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John Yoo was interrupted repeatedly by anti-torture activists during his book talk at the Commonwealth Club, while protesters stood outside on Market Street with signs saying “Support torture– Buy My Book!”, “The United States Tortures — Thanks to Yoo”, “ARREST YOO”, and sang “Tell John Yoo That Torture is a Crime” (lyrics by Vic Sadot to the tune of “We Shall Not be Moved”) and “It Had to Be Yoo” (lyrics by Susan Harman.)
Yoo’s book, “Crisis and Command” argues that the president has the power to illegally wiretap, torture or do anything s/he deems necessary in times of war. Yoo’s legal advice was used to allow inhumane treatment and torture of U.S. detainees at Abu Ghraib, Bagram, Guantanamo, and “black sites” around the world.
The United States tortures, thanks to Yoo. Yoo’s legal advice to Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush, etc. was meant to provide legal cover for the inhumane treatment of detainees. Yoo is complicit in torture and should be indicted, disbarred, fired and prosecuted. We call for his disbarment, dismissal from UC Berkeley Law School, indictment and prosecution for complicity in torture and other war crimes.
Cynthia Papermaster wrote: Thanks to all who participated, especially Asher Wolf who spent months making the fantastic Yoo bobble head which debuted on Wednesday.
Some media folks showed up for the protest. Channel 5 News was there; did anyone see their report on tv? If you have photos or video please forward to me and/or post them on Indybay or elsewhere and send us the links. If you hear of upcoming Yoo appearances please forward the information. Thanks!”
NOTE: Our monthly protest at Yoo’s house is on Sunday, Feb. 7, 12 Noon-1 PM, 1241 Grizzly Peak Blvd., Berkeley.
CODEPINK at Yoo's House 11/22/09
What: Shame on YOO!
When: Sunday, December 13, 11am-12noon
Where: John Yoo’s House, 1241 Grizzly Peak, Berkeley. Click here for a map.
I hope you’ll join us at Yoo’s this Sunday, rain or shine.
Friends, we had a fantastic action at John Yoo’s house on November 22, when David Swanson and about 30 wonderful activists gathered for the protest, singing, and a “banishing ritual” aimed at bringing Yoo to justice. See the report, links to Indybay and CODEPINK articles, and video below. We’ll be back at John Yoo’s house this Sunday from 11-12 noon for the monthly protest of the “Torture Professor”. Join our call for his dismissal, disbarment, and prosecution for complicity in torture. Yoo is still teaching at UC, still writing and speaking outrageous nonsense about how his actions kept our country safe after 9/11, and still confident that he’s immune from accountability and justice. Our message is that torture is never legal and Yoo must be prosecuted. Flyers, banners, Yoo masks, jail outfit and handcuffs available at the protest. Please bring cameras. Media alert will go out Friday.
Broadside Balladeer Vic Sadot recorded this original song in Berkeley, backed by the Pink Police Chorus. Vic writes:
John Yoo wrote legal briefs for the Bush-Cheney regime to justify torturing prisoners who were held for years without charges. According to the International Red Cross, over 100 prisoners died in these secret torture sessions. Some people defend John Yoo’s position as a professor of law at UC Berkeley on grounds of “free speech” and “academic freedom”. However, as Dan Siegel clarifies, the issue is about what Yoo did while on leave as legal counsel to the Bush-Cheney regime, which constitutes criminality, not his academic work. This song came along while doing actions in Berkeley, CA with Code Pink Goldengate. * See the Dan Siegel video clip titled “Demonstration Against Torture and John Yoo - Dan Siegel”
2 pm
YOO BE GONE – DISMISS, DISBAR, PROSECUTE UC TORTURE PROFESSOR JOHN YOO
Join Us! “Trick or Treat” to Tell the Chancellor & Law School Dean “Dismiss Yoo”, “Yoo Be Gone” Ritual, Hand out Candy
2PM Meet Café Strada, College & Bancroft, Berkeley; 2:30PM Chancellor Birgeneau’s office, 200 Calif. Hall #1500, UC campus; 3PM Law School, Bancroft@ College
IT’S VERY SIMPLE: TORTURE IS NEVER LEGAL
We, citizens, students, faculty and groups* call on the University of California to dismiss Yoo, and for Attorney General Eric Holder to prosecute Yoo for giving legal advice that torture is legal when he worked for the Department of Justice. Yoo’s complicity in torture is a felony under federal law. Just as lawyers were convicted at Nuremburg, Yoo must be held accountable. Yoo is unethical, incompetent, immoral, and a criminal. He should NOT be teaching at UC. Yoo’s actions have endangered our country. Torture is the #1 recruiting tool for terrorists. We are all living with the shame and fear of having a government that tortures. Children have been tortured and at least 100 detainees have died, says the International Red Cross. We stand in witness of his crimes against humanity.
Ways to Help
- TELL UC TO DISMISS YOO NOW. This should be Yoo’s last semester teaching at UC. Call Law School Dean Chris Edley, 510-642-1741 and Chancellor Birgeneau, 510-642-7464
- Add Your Name to Campaigns to Disbar Yoo
National Lawyers Guild Voters for Peace
Tell United States Attorney General Eric Holder to Prosecute John Yoo: Call: 202-514-2001 Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
“I ask you, out of a concern for justice, a concern for humanity, and a concern for our reputation as a university, to dismiss Professor John Yoo from membership in our university.” UC Professor Brad DeLong to U.C. Law School Dean Christopher Edley.
