Noto, I don't follow you at all. Are you saying that the flaws of Nuremburg make extra legal nonsense out of all further proceedings in a similar vein, and thus anyone who comes out of a culture that makes the laws that design and define torture to be legal are themselves immune from law? What is apparent is that Yoo was hired to do all that he could to provide cover for atrocities, and spent his intellectual capital doing just that. At Nuremberg, they didn't try the foot soldiers, but the designers of the atrocities. Two who didn't escape punishment and were among the most severely punished at Nuremberg were Julius Streicher, an editor of a major newspaper, and Dr. Wolfram Sievers of the Ahnenerbe Society's Institute of Military Scientific Research, whose own crimes were traced back to the University of Strasbourg. The justification for that at Nuremberg was that those defendants could understand the consequences of the work that they were carrying out. It's impossible for me to imagine that Law Professor Yoo was too stupid to understand the direct consequences of his Justice Dept. torture memos. But I'm happy to see a criminal trial jury decide. Otherwise we need to start making some serious reparations to the Nazis for our nonsensical, extralegal Nuremberg excesses.

Bravo! This sort of legal action needs to take place and hold to account the crypto-fascists who enabled Dubya, Cheney, & Co. to go on their Constitution busting crime spree. If there is ever a Nuremberg style proceeding to adjudicate the crimes of the creepy crew currently occupying the White House, John Yoo is one of the names who should be there.

It is truly sickening that this man is a law professor in a reputable, or once, reputable, law school. How can this be? And at Berkeley no less! Why don't students boycott his classes? Whatever can he be teaching that one would want to learn?

The prolonged torture of Jose Padilla has damaged his mind. This torture unto organ failure is even against Donald the sadist Rumsfeld's limits. This man, Yoo, should be indicted for war crimes.

I heard Yoo on tv once say he was surprised by how people on campus reacted to him..by showing disdain for him and his position on torture.

Imo he is a fool and one of those people who is well educated but clueless.

I hope the court case against him wins and he is fined millions of dollars.

"Message to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy from
American Lawyers Defending the Constitution:"...read about it!

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2165/t/2629/signUp.jsp?key=2843

If you are a law student or lawyer you can help defend the U.S. Constitution by signing on (above link) with "AMERICAN LAWYERS DEFENDING THE CONSTITUTION".

Non-lawyers can sign on to the American Freedom Campaign at http://www.americanfreedomcampaign.org///index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=42 to support "(H.R. 3835),The American Freedom Agenda Act of 2007."

Extralegal nonsense? You want legal nonsense instead? There's a job waiting for you in the Bush administration.

The financial judgement against Yoo should be in the Billions.

Using our own Nuremberg rules, Yoo and the little Eichmann monsters who chose his advice over bedrock morality would've already be tried convicted, executed, covered in manure and pushing up toadstools.

It will never be too late to electrocute the American war criminals unless something else gets them first.

The case against Yoo makes about as much legal sense as the Bush administration's designation of a U.S. citizen as an "illegal enemy combatant" and therefore unable to challenge his detention in American courts.

Yoo is part of everything that is wrong with the Bush administration, but he is not a criminal. To suggest that he belongs in a Nuremberg-style trial is to engage in the same kind of extralegal nonsense that has consumed the Bush administration the last eight years.

"Although Padilla's lawyers say he suffered serious psychological harm and violations of numerous constitutional rights, the suit seeks only token damages of $1, along with a declaration that Yoo acted illegally"

Why so little money and why not the loss of his license to practice law and loss of his teaching job at UC?
The man RUINED Mr. Padilla's life and who know how many others, to say nothing of the shredding of the Constitution.

"Although Padilla's lawyers say he suffered serious psychological harm and violations of numerous constitutional rights, the suit seeks only token damages of $1, along with a declaration that Yoo acted illegally."

