Yoo, a tenured professor at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, wrote the memos offering legal justification for torture while he worked for the White House from 2001 to 2003.Posted on 12/05/2008 7:42:01 AM PST by SmithL
Berkeley's City Council will delve into national policy again next week when it votes whether to demand the United States charge Berkeley resident and former Bush adviser John Yoo with war crimes.
Yoo, a tenured professor at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, wrote the memos offering legal justification for torture while he worked for the White House from 2001 to 2003.
The five measures attacking Yoo were drafted by the city's Peace and Justice Commission, the same group that recommended that the city tell the Marines they were "unwelcome intruders."
The City Council will vote Monday on the five measures. In addition to demanding that Yoo be charged with war crimes, the city will decide whether to order Boalt to offer alternatives to Yoo's courses, so no student is forced to take a class from him if they don't want to. Yoo has taught constitutional and international law at Boalt since 1993.
Several professors teach constitutional and international law each semester, and no student would be forced to enroll in Yoo's class, said Boalt spokeswoman Susan Gluss.
"We respect the politics of Berkeley, home of the free speech movement, and their right to debate this issue," Gluss said. "They can pass this measure, but it won't have any bearing on the university's policy."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
That is true ... and I’m still living in Berzerkeley, haha.
Ok, then move the University to Bakersfield.
I am gonna say it again. I am so sick of these pukes.
Not Yoo’s first fight. They tried to deny him tenure for the same reason. He has been hounded and survived.
This is the best argument for executive privilege.
First they attacked Bush, then Cheney ...
Now they’re coming after Yoo !
Berkeley’s City Council should be run out of office.
“Peace and Justice Commission”
It wants neither peace nor justice.
How does the fact they are trying to have him charged for war crimes -- BASED ENTIRELY on the fact that he wrote memos offering an opinion on the legality of certain interrogation techniques -- square with the notion that Berserkley is the "home of the free speech movement"?
Gluss should have said something along the lines of "We find it ironic that the city of Berkeley, who likes to view itself as the 'home of the free speech movement' is attempting to use the authorship of a legal opinion memo as a basis for a war crimes prosecution, but we support our Constitutional law professor and his constitutional free speech rights."
I went thru the last couple months of material - agendas and meetings - from the P&JC website. The biggest find was the following.
I'm posting the Yoo-related stuff only. The visit the Berkeley Peace & Justice Commission if you want the rest. ;)
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MINUTES COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC • Community members (10) regarding: • John Yoo/Torture ACTIONS TAKEN Item # 5: Adoption of Recommendation on John Yoo (see Attachment # 1). M/S/C: (Meola, Sorgen) Ayes: Diana Bohn, Elliot Cohen, Peter Kafin, Wendy Kenin, George Lippman, Jane Litman, Rita Maran, Bob Meola, Michael Sherman, Phoebe Anne Sorgen Abstain: None. Noes: None. Attachment # 1 John Yoo (Item # 5) RECOMMENDATION That the City Council adopts the following recommendations approved by the Peace & Justice Commission at its July 7, 2008 meeting: 1) Contact Carlos Villareal, Executive Director of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild at carlos@nlgsf.org and communicate that the City of Berkeley wishes to be listed amongst the signers of the Call to Investigate Professor John Yoo, which is a letter to University of California Chancellor, Robert Birgeneau (Attachment I); and 2) The City should state that no student of U.C. Berkeley should be required to choose between taking a course with Professor John Yoo or waiting another semester to take and complete a required course. If the Law School is to permit Professor Yoo to teach non-elective courses, the school should make available to students the opportunity to take these non-elective courses with another professor during the same semester so as to assure students are not sanctioned or delayed in their fulfillment of non-elective courses due to their distaste for taking a class with someone who wrote memoranda that authorized the use of pain, violence and degrading treatment as a method of treatment of persons held in U.S. custody; and 3) Ask the U.S. Attorney for Northern California to bring charges of war crimes against John Yoo, now teaching in the City of Berkeley at U.C. Berkeley School of Law; and 4) Send another letter in February, 2009 to the then-Attorney General of the United States asking him/her to bring charges of war crimes against John Yoo, if such charges have not yet been brought; and 5) That a letter be sent to the President of the University of California, the Chancellor of U.C. Berkeley and the Dean of U.C. Berkeley School of Law incorporating the language of the above recommendations and advising them of the City’s position. BACKGROUND In June 2008 the National Lawyers Guild initiated a Call to Investigate Professor John Yoo. The Call states that “Professor Yoo was the principal author for several memoranda that provided legal cover for officials in the Bush Administration, CIA and Pentagon to ignore domestic and international laws in interrogating military detainees.” The criticism of Professor Yoo is not based on academic activity that is protected as academic freedom. “Rather,” continues the Call, “it amounts to professional misconduct, providing not sound legal advice but the illusion of legality to patently immoral and actually illegal activities, i.e. the torture and murder of military detainees.” The Call requests the Chancellor of the University of California to investigate "whether Yoo violated the UC Faculty Code of Conduct" by authoring "legal memoranda justifying illegal torture techniques…that failed professional standards of lawyerly competence, as well as heightened ethical duties of certain government attorneys.” The Call goes on to argue that "Whenever a faculty member engages in professional conduct that causes the kind of harm or attempts to shield the type of harm caused by the Yoo memos, it raises serious concerns that the University must address by formal investigation." After researching academic policy it was determined that the General University Policy (APM - 015) Regarding Academic Appointees provides flexibility in its Faculty Code of Conduct. While the Code specifies conviction for a criminal act as a type of unacceptable act in the sphere of the Community at large, it is clear that this is not an exhaustive criterion, and that "Faculty may be subjected to disciplinary action under [the] Code for any type of conduct which, although not specifically enumerated herein, meets the standards for unacceptable faculty behavior." Under these circumstances asking for a University investigation is an appropriate step that will allow the University to determine whether or not Mr. Yoo should be sanctioned by the University. Past Council Action On March 13, 2007, the Berkeley City Council passed RESOLUTION NO. 63,613-N.S. entitled, SUPPORTING PROSECUTION OF SECRETARY OF DEFENSE DONALD RUMSFELD AND OTHER GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS. That resolution endorsed a lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights and by the German Prosecutor in Germany under the laws of Universal Jurisdiction. That lawsuit named John Yoo amongst the others to be prosecuted for war crimes and torture. In that resolution, the city of Berkeley stated, “NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Berkeley endorses the case of Rumsfeld et al and requests the City Manager to send a copy of this resolution to the Center for Constitutional Rights. “BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Berkeley supports efforts throughout the world to hold Donald Rumsfeld and other United States officials who have prosecuted the War on Terror in violation of any applicable law to be held both civilly and criminally accountable for their actions before any tribunal with jurisdiction over the matter, whether such legal proceedings are pursued in this country or abroad.” CONTACT PERSON |
Source: Berkeley Peace & Justice Commission, Minutes from the 07/07/08 meeting. (PDF, 35.3KB).
For everyones’ sake; don’t EVER close Berkeley; make it bigger and bigger, and offer more extreme, off-the-wall s—t to appeal to more and more helmorrhoids. They’ll be together as one when the surgery occurs.
And I think her husband is involved in Berkeley politics.
There is no diversity other than lieberal diversity! heil!
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