“If writing memoranda authorizing torture — actions which then directly lead to the systematic commission of torture — doesn’t make one a war criminal in the U.S., what does?…. Yoo wasn’t acting as a lawyer in order legally to analyze questions surrounding interrogation powers. He was acting with the intent to enable illegal torture and used the law as his instrument to authorize criminality.” Glenn Greenwald, www.salon.com/opinion
“John Yoo took a material involvement in the deaths and torture of untold numbers of people. The broken bodies, the broken spirits, the broken trust he wrought with his actions - that’s why they call these crimes against humanity.” Max Anderson, Berkeley City Councilmember
*National Accountability Action Network (NAAN), Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), CODEPINK, Velvet Revolution, National Lawyers Guild, afterdowningstreet.org, Voters for Peace, Berkeley Peace & Justice Commission
Contact: Cynthia Papermaster, Accountability Action Network, www.actforjustice.org, 510-333-6097, cynthia_papermasteratyahoo.com; Susan Harman, Progressive Democrats of America, susanharman1atgmail.com
Attorney Dan Siegel is a graduate of UC Berkeley’s law school from the era of the Free Speech movement. He points out that John Yoo’s writing of legal briefs as cover for torture by the Bush-Cheney regime is not a matter of “free speech”. It is a crime to use your position in violation of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights as well as the treaties that the US has signed as the law of the land, namely the Geneva Conventions. Various groups such as Code Pink Goldengate, National Accountability Action Network, the National Lawyers Guild, World Cant Wait, and Progressive Democrats of America joined together to challenge UC Berkeleys continued employment of Professor John Yoo. They called for him to be fired, disbarred, and prosecuted.
Holly Harwood of CODEPINK Golden Gate:
Ruth Fassenbaum, an activist member of the American Psychological Association, speaks out against torture by the Bush-Cheney regime and John Yoos role in providing legal cover for the US use of torture on prisoners.
Stephania Tang of World Can’t Wait speaking inside Boalt Hall:
| START DATE: | Monday August 17 |
| TIME: | 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM |
| Location Details: | |
| University of California Law School (Boalt Hall), College and Bancroft, Berkeley | |
| Event Type: | Protest |
| 1:30 Press conference followed by protest in front of the Law School. “Torture professor” John Yoo resumes teaching at UC Berkeley Law School on Monday, August 17 after spending last year at Chapman College in Southern California. While on leave from UC in 2001 Yoo worked for the DOJ and wrote legal memos advising Cheney and Bush that torture, warrantless wiretapping and suspension of posse commitatus– use of the military on American Soil and a violation of the Constitution– were legal. Yoo was wrong; those crimes are never legal. He is being sued by U.S. citizen Jose Padilla and his mother for torture, and the Spanish courts are prosecuting him for the torture of Spanish citizens. Meanwhile he writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer, gives interviews and insists that the enhanced interrogation techniques he approved, which have lead to the deaths of about 100 detainees and the torture of children, were justified and necessary to protect America from terrorists. That’s just plain wrong. A coalition of human rights, accountability, and social justice groups will show up to protest his continuing employment at UC and to ask for his prosecution by U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder. National Accountability Network, CODEPINK, Progressive Democrats of America, National Lawyers Guild, Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, Bay Area Religious Campaign Against Torture, others.
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National TV Ad Campaign to Heat Up
U.S. Torture Investigations
Provocative TV Ads Urge
Attorney General Eric Holder to Do His Job -
Uphold Laws, Our Constitution, and Appoint Special Prosecutor
to Investigate Officials Who Condoned Torture
NEW YORK, NY August 5, 2009 - A national television ad campaign - to
push for Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor -
rolls out this week with 30-second commercials, to be aired during The
Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, Countdown with Keith
Olbermann, and The Rachel Maddow Show.
Launched in San Francisco, the TV ads will then be aired in other major
media markets, such as New York, Washington DC, Atlanta, Dallas,
Chicago, and Los Angeles, among others. The San Francisco-Oakland-San
Jose airing schedule is below.
“Mr. Holder swore to support and defend our Constitution. It’s time for
him to live up to that oath. Torture is morally repugnant. It’s
un-American. It’s illegal,” says NYC singer-songwriter and political
activist David Ippolito, the ad campaign’s spokesperson, who wrote
“Resolution (The Torture Song).”
.
A majority of Americans want a federal investigation into the treatment
of detainees by government personnel, according to a Gallup and ABC
News/Washington Post poll, conducted in April.
“Violations of U.S. and international law have taken place. The evidence
is in clear public view,” says Cynthia Papermaster, Director of the
National Accountability Network http://accountability4torture.com/, an umbrella coalition of
political, human, and civil rights organizations. “These ads are aimed
at inspiring Americans to participate in correcting this illegal and
shameful situation by phoning and emailing the Attorney General.”
“It’s a very simple and necessary way to preserve our democracy from
tyranny,” she continues, “and to have the resolution our country needs
to go forward without the terrible shame of what has been done in our
name.”
The TV ads can also be watched online at: thatguitarman.com
