Berkeley law students denounce professor for POW memo

[maddezmom]

By Terence Chea
ASSOCIATED PRESS
10:24 a.m. May 22, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO – A growing number of law students at the University of California at Berkeley are denouncing a professor who reportedly helped the Bush administration develop the legal framework that led to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.


A legal memo written by law professor John Yoo "contributed directly to the reprehensible violation of human rights in Iraq and elsewhere," according to a petition being circulated among students and faculty at Berkeley's Boalt School of Law.

As of Saturday morning, about 200 people had signed the petition, which was launched Thursday night.

Protesting students planned to wear red armbands during Boalt's commencement ceremony Saturday afternoon and pass out fliers denouncing Yoo for "aiding and abetting war crimes." Yoo said he didn't plan to attend the graduation.

The Jan. 9, 2002, memo co-written by Yoo, first reported in Newsweek magazine this week, laid out the legal reasons why the United States didn't have to comply with international treaties governing prisoner rights. The memo argued that the normal laws of armed conflict didn't apply to al-Qaeda and Taliban militia prisoners because they didn't belong to a state.

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more: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20040522-1024-ca-prisonerabuse-lawprofessor.html