Law Professor John Yoo has avoided criminal prosecution and bar charges for his now discredited defense of the Bush torture program. Even the Bush Administration ultimately rejected his infamous torture memos as poorly reasoned and unreliable. Undeterred, Yoo is back in the press condemning liberals for caring more about torture than diversity in not supporting a woman for the head of the CIA’s clandestine service. The woman was reportedly implicated in the torture program and is one of those officials who effectively got a “get out of jail free” card by President Obama when he pledged that no CIA employees would be prosecuted for torture at the start of his first term. Yoo is denouncing liberals for failing to support a woman simply because of a little thing like torture.
Yoo took to the National Review to cry foul at the treatment of the official, who was also reportedly implicated in the decision to destroy videotapes of prisoners being tortured to prevent their use as evidence against CIA officials like herself.
Yoo denounces “the hypocrisy of the diversity-crazed Obama administration’s blocking the first woman for this most sensitive and important of intelligence positions.” He adds “Brennan is blocking the most qualified operative to head the CIA’s key division because of her involvement in interrogations. Clearly, diversity only goes so far for the Left.”
Of course, Yoo would not be able to make such absurd claims if Obama did not insist on CIA officials being protected from prosecution in the first place. Notably, this official who was reportedly tied to the torture program and the destruction of the tapes has widespread support within the agency.
Yoo’s point is absurd. No principled person would support an official with this record simply because of her gender. That is itself a form of sexist blindness. The fact that this person is a female is irrelevant. Diversity begins with a determination that candidates are equally qualified. A person with this record should be barred from any employment in the federal government — let alone a promotion — as a threshold matter. The fact that such officials remain employed and in good standing within the Obama Administration is itself shameful. Even if these officials were not to be prosecuted due to Obama’s sweeping announcement, they could have been pushed to leave federal employment in light of their record. Yet, we have previously seen those implicated in the scandal thriving at the CIA. Indeed, Yoo’s former colleague and an author of the torture memo, Jay Bybee, was given lifetime tenure as a federal judge and continues to sit in judgment of others from the bench.
Yoo ends his column with a favorable reference to “Zero Dark Thirty,” a movie that suggests that torture led to the ultimate killing of Osama bin Laden and has become a camp favorite with Bush officials. I saw the movie and found it historically flawed and disturbingly detached from the immorality shown in torture scenes. I can see why it appeals so much to people like Yoo. I can only wonder whether this camp following of torture officials is anything to celebrate for director Kathryn Bigelow.
Yoo ends his column with the lament: “The Obama administration may be turning Zero Dark Thirty into a historical period piece, rather than an example of what the CIA can achieve in the future.” I know no one who believes Zero Dark Thirty is any type of historical piece as opposed to historical revisionism. Moreover, we all know what the CIA can achieve in the future. That is precisely why the lack of charges or discipline for Bush officials and others is so chilling.
Source: Atlantic
So you’re saying you REALLLLY don’t like John Yoo!
It will be a fine day in America when Yoo and his ilk are called to account for their crimes.
I missed this:
“John Yoo, the author of the Bush administration legal memos justifying the use of torture, thinks President Obama is really getting too much grief over targeted killing. And he wants Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)—who filibustered Obama’s nominee to head the CIA for 13 hours on Wednesday—to lay off.”
(http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/03/john-yoo-rand-paul-andrew-mccarthy-obama-holder-drones)
I used to wonder how Yoo got a law degree…now I simply wonder how he dresses himself.
Steve Fleischer, exactly right.
A future of the CIA based on past…past what, failure? So they got Osama, They also put in power innumerable dictators that killed how many thousands of people? Much of the fiasco with middle east dictators can be traced to our poorly thought out decisions of our vaunted CIA. They have a miserable track record, why will it be better in the future?
BettyKath,
Blousie,
Is the CIA the private army for the Oval Office and the State Department? Or are they still working for Goldman Sacks/ Maybe there was no pointed inquiry of John Bennan during the confirmation hearings because, Congress works for Goldman Sacks as well.
Just a thought.
“Better yet, get rid of the CIA, it’s out of control with the blessing of the oval office.” -bettykath
Agreed. (And most folks don’t know the half of it, yet.)
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/04/04/where-were-these-dems-asking-about-cia-on-the-hudson-during-brennans-confirmation/
“Where Were These Dems Asking about CIA-on-the-Hudson During Brennan’s Confirmation?”
