John Yoo slams Obama for banning torture; implicates Bush

[ProSense]

Torture Lover John Yoo Excoriates Obama For Banning Torture

John Yoo, infamous author of the Bush administration legal memos authorizing the use of torture on suspected terrorists, slams President Obama for banning torture in a Wall Street Journal op-ed today, gravely warning that Obama “may have opened the door to further terrorist acts on U.S. soil.”

Throughout the article, Yoo insists that torture is America’s most effective weapon against terrorists and warns that without it, the U.S. will be incapable of intelligence-gathering:

Eliminating the Bush system will mean that we will get no more information from captured al Qaeda terrorists. Every prisoner will have the right to a lawyer (which they will surely demand), the right to remain silent, and the right to a speedy trial. <…>

Relying on the civilian justice system not only robs us of the most effective intelligence tool to avert future attacks, it provides an opportunity for our enemies to obtain intelligence on us.

Considering the Bush administration repeatedly insisted its use of coercive techniques was “limited,” it would be a far stretch even for loyal Bushies to suggest that torture is not the one and only method to obtaining information. And as ThinkProgress has made clear again and again, numerous intelligence experts and real interrogators agree that, far from being “the most effective intelligence tool,” torture simply doesn’t work.

<...>

UPDATE Yoo also makes it perfectly clear that Bush himself directly and explicitly ordered torture, including the waterboarding of at least three detainees:

What is needed are the tools to gain vital intelligence, which is why, under President George W. Bush, the CIA could hold and interrogate high-value al Qaeda leaders. On the advice of his intelligence advisers, the president could have authorized coercive interrogation methods like those used by Israel and Great Britain in their antiterrorism campaigns. (He could even authorize waterboarding, which he did three times in the years after 9/11.)

Another blatant admission of war crimes.

[Catshrink]

1. Oh goodie... they're starting to turn on each other.

:popcorn:

[Divine Discontent]

2. Yoo teaches at UC Berkeley? ick... oh & he implicates B*sh for waterboarding

and I just saw O'Reilly offer Rove a place to hide in tunnels there at FAUX NOISE and Rove got upset a little and said he doesn't need to hide! Olbermann came back on and said, "they don't have any tunnels, it's a just an escape hatch for female producers"

:rofl:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

3. Well I might as well be the first on this thread to say it:

FUCK YOO!

[EraOfResponsibility]

4. Yoo Bush & Cheney must really feel that they're justified for torture

despite what the law says. I mean they honestly believe they were doing the right thing. There's no other explanation for them being as blunt as they've been with their admissions of it.

[Peace Patriot]

7. Nope, I don't believe that they "honestly believe" anything. And there is another

explanation for their blatant admissions. Pelosi and others have guaranteed immunity to the top Bushwhacks. That's why Bush didn't pardon anybody. He and the chief Dark Lords of Bushwhackdom are out of the woods. Impeachment off the table; also prosecution. I suspect that it was a deal for no nuking of Iran, and leaving the White House peacefully when the time came (and getting rid of Rumsfeld). Maybe they thought they were doing the right thing (some of them). Armageddon vs. end of the rule of law. What's to choose? But primarily such a deal--if true--protects the war machine and its profiteers from us pitchfork-minded Americans.

You think that anything Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld did was to "keep us safe"? I don't. I think they were covering their tracks to 9/11, and accomplishing other self-serving purposes, with torture, indefinite detention, rendition and murdering prisoners.

The only thing they believe in is acquiring as much money and power as possible. They are complete traitors to the American people.

[Still Sensible]

5. Well Fuck Yoo!

[Berry Cool]

6. Keith Olbermann said tonight that this is how all forms of torture should be referred to

forevermore:

They should forever be labeled "The Bush System."

Very appropriate.

[AtomicKitten]

8. Rationalizing doing something illegal is an admission of guilt.

I hope somebody is keeping track of this stuff for later prosecution.

[MadMaddie]

9. YOO hasn't figured out that this admission can be used as

evidence! geeze....