I hope this works. I think having what Yoo did publicly declared illegal, for that purpose, and not for monetary gain, might actually drive a point, and help make this issue one that cannot be mangled into some sort of a selfish move.
By making it a matter of justice, and less one of what would certainly be just compensation, I think something good might come of it. Good being any sort of an awakening in the public realm.

george w. bush: Thank you for making an excellent case.

COLLEEN: There are distinctions between rote intelligence and one's emotional "I.Q" and basic morality. Yoo is a morally bankrupt opportunist incapable of empathy or the capacity to put himself in the shoes of all the unfortunates caught in a drift net to function as props for an illicit war of caprice and empire.

Suing John Yoo is not enough. He should be taken to The Hague in manacles and tried for war crimes. If found guilty, he should get the max.

SHAME ON BERKELEY!!

Shame! To hire such a repugnant human as this one.

The man should hang for treason!!

Looking at the atrocities, and genocide our government has inflicted on various people at home and abroad, always with a rationale for doing so, and now with our torture program that the duopoly party is comfortable with, what's next?

John Yoo should get the max as purvis ames said. Otherwise the Nuremberg Trials taught us nothing.

May the Infinite take care of Jose Padilla, the man who was 'crucified' by America.

will somebody tell me why nobody talks about Steven Cambone- the ,am jored by Rumsfeld to oversee intelligence and the one who PRESSURED all of the military to torutre, guitmatize Abu Grab etc etc.

In her book, "Origins of Totalitarianism", Hannah Arendt describes how otherwise commonsensical people who found themselves organized in the Nazi hierarchy began to submit totality to the system despite its obvious irrationality. For example, it seems that Himmler selected candidates on the basis of their Aryan racial features from photographs. This method of selection within the SS was considered perfectly normal, rational and exceptable, even though the same people considered it ridiculous when outside the Nazi organization. It's almost as if organization itself shapes thinking. In other words, all one has to do to create John Yoos is to change the organization of society.

After he's convicted to serve time, he should be given a taste of his own medicine. That's real justice done.

But let's not forget about the guys on the top of the torture chain.

Don't elect anyone who will not pledge to work for the indictment of these war criminals like Bush/Cheney, Yoo and others criminals in the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

We are not "America" if we don't attempt to bring justice where justice was denied.

Same for the treatment of the native American population. We must atone for the criminal treatment of the native Americans.

I pray there is some justice for Jose Padilla. This could happen to any of us in the new America.

It remains unclear whether these guys are a credit to America's sorry state, or a curse. At least they're using the legal system (itself) to justify illegality/unethical/offensive behavior.

Ordinarily, tyrants just go ahead and do whatever they want. Since Bush is untouchable, Yoo's "work" is a mere formality.

"Monsters. Monsters from the id."

Forbidden Planet

Siouxrose

Shockingly..I think Yoo actually had no understanding that anyone would find what he had done morally repugnant.

I wonder if he could be disbared.

And I would like to see the doctors and the psychologists who also took part in these crimes against humanity, losing their licenses.

People who engaged in torture should at the least be removed from any positions of authority and lose any licenses.

A case of what goes round comes around..

And about time too...

All thats left to do is IMPEACH Cheney & Bush for WAR CRIMES

Saila ~

Surely you are NOT suggesting that torture tactics that are wrong for Padilla & others are perfectly OK and justifiable for Yoo, Cheney & Co.?

Please clarify your position.

"Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, said the suit faces difficult hurdles because lawyers normally can't be held liable for the consequences of their advice, or government officials for their policy decisions."

Think about it: We have a legal system where everyone is held accountable for his actions--except lawyers and government officials. I wonder if it's mere coincidence that our legal system was DESIGNED by lawyers and government officials?

I believe this lawsuit will be thrown out of court. John Yoo has his first amendment rights, so he can write an opinion however he wants.

What is needed is a lawsuit against those government officials (including Rumsfeld) who implemented that pathetic opinion as policy. And those who carried it out.

