John Yoo - "The KSM Trial Will Be an Intelligence Bonanza for al Qaeda" - Says Obama Is Wrong

[TomCADem]

I still find it amazing that some folks insist that there is little difference between the Obama administration and the Bush administration. But, if there was any doubt of the difference, here is John Yoo (the author of the torture memos) in an opinion for the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704431804...

The KSM Trial Will Be an Intelligence Bonanza for al Qaeda

'This is a prosecutorial decision as well as a national security decision," President Barack Obama said last week about the attorney general's announcement that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other al Qaeda operatives will be put on trial in New York City federal court.

No, it is not. It is a presidential decision—one about the hard, ever-present trade-off between civil liberties and national security.

Trying KSM in civilian court will be an intelligence bonanza for al Qaeda and the hostile nations that will view the U.S. intelligence methods and sources that such a trial will reveal. The proceedings will tie up judges for years on issues best left to the president and Congress.

Whether a jury ultimately convicts KSM and his fellows, or sentences them to death, is beside the point. The treatment of the 9/11 attacks as a criminal matter rather than as an act of war will cripple American efforts to fight terrorism. It is in effect a declaration that this nation is no longer at war.

[Bolo Boffin]

1. Here, Mr. Yoo, let me fix that for you...

"It is in effect a declaration that this nation is no longer has never been at war."

There, that's better.

[Why Syzygy]

2. If only this were true.

It is in effect a declaration that this nation is no longer at war.


***
Since the CIA sponsors AQ, they can worry about dealing with the intelligence in house.
It won't be the first CIA convictions (Italy!).
Justice, not World War.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. John Yoo, Cheney's little boy

[niyad]

4. yoo, you are a disgrace to lawyers everywhere, and should be in jail yourself.

shut up and go away

[Wizard777]

35. John Yoo makes Orly Taitz look sane.

[spanone]

5. color me shocked....self-preservation, mr yoo?

[evilkumquat]

6. Wait, If This is a War...

Why did the Bush Administration not abide by the Geneva Conventions?

I mean, I thought captured "terrorists" were "enemy combatants" and not "soldiers" subject to humane treatment?

So, Yoo, if this is "war", then you and the rest of the Bush Administration committed war crimes by torturing captured enemy troops.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Why is John Yoo not in jail?

[guyton]

23. torture trials?

Indeed -- whatever happened to our living up to our moral and legal requirements to prosecute the people responsible for torture? Hmmph.

John Yoo should be writing his letters from a maximum security cell instead of biting the hand that (so far) has declined to hold him accountable.

[Bolo Boffin]

8. Holy fucking shit, "[Moussauoi's] case never made it to a jury"?????

Yoo, you fucking idiot, Moussaoui pled GUILTY.

[Captain Hilts]

9. So was blowing Valerie Plame's cover. nt

[Subdivisions]

10. Another scared little rat shitting his pants over a KSM trial... n/t

[HCE SuiGeneris]

13. The enablers have much to fear.

We need to bring about justice for these cons. This trial will be a start.

[budkin]

11. ROFLMAO!!!

[smoogatz]

12. Because John Yoo has been so totally right about everything.

Jeebus. Is there no failure of conscience so abject that we won't reward it with an op-ed in a major newspaper?

[struggle4progress]

14. Isn't this the guy that thinks the President can crush kids' testicles with impunity?

Yoo is nervous about something in this case

Bush Advisor Says President Has Legal Power to Torture Children
By Philip Watts
01/08/06 "revcom.us" -- -- John Yoo publicly argued there is no law that could prevent the President from ordering the torture of a child of a suspect in custody – including by crushing that child’s testicles ... http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11488.h...

[Bolo Boffin]

15. That's him.

Imagine the depth of human depravity to use KSM as a human shield to hide your own crimes. Now you've met John Yoo.

[Pirate Smile]

16. People saying there is no difference between Obama and Bush were probably the same fools who thought

there wasn't any difference between Gore and Bush. They'll never learn, I guess, or else that lesson has a retention power of a couple months.

[bleever]

17. Or, it may be an intelligence bonanza for American citizens,

which is really what I think Yoo is worried about.

[Octafish]

36. And the International War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague.

They probably would never get that far, if the American people had an honest press.
They'd be spending the rest of their natural days at Leavenworth, making little rocks out of big ones.
The lesser war criminals and traitors, that is.

[glitch]

37. In Yoo's mind the American people ARE the enemy.

Everybody else in his private club thinks so too.

[krispos42]

18. Fuck Yoo

And his ass-covering.

[struggle4progress]

19. And the hell with Yoo, too!

[Atticus]

20. Gee, that's really interesting. I wonder what Rev. Phelps thinks. And, what about Joe the Plumber?

I'm just sayin', if you're going to offer a platform to totally discredited wingnuts---

[Odin2005]

21. Fuck Yoo!

[gratuitous]

22. He's right about one thing . . .

It is indeed a hard, ever-present trade-off: But it's not between civil liberties and national security. Because that's never the trade-off; our national security is found in our civil liberties. The trade-off is between folks who believe in America and its Constitution, and those who believe in tyranny. John Yoo is squarely in the second camp. And we've tried it his way for eight years. We've squandered a trillion dollars, we're on the hook for another trillion or two, and we have a pile of dead bodies that would stack half way to the moon.

[JoeyT]

24. Amen.

We're finished listening to the pro-tyranny brigade. Yoo and everyone like him can go piss up a rope.

[Solly Mack]

25. Yoo should be in prison

[Golden Raisin]

26. Well there's a shock

coming from someone who spits and defecates on the Geneva Conventions, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Rule of Law. These people really would be happier and more at home living under a fascist dictatorship rather than a democracy (or what's left of one).

[annabanana]

27. The more these torturers squeal, the better I like Holder's decision.

In fact, the degree of squealing is a very good indicator of just exactly how right any move on this subject is.

[boppers]

28. WTF?

Here are the secrets:
1. If you email a person in another country, or are on an email list that goes to another country, you are being tracked.
2. If you post to a website available in another country, or are on a website that goes to another country, you are being tracked. (DU is available to other countries)

(repeat for IRC, phone calls, whatever)

My guess is that the real "freakout" is about people who didn't know this.

[mmonk]

29. Why does Obama protect the bush administration in court when other

victims no longer held but were rendered and tortured have their attempt at justice in the courts? You stress the differences which I agree there are, but why not have a full return to the rule of law?

[Hubert Flottz]

30. Throw the Yoo down the well,

So my country can be free,
We must take him by the horns,
Then we have a big parteeee!

[boston bean]

31. John Yoo who??

the man who wrote the torture memo's that were suppose to give cover to those breaking the law, and did a good job of it, considering there hasn't been one prosecution for the higher ups who forced the lowly peons to torture!

[Vinca]

32. Somehow I doubt anything classified will be put into the court record.

Yoo is perpetuating the insane paranoia of the Bush years. Be afraid! Be very afraid!

[DU GrovelBot]

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[blogslut]

34. Mr. Yoo is feeling the heat

He's right in the middle of the bulls eye and he knows it.

[Bolo Boffin]

38. John Cornyn just basically read this tripe into the Senate record today

And another thing:

According to Mr. McCarthy, who tried the case, it was delivered to bin Laden in Sudan on a silver platter within days of its production as a court exhibit.

How does anybody know this? Sounds like yet ANOTHER intelligence-gathering operation has been compromised, but that's OK when it's Republicans trying to cover up their torture and their lies...

Incredible.