Fire, Disbar, and Prosecute John Yoo

During the lunch hour as students walked to and from their classes, human rights activists--dressed in orange jumpsuits, black hoods and chains to represent prisoners and torture victims--stood and kneeled in Sproul Plaza, a popular location for student protests since 1964 and the site of early teach-ins and protests against the Vietnam War and apartheid-era South Africa.

Members of FireJohnYoo.org distributed flyers detailing Yoo's activities as a former deputy assistant attorney general for the Bush administration from 2001 to 2003, during which time he drafted memoranda justifying torture during interrogation of detainees. University of California Dean of Law Christopher Edley, Jr. has refused to fire the tenured law professor or meet with the human rights activists. [Actually the dean has met w/ members of World Can't Wait, National Lawyers Guild and Psychologists for an Ethical APA since composition of this article, with promises but no action, and more recently with the Boalt Alliance to Abolish Torture, proceedings of which are being kept confidential].

In related developments, following the recommendation of the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility to reopen certain cases of alleged CIA prisoner abuse, on Aug. 25 Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. appointed prosecutor John H. Durham to review prisoners' allegations of torture by interrogators and the legal opinions--some written by Yoo--which sanctioned the actions and provided interrogation guidelines.

--Elaine Pasquin