Protesters want UC Berkeley law professor fired
By TERENCE CHEA, The Associated Press
Monday, August 17, 2009 at 8:44 p.m.

A police officer leads protester Cynthia Papermaster from a University of California, Berkeley classroom while Professor John Yoo, left, prepares to teach on Monday, Aug. 17, 2009, in Berkeley, Calif. Anti-war activists protested on the University of California, Berkeley campus Monday to call for the firing of a law professor who co-wrote legal memos that critics say were used to justify the torture of suspected terrorists. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

BERKELEY, Calif. — Anti-war activists protested Monday at the University of California, Berkeley to call for the firing of a law professor who co-wrote legal memos that critics say were used to justify the torture of suspected terrorists.
Campus police arrested at least four people who refused to leave the university's law school building.
The demonstrators said John Yoo should be dismissed, disbarred and prosecuted for war crimes for his work as a Bush administration attorney from 2001 to 2003, when he helped craft legal theories for waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques.
Shouting "war criminal," the protesters confronted Yoo as he entered a lecture hall on the first day of class at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, where the tenured professor is teaching a civil law course this semester.
Yoo mostly ignored the demonstrators and waited for police to remove them from the classroom before he began teaching. Several officers then stood outside the lecture hall to prevent protesters and journalists from entering.
Demonstrators also staged a mock arrest of Yoo. Some dressed in black hoods and orange prisoner suits similar to ones seen in infamous photos of Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, which was closed in 2006 following reports of detainee abuse.
"There is little doubt that John Yoo is a war criminal," said civil rights attorney Dan Siegel, speaking outside Boalt Hall. "John Yoo went to Washington and created the ideological, political and legal basis for the torture of innocent people."
Yoo, who returned to UC Berkeley after spending the spring semester at Chapman University School of Law in Orange County, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
Yoo, 42, has defended the controversial interrogation techniques, saying they were needed to protect the country from terrorists after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"To limit the president's constitutional power to protect the nation from foreign threats is simply foolhardy," Yoo wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece last month.
He has come under intense criticism since the interrogation memos became public in 2004. The Berkeley City Council has passed a measure calling for the federal government to prosecute him for war crimes, and convicted terrorist Jose Padilla has filed a lawsuit alleging that Yoo's legal opinions led to his alleged torture.
Christopher Edley Jr., Berkeley's law school dean, has rejected calls to dismiss Yoo, saying the university doesn't have the resources to investigate his Justice Department work, which involved classified intelligence.
Berkeley law students are divided over Yoo, whose classes are among the law school's most popular.
Liz Jackson, a second-year law student, said the university should determine if he violated UC's faculty code of conduct. "I personally believe he has blood on his hands," said Jackson, 30.
But Nathan Salha, 24, who took one of Yoo's classes last year and is enrolled in his course this semester, said he's a good teacher. "I don't think it's the university's place to fire him for political opinions," he said.

David A. Carrillo
CA DOJ - AG’s Office
PO Box 70550
Oakland, CA 94612

Mr. Carrillo:

We have just learned that you plan to co-teach Constitutional Design and the California Constitution this coming spring semester at Boalt Hall with Professor John Yoo. This causes us grave concern, which we would like to share with you.

You are probably aware that Yoo is the author of memos justifying torture—which is, of course, always and everywhere a crime—as well as memos justifying domestic spying on U.S. citizens. He did this while in a position of power in the Bush administration, knowing that his work would be used to implement policies that violate both domestic and international law, professional ethics rules, and basic standards of human decency. His actions resulted in gross violations of civil liberties, physical pain, and death.

In response to Yoo’s unethical actions as an attorney, the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility has prepared a report that should be released this month and will likely ask relevant state bars to take appropriate disciplinary action against Yoo and others. Yoo also faces a civil lawsuit brought by Jose Padilla for authorizing extremely harsh treatment of Padilla in violation of his constitutional rights – a lawsuit which a George H. Bush appointed federal judge is allowing to go forward over the objections of Yoo and his attorneys. Yoo is also facing criminal charges in a Spanish court for violations of international law.

There has been and will continue to be serious and determined opposition to Mr. Yoo’s presence at Boalt and in the city of Berkeley. A diverse alliance of student groups came together as the Boalt Alliance to Abolish Torture, which held a month of torture awareness panels, with much of the focus on Yoo’s infamous memos. Over 200 Berkeley law students and staff signed on to petitions submitted November 24, calling for the Justice Department