And Bush and Cheney who not only allowed it to occur, but embraced it and tried to re-define torture...

aquietman

Yes I also ran into a dilemma with freedom of speech and someone advocating torture. But these people like Yoo, have specialized training and should know the limits of what is legally possible for a government.

Governments should not be engaged in torture.

So I think people who have advocated or committed torture in their capacity as a lawyer or as a doctor or as a psychologist, should lose their licenses and lose their positions of authority because they have no judgement of what is legal or moral even after receiving degrees and specialized educations. But I am not a lawyer and with the US government now breaking so many laws under the Bush admnistration this is all hypothetical.

It is so disgusting how Bush has used minorities and people of color to take the "hit," when shit happens. Once more, the patsy's supervisor, in this case, Jay Bybee, Yoo's Justice Department supervisor, who signed off on the recommendation, is being held blameless and even rewarded for his dirty work, as evidenced by his appointment by President Bush to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Of course Bush is not above using the young and the innocent as well, who die or are maimed for life, "for their country."

As for Jose Padilla, and all the rest who are being detained and tortured at this moment, I hold in prayer.

Berkeley seems to have become the new "School of the Americas"

What is also sick about cases like Padilla is the government's trumped up charges, stirring public fear and ill got policies, then the case is thrown out of court or never proven, leaving the government to justify their cases on other minor (?false) charges to keep someone in prison forever. How can the average joe understand the truth? Some of us may also be 'guilty' of similar charges such as supporting an 'antigovernment sentiment', or donating to a group that may come into our government's disfavor one day.

Pdf,

Hi there. I meant it as enlightenment because I thought it might just be possible that this lawyer may not realize how inhumane and excruciating the torture is. So, give him a shot, and let him experience it and realize how horrible torture can be. In the same sense, waterboarding could be performed on those who do it to others and believe it not to be torture. Unless they personally experience it, they may never change their minds.

Surprise? The California University system is yet another extension of the military industrial corporate complex.

Yoo is simply a symptom of the disease and a sign of the times. Those with educated criminal minds do well on the fast track to success, high office, and wealth.

Like Condy and Colin, Johnny Rotten Yoo has been given the equal opportunity to serve the elite masters of American terror. Don't expect him to serve any hard time.

Crimes against humanity are an accepted part of American life.

I'm happy to hear the N-word (Nuremberg) finally being bandied about. Our loss of credibility and respect in the world is linked directly to our retreat from the high moral ground we claimed and the high standards we imposed in those famous trials.

As has been pointed out, many German and Japanese soldiers and officers were hanged much lesser crimes than those of Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, and down on the line to the common Marine.

It might behoove those of you who have family members on the ground in Iraq to remind them that "just following orders" cannot save them from the gallows.

The pendulum is swinging. Soon the war criminals will be swinging too.

I'm a little late for this discussion, but I'll throw in a Russian phrase that probably came from their putting down that little rebellion in Chechnya."Torture only hurts if you are guilty". I'm certain that Bush,Cheney and all those involved in their despicable, illegal activities would be proud to have that phrase as a desk plaque. I believe that the Senate OK'ed Jay Bybee to the Ninth Circuit Court because they didn't know how he had signed off on the torture memo. The Democratic Senate has kept other torture enablers from being appointed to the federal circuit court positions. John Dean has made a great argument for the impeachment of the enablers of the Bush Administration. Everything from the torture policies to lying to justify war. I have a list with at least 20 names on it. It probably won't happen! I would like to see the next Democratic President arrest all of those enablers and then try them in a open court for their crimes. The top four or five should be sent to the Hague for War crimes trial. Is this too much to hope for?

Yoo did this because he wanted a high-level position in the Bush administration in exchange for his "legal services," likely that of AG. When he didn't get that, he left Washington in a huff. Now it's time for him to pay the piper for selling out principle and the integrity of our judicial system for an expected move up the career ladder. Too bad for him.

Yoo is a smiling scumbag weasel that will say anything to please his fascist masters.