Berkeley Dean Defends Law Professor (Yoo)

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

The law professor who wrote one of the seminal "torture memos" that cleared the way for harsh and what critics call abusive and illegal interrogation techniques is safe in his job, the dean of the school says.

University of California-Berkeley School of Law Dean Christopher Edley, Jr., took sharp exception to Professor John Yoo's legal analysis for the Bush administration's Justice Department in a message posted on the school's Web site. But Edley said the responsibility for any resulting breaches of law rested with Yoo's clients — then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush.

"Yes, it does matter that Yoo was an adviser, but President Bush and his national security appointees were the deciders," Edley wrote.

"Assuming one believes as I do that Professor Yoo offered bad ideas and even worse advice during his government service, that judgment alone would not warrant dismissal or even a potentially chilling inquiry," he said.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/04/11/national/w110534D63.DTL&tsp=1

[theoldman]

1. Yoo told them what they wanted to hear.

He should lose his license to practice law.

[Wizard777]

6. He provided legal advice on the commission of a crime. That's a disbarrable offense.

It also makes him an accessory to the crime.

[Misskittycat]

11. Yes. n/t

[Jacobin]

33. Thank you for putting it so succinctly

It is illegal and unethical for an attorney to assist another in the commission of a crime, and that is precisely what he did

[ReadTomPaine]

37. Bingo. Nicely said. n/t

[indepat]

18. Soulless whores always tell their clients what they want to hear: his ilk should neither teach

nor hold a law license. In another time and place, Mr. Yoo types would be burned at the stake. :D

[The Magistrate]

2. Mr. Edley, Sir, Is An Ass

Yoo is a war criminal, no more and no less. Before a Nurenberg tribunal, he would be convicted and sentenced to twenty years. He is unfit to practice law, let alone teach it.

[Robb]

3. Hear, hear.

Nicely put. :hi:

[Loki]

26. I remember something called the "Nuremberg Defense"

"I was only following orders" does not now and did not then excuse criminal behavior Even the Uniform Code of Military Justice had to amend this after the Nuremberg Trials to allow for the refusal to follow an unlawful order. Mr. Yoo, I suggest you lawyer up.

[EFerrari]

4. Edley is in the wrong and I'm sue he's looking at renewed protests. nt

[FreepFryer]

5. 100% wrong. Academia is NOT supposed to turn a blind eye to the actions

of their professors.

Edley said, "Yes it does matter that Yoo was an advisor"

But Edley's behavior (not just his press release) says that it DOESN'T matter, making him a complete assclown.

Which makes Edley as guilty as all the other enablers.

[Igel]

23. Churchill, Ward.

Academia *was* supposed to turn a blind eye to the non-academic actions and words of Ward Churchill. The suspicion that his dismissal depended on judgment of his non-academic actions led to great indignation.

I personally respect the privileges and tenure committee's initial report; he was nailed for academic offenses.

I have the same attitude towards Yoo, and expect him to be held to the same standard. If it's wrong to nail Churchill for political, non-academic offenses, it's wrong to hold Yoo to them. One could make a distinction, but I think that distinction might become, well, tortured.

[Supersedeas]

28. 100% wrong -- legal acadamia does not turn a blind eye to precedant: Youngstown never discussed

in Yoo's memo.

[FreepFryer]

29. Correct! Here are a few links.

http://www.akkamsrazor.com/2008/04/09/youngstown-and-yoo/

http://firedoglake.com/2008/04/09/how-did-yoo-manage-to-leave-out-youngstown-steel/

[LibDemAlways]

7. OK, so according to Edley, Yoo did little more than offer

bad advice, and there should be no consequences. Using Mr. Edley's reasoning, Charles Manson shouldn't be held accountable for the Tate-La Bianca murders since he merely advised the actual killers in the course of action they should take, but ultimately they were the "deciders." Nice try, Mr. Edley, but no cigar.

[struggle4progress]

43. Yoo is just a fascist theorist like Alfred Rosenberg

[jaysunb]

8. His tenure is very troubling for me.

I realize that he has probably not done anything that directly relates to his job performance ( ? ) but to have him as an instructer in the UC system seems to send the wrong message to his students and others.
His involvment in overtly obvious war crimes--while not prosecuted--are, in my opinion reason enough for his dismissal. While I'm pretty sure they (UC) would be sued if they attempted to fire him, I'd hope they would try to negotiate his departure for the good of the school.

[Me.]

9. PU

Would that defense have passed muster at Nuremberg?

[Teaser]

10. "decider"

i fucking hate that word.

[peacetalksforall]

12. Certain people made a decision to torture and got their puppet and puppet

lovers to OK it.

[annabanana]

13. Yoo's "ideas and advise" not only warrant dismissal...

They warrant arrest.

[praeclarus]

14. say what?

"Assuming one believes as I do that Professor Yoo offered bad ideas and even worse
advice during his government service, that judgment alone would not warrant dismissal
or even a potentially chilling inquiry," he said.

What does the peckerhead Yoo have to do to get even an inquiry
into his fitness to teach the profession of law given this overwhelming
endorsement of his performance by his own boss? Apply the red hot tongs
himself?

Jebus.

Not only should Yoo go but Idiot Edley right along with him.

[Trillo]

17. Probably some kind of "professional courtesy" not extended to

others of lessor "stature".