Posted on April 4, 2013 by emptywheel
Excerpt:
Brennan is not just the former White House counterterrorism [and homeland security] czar, but he’s also the guy who, when CIA-on-the-Hudson was being set up in the days after 9/11, was in charge of logistics and personnel at the CIA. Which means there’s a pretty decent chance he had a role in dual-hatting the CIA guy who operated domestically to help NYPD spy on Americans.
But Brennan’s role in finding a way to use CIA tactics domestically barely came up in his confirmation hearings. As I noted, he was asked whether he knew about the program (and acknowledged knowing about it), but he was not asked — at least not in any of the public materials — whether he had a role in setting it up.
Sort of a key question for the guy now in charge of the entire CIA, whether he thinks the CIA should find loopholes to get around prohibitions on CIA working domestically, don’t you think?
Serwer names several House Democrats — Rush Holt, Mike Honda, Judy Chu — who have been asking about this investigation. Obviously, they didn’t get a vote on Brennan’s nomination. But it seems the nomination period would have been a very good time to ask questions about how and why, at a time when Brennan played a key role in logistics and personnel at the agency, the government decided to set up this workaround. Asking at that time might have clarified why it is that the Administration seems uninterested in investigating this program.
As it is, we’re now left with a guy who publicly applauded such work-arounds — and CIA involvement through cooperation in fusion centers — in charge of the entire CIA. (End of excerpt)
Another vote for: ““The fact that this person is a female is irrelevant. Another vote for: “Diversity begins with a determination that candidates are equally qualified. A person with this record should be barred from any employment in the federal government — let alone a promotion — as a threshold matter.” (JT) (Thanks for highlighting it, Blouise.)
I agree with bettykath and Blouise although there is zero chance of that happening.
bettykath,
I’m with you 100% … “Better yet, get rid of the CIA, it’s out of control …”
The Oval Office and the State Department have their own private, standing, army in the form of the CIA and we, the public, have no real oversight on how this army is deployed … the CIA’s torture program was just one of many questionable “military” actions.
What Blouise said. I like Ross’s nominees. Better yet, get rid of the CIA, it’s out of control with the blessing of the oval office.
Yoo is the Manchurian candidate lawyer.
How about Valerie Plame or Colleen Rowley as the nations first female CIA Director? They have integrity and loyalty to the U.S. Constitution. Integrity far outweighs experience in such a powerful and unchecked postition of public trust. Does anyone remember when Michael Hayden couldn’t even explain the “concept” of the Fourth Amendment as NSA Director – an agency that should be expert on the boundaries of constitutional serarches? These two women would be great choices and have already been tested.
Law Professor John Yoo is a fraction of a human being and a cretin.
Yes, well there are a contingent of people out there who think that women in positions of power must be there because somebody’s obsessed with promoting women. So, the idea that a woman could NOT get promoted by those same people must come as a shock.
On the other hand, I think that women involved in torturing people should still be prosecuted. Because torture is still illegal, even when a woman’s involved.
Gene had it right. John Yoo needs to be bagging groceries for a living, after he is paroled from Shawshank.
I’ll tell you what I support, John.
I support you being disbarred for life and put on trial with the fascist war criminals you enabled thus illustrating that no one, no matter their profession, gender or ethnicity, is above the law.
How’s about that for some diversity, cupcake?
“The fact that this person is a female is irrelevant. Diversity begins with a determination that candidates are equally qualified. A person with this record should be barred from any employment in the federal government — let alone a promotion — as a threshold matter. ” (JT)
Well said.
It becomes more and more of a fantasy land every year.
What next, nominating Irma Grese as an example of women with upward mobility?
I came to the States for the first time in 1973; grew up in the Philippines and Franco’s Spain – neither places renown for respecting the rights of individuals (or at least politically unconnected individuals).
I saw the U.S. (as did my friends and family) as a bright, shining beacon of law, justice and freedom.
Perhaps I was naive then, but 40 years later I am saddened and distressed by how far our governments (both Republican and Democrat) have taken us from the principles of the founding fathers.
My 83 year old mother grew up in Hitler’s Germany; she first came to the States in 1951 and loved the freedom and rule of law. Now she fears the authority figures (and the government power) that is event from the moment she enters the immigration area.
In many areas, we are drifting towards a fascist state.
Had the war in Europe ended in some sort of truce with Germany left intact do you suppose Albert Speer and Adolf Eichmann would have been penning thoughtful articles for the Bonn Daily Dump? Would they have been treated as serious, valuable sources of opinion and discussion?
Its sad that there is no hell where Mr Yoo could spend eternity being waterboarded, forced into stress positions and frozen for extended periods of time.