse strings power - just cut off all funding). He'd probably also argue that the suffering we inflict is necessary in a time of war (see "self defense" and "necessity").

I don't think any amount of ethics classes will convince him.

The sad part is, (and say what you will about his heavy-handed ideological views), his mentor at Yale Law School was Harold Koh. Suffice it to say, the two don't talk anymore.

Realize that Mr. Woo is simply a lawyer representing the interests of his clients; you know, the guys who wanted to have torture be 'nice and legal'.

Too bad for them it's simply not legal under current Federal Law:

TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 113C > § 2340A

§ 2340A. Torture

(a) Offense.— Whoever outside the United States commits or attempts to commit torture shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both, and if death results to any person from conduct prohibited by this subsection, shall be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life.
(b) Jurisdiction.— There is jurisdiction over the activity prohibited in subsection (a) if—
(1) the alleged offender is a national of the United States; or
(2) the alleged offender is present in the United States, irrespective of the nationality of the victim or alleged offender.
(c) Conspiracy.— A person who conspires to commit an offense under this section shall be subject to the same penalties (other than the penalty of death) as the penalties prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy.

It is absolutely amazing to me that nobody every cites the existing law on this, amazing.

Let's sum up: if you're a US citizen, either inside or outside the US, it's a Federal crime, punishable by 20 years in Leavenworth to commit torture. If you torture someone to death, congratulations! You're eligible for the death penalty!

If you conspire to commit torture, like half this administration did, you're eligible for the same accommodation!

I never understood that '9/11 changed everything' was a euphemism for 'we can break whatever law we want, just so long as we say '9/11' three times before doing it.'

No wonder they're so desperate to keep the debate focused on waterboarding and it's legality. If the discussion was on the heavier stuff they were clearly up to, why, we'd realize that our Government is being run by a bunch of totally amoral, criminal fuckwads.

For all their falsely pious morality, they sure don't seem to understand the basic difference between right and wrong.

Justifying torture as "self-defense" is just sick. The legal principle of self-defense is that you may not be guilty of assault or other crimes if you were defending yourself against attack. Yoo's stretching of the term is like saying that you are not liable for anything you do to someone because you think his cousin might be planning to attack you.

It takes to the extreme the underlying principle of all "law&order conservative" approaches to justice -- if you begin by assuming that everyone in custody is guilty, you can justify almost anything.

So if I am reading the prior posts correctly, among other things:
#1 We are not a nation of laws,but of men.
#2 We are a nation of but one political party, the capitalism party.
#3 #1 and #2 are true, therefore the United States is a totalitarian,fascist dictatorship.
#4 Dick Cheney recently verified that the American public's will and desires are no longer being considered and are essentially worthless.
#5 Having "manipulated" two consecutive national elections, voting is an exercise in futility. If the election process is a fraud, then democracy is a fraud as well.
#6 Iraq is one more example of the United States' documented history of taking what it needs,killing anyone in it's path and wrapping the genocide in the Stars and Stripes calling it freedom on the march.
#7 Since #1-#7 are true, America is a fascist nation, having the so called laws written and implemented by corporations. Having legalized bribery and extortion and calling it the U.S. Government and forcing the American public to pay for this form of governance or be jailed, the idea of freedom is no longer applicable. The correct name of this country should be the United Gulag of America.(And yes,the "detention centers" have been built waiting for the unpatriotic liberals. )
#8 Having declared torture legal and implemented torture as an acceptable and useful tool in maintaining said gulag, John Yoo should be appointed the Director of Gulag and Torture Operations and given a Hallibuton built office at Gitmo, complete with close circuit video to observe his approved techniques as well as his own button to deliver electric shocks to the gonads of 14 year old enemy combatants. As an added treat,Yoo will have a harem of American blondes to mistreat,rape and lock in Halliburton cages,link below.
#9 The American public, having willfully abdicated any responsibility for or participation in the democratic process and demonstrating only the greediest and selfish character, absolutely deserve the dictatorship they have and the coming economic disaster they willfully participated in creating.
#10 Having declared themselves powerless to do anything that might involve individual sacrifice or action to regain the ideals and dreams of the original 13 colonies, having by default not demanded the impeachment of Goofy George and Shotgun Cheney, completely deserve their current predicament. I stand guilty and complicit in aforementioned indictment. Our shame is a collective shame. The necessity of revolution is obvious, yet our hearts are asleep in the dim blue light of the televised hologram that has destroyed our minds and glorified the greed that has killed our spirit.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/ABC_Halliburton_rape_victim_speaks_out_1214.html

It is a reflection of where we are as a people that we have a criminal in the WH who is the supposed leader of the free world and there seems to be not a thing that anyone can do about his criminality. If this is what our future is going to be like then we have no future. The fat lady is done singing and we are down for the count.

What blows my mind is how Yoo's construct by which "conscience-shocking" is defined by "justification" is deeply flawed. If post-911 torture is carried out to "prevent further attacks on the United States by the al Qaeda terrorist network," how could it not "be inspired by malice or sadism?"

This rationale also denies an undeniable truth: all torture is inspired by malice and sadism.

-AF

Andrew Sullivan Is A Fraud

Hey Friends!

Premier Asshole Doug Feith teaches at Georgetown. His email is djf35@georgetown.edu.

His office number is 202-687-7846.

If you get a moment, do let him know how much we appreciate his shredding of the Constitution. Not to mention his tough talk (and Yoo's, and Cheney's, etc) that is based on not a single second served in the military.

Yoo committed many crimes in this memo. Let's not let some of the biggest get lost in the shuffle tonight:

On pp. 57-58, he claims that treaty violations by the US are impossible, because to violate a treaty is tantamount to the US withdrawing from it.

Now, given that treaties are "the supreme law of the land" according to the Constitution, that's just a stunning wave of the magic wand for Kingly Power in our Executive.

vidhardt.blogspot.com

Yoo is as the bottom feeding carpand catfish trying to wriggle of the hook or by crook. I came to this post by the link that said-- Yoo Justifies memo. I think rationalizes is more appropriate. If he didn't know it was illegal why did he write the immunity from prosecution section? More than just Goldsmith opposed this absurd writing. I'm betting Yoo perused some laws and books for ways to write this administration damning piece of sh*t but didn't READ any.He may have read how the Spanish Inquisition did it in the name of the Church or how Pol Pot sid it in the name of their government or even the NAZIS another Christian country. Stalin wasn't too bad at it either, they may have had something in writing. What a disgraceful, dispicable man to have embarrassed my country and me in this way.

The "man" is truly a disgrace. As a non US citizen who used to live there and is married to a US citizen I despair at how your Country has turned into a fascist state, the only comfort I can get from stories like this is the sheer volume of comments from people who are now seeing the horrors that have been committed in their names. The US can never again hold the high ground when dealing with rogue states or Countries with questionable human rights. All of that has been lost over the last 7 years by the actions of the power elite who pretend to represent you, but who are as we all know enriching themselves and their buddies beyond measure. Really, don't be surprised if Martial law is enacted if Dems win the white House and both houses. The great experiment that was the US is over, and it failed...