[Kaleko]

15. Relentless assaults on reason - institutionalized.

Crazy-making. All part of Shock and Awe made in the USA to mind-numb its own populace into submission.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[Trillo]

16. 'Assuming one believes as I do that Professor Yoo offered bad ideas...

...and even worse advice during his government service, that judgment alone would not warrant dismissal or even a potentially chilling inquiry," he said.'

Well, if his ideas and judgment are that bad, then what of the plight of his students exposed to his bad ideas and judgment at your college?

[gratuitous]

20. You'd think the dean of a law school would be smarter than that

A simplistic argument so shot full of holes that a third grader would be ashamed to proffer it. But this guy's dean of a prestigious law school, though perhaps not for long (the prestigious part, not the dean part).

[Hissyspit]

31. Academic freedom is a very important aspect of higher education.

I think he committed a war crime, though. And that is enough to overrule any academic freedom issues.

They shouldn't have hired him in the first place.

[Trillo]

42. Aye, and there's the rub.

See my "professional courtesy" comment in post 17. We have a heirarchical system, it seems it begins in schools with a class based system of haves (teachers) and have nots (students).

Ultimately, Yoo didn't sign the orders authorizing torture, even though he created what appeared to be an academic rationale for it. That idea he created traveled upward where it more often than not would have been rejected and filed, but since those above were looking for a particular outcome, in this case it was accepted. Once the Executive Branch gives an order to those under them, a standing military is expected and trained to follow those orders without question. That's what boot camp is about, breaking down resistance to authority.

This seems a primary, systemic flaw of any hierarchical system.

[Mz Pip]

19. Yoo teaches

Constitutional Law. Oh, the irony. Unfortunately, that's a required course for law students so even if the students wanted to they can't avoid Yoo.

Looks like Berkeley and the students are stuck with this freak. It's pretty disturbing to think that law students are getting their education in Constitutional Law from Yoo.

[damntexdem]

21. Well, after all, malpractice is so common among lawyers that ...

I guess the Berkeley Law School feels that they need someone to teach it. ;-)

[williesgirl]

22. Call your Reps and Senators and insist they put a hold on any federal funding of this

school until they fire Yoo. No one with his criminal ways should be teaching our young adults who some day hope to become attorneys. God save us all.

Fire this fucker and do it now.

[rcsl1998]

24. Dean Edley,By Your Logic, You're Now The UC-Berkeley 'Decider'...

...with the 'responsibility' for keeping Yoo employed there - Why if, as you say, 'Professor Yoo offered bad ideas and even worse advice...' would you subject your students to such warped unconstitutional teaching? You are a disgrace...

[hootinholler]

25. Mr Edly, it is time to retract the foreskin of ignorance

and apply the wire brush of enlightenment.

Or we could just waterboard you.

-Hoot

[fascisthunter]

27. Yah... Whatever................ He Can Defend Himself in Court (nt)

[Hissyspit]

30. Never should have hired him in the first place, you dumb fuck. n/t

[Jacobin]

32. Then Dr. Mengle should have taught at a medical school?

This is fucking beyond preposterous. The bastard should be disbarred and put on trial for fucking war crimes, NOT teaching law.

[Solly Mack]

34. Yoo didn't simply "offer bad ideas", he provided legal cover and justification for war crimes.

School of Law Dean Christopher Edley is an idiot. Accountants don't go to jail for being bad at math, they go for doctoring the books.

[Zynx]

35. If an accounting professor advised a firm on how to commit some gross financial indiscretion

I should hope they would be dismissed. I believe the same should apply here. Yoo's performance is shameful and Edley is a moron.

[Solly Mack]

36. Exactly

[farmbo]

38. He vas a Good German...he did not know about the camps...

:grr:

[ToughLuck]

39. This man is soo wrong. Read article called "The Green Light"

Yoo as it turns out could be tried outside the US, read the article free online at Vanity Fair, the international court may be the only form of justice we get.

[ToughLuck]

40. Yoo was literally hand picked by this administration,

Yoo is tenured, so I don't know what they can do with him...but you can't deny the irony of him teaching at one of the most liberal universities in the US. He will rot in hell one day.

[defendandprotect]

41. Because it's the "Yoo/Ashcroft Accords" that the US signed . . . !!!!

[IndianaGreen]

44. Yoo was a guilty as Adolph Eichmann!

Eichmann didn't kill any Jews. He merely organized the mass deportations to the death camps. Like Dean Edley did in defending Yoo, Eichmann claimed that he wasn't responsible for what happened, that he wasn't a "decider."

Yoo should be fired! He has no place teaching law.

[ovidsen]

45. So much for Berkeley's reputation.

I remember when Berkeley was (as some right wingers would put it) a hotbed of progressive, liberal thought.

And here we have the dean of Berkeley's law school defending the paper Yoo wrote that sought to nullify the Bill of Rights, among other things. His description of the Geneva Conventions as "quaint" and his suggestion that US troops had the authority to search the US hopes of US citizens without a warrant, or even probable cause, makes me want to vomit.

Yep, he's a war criminal. Just like his bosses.

[rcsl1998]

46. Beware The Next Generation Of Rove's, Cheney's, Addington's et al He's 'Teaching'

[Mind_your_head]

47. Too late to recommend, but I shall give this a kick

:kick: