Bush lawyer defends waterboarding in local debate
John Yoo, whose memos justified controversial interrogation tactics, defends the practices during a Chapman University debate.
By MARTIN WISCKOL
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
ORANGE – John Yoo, a former Bush administration lawyer whose memos justified coercive interrogation tactics including waterboarding, said at a debate today that the controversial tactics were appropriate in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Three thousand of our fellow citizens had been killed in a deliberate attack by a foreign enemy," he told an audience of several hundred at Chapman University. "That forced us in the government to have to consider measures to gain information using presidential constitutional provisions to protect the country from further attack."
Yoo worked in the White House's Office of Legal Counsel and was among those who wrote the legal memos that provide the CIA with guidelines for interrogation.
Waterboarding, a tactic that simulates drowning, has been condemned by Atty. Gen Eric Holder as torture and, along with other aggressive interrogation techniques, has been banned by President Obama.
Opponents of the practices on hand at today's debate including four people with black hoods reminiscent of those worn by prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and catcallers who interrupted Yoo three times.
But the principal opponents at the debate – Chapman law professors Katherine Darmer and Lawrence Rosenthal – attacked the coercive interrogation techniques from a legal standpoint.
"Prior to the War on Terror, we took the position that waterboarding was torture and prosecuted it as such," Darmer said of the interrogation method.
Darmer and Rosenthal also challenged the effectiveness of the technique – particularly in light of CIA memos recently released that reported that waterboarding was used 183 times in one month against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, and 83 times in one month against Abu Zubaydah, a Qaeda operative.
"How effective is a tactic you have to use 266 times?" said Darmer. "We are lawyers. Our job is to follow the law. Torture is illegal and it's also wrong."
(snip)
When Yoo first came to the podium to speak today, he was greeted with yells of "war criminal" and "He doesn't belong in the university – he belongs in jail." Yoo responded with a slight smile.
"Maybe you all should conduct the debate," he said. "I'll write questions on cards and hand them in."
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/interrogation-yoo-darmer-2371038-waterboarding-coercive
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