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
Well said, Gene.
Mike Appleton,
You are correct in your statements. It just keeps me in awe and amazement that, in creating confusion and smoke screens you divert the attention to the real issues.
In my opinion.
BD,
Civics classes used to be taught in every school in the country. I took civics in the eighth grade. Not the most exciting class I ever took, but I learned a lot. Currently, only nine (9) states require civics to be a part of the high-stakes testing in order to graduate from high school.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/12/circle-study-finds-most-s_n_1959522.html
On the other hand, after looking at the list of nine states, I felt as if I had been transported to a political and geographic Twilight Zone.
Civics should be a mandatory class, somewhere between the 8th and 12th grade. Just hope the teacher is not a ‘bagger or political evangelist from either end of the spectrum. I recall reading of civics students going to some public place, such as a mall and set up a table to gather “petition” signatures. The “petition” they were asking people to sign was the Bill of Rights, paraphrased into modern language. Public reaction was hostile. The students were accused of being socialists, communists, subversives, and worse. This exercise has been replicated several times, with the same result every time.
In CT it was not a requirement to take civics at all, but one had to take a US history course or civics. I think that is a fair deal in education since it covers much of the same material. I agree that some test should be required on civics or US history to pass high school. The question of multiple choice tests is another matter though. I see no problem with them since the whole purpose is to ensure that students have a basic knowledge of things so that they can build on that for greater understanding.
Multiple choice exams are not a breeze either. I recall one extra credit course I took in A&P school on the PT-6 engine. The final exam was legendary for being tough. It was an open book 60 question multiple choice exam that took 3 hours. It was so hard the teacher joked that even HE probably could not get 100%, and he worte it! After three hours, I almost finished all the questions, and I was most certainly DONE in more ways than one. I think I got only a 78% on it, but at least I passed, and as they say anything over 70% is overkill.
And here’s a film that all students (and others) should see:
COINTELPRO 101 (Part 1)
Saturday, 10 November 2012 12:56 By Andrew Stelzer, The National Radio Project | Radio Report http://truth-out.org/news/item/12666 )
The country stll doesn’t know that whole truth about John Yoo and the rest of his crowd, but it will. One of these days…. One of these days.
http://youtu.be/EmDA-7EdaO0
“Nuremberg…War Crimes Trials? It should be part of the present day history books taught in American High Schools and in Colleges nationwide.” -BarkinDog
Agreed. It should be taught along with a lot of other topics that are getting short shrift…
“Your local library, if it has not been purged, has a book :
Tyranny On Trial, by Whitney Harris. Try it. You will like it.” -BarkinDog
An excellent recommendation. (Not available on Kindle, yet.)
Fast forward to 2017 at the Den Hague War Crimes Tribunal. Woo is in the dock and the chief witness against him is his own writings. It is kind of like Nuremberg in 1946 when America was the Exceptional Nation and tried Germans for such arcane things as torture.
All of you readers of the blog have heard about the Nuremberg (or is it burg with a u?) War Crimes Trials? It should be part of the present day history books taught in American High Schools and in Colleges nationwide. We were Exceptional. Your local library, if it has not been purged, has a book : Tyranny On Trial, by Whitney Harris. Try it. You will like it. It already came to a theatre near Yoo back when he was a kid but he must have missed the movie version. Yoo, pure audacity. Only in an Exceptional Nation would such a war criminal speak with such impunity. Yoo is yours Ameica.
anonymous attorney, somewhere in the USA:
Your request at 11:57 PM is an excellent suggestion. As the newest Guest Blogger here, I had already planned to write at some length about psychopathy and how it applies to government and business operatives. It will not be possible to cover every aspect, since that would fill at least five feet of library shelves, but maybe we can hit the high spots in future columns. Stay tuned.
When did torture become legal?
Mr. Turley, All of the evil that you identify (and I am most grateful for you bring attention to these things!) boils down to human psychopathy. Robert Hare says 1-2% of the population are psychopaths. Recent research out of Israel suggests that up to 6% of the population are psychopaths. If you would please start posting about psychopathy that might do rather a large bit of good about educating the public on *why* people think the way this evil individual does, *how* to recognize psychopaths, and *what* to do to minimize the impact that psychopaths have on the rest of society.
Frankly @ 10:59am
you gotta have faith
i’m not going to play the song from wham (george michaels) though. it burns my ears.
Mr. Yoo recognizes the importance of promoting torture apologists to high-level positions. It provides a sympathetic layer of protection for the war criminal class.
Three spots on the wall by Who Flung Foo.
OS,
Now you really have me scared!!
I think you caught the drift of the discussion correctly Nick. 🙂
You know what the scary part is about John Yoo? If the “right” President is elected, he may end up on the Federal bench, just as Jay Bybee did. Or even nominated to the SCOTUS.
And to think we hung Japanese and German war criminals for doing exactly the same thing Yoo said was legal.
John Yoo has a certain skill for self parody that undercuts his pretense of being a legal scholar.
Regarding: a “Truth Commission”
That’s just what is needed. I agree, Ross.
John Y(ah)oo.
For the people that don’t want to dwell on the past, remember some of the lower-level interrogators and whistleblowers are in prison today (John Kiriakou, Lindy England, etc) for following John Yoo’s legal advice. If we are going to look forward shouldn’t we release the “pawns” from prison first? Having said that the only way we ever get real reforms (to benefit our kids and grandchildren) is with a “Truth Commission” (similar to the East German Stasi model after the Cold War) – there are so many government officials that are real accessories to war crimes that this is the only real way to reform it – this is the reality of the situation.
Rather than just blasting Obama for not prosecuting Yoo, is there any means for the CA Bar to disbar him for his actions? I would be more impressed with the lawyers if they would do something more along this line rather than just mouthing nasty things about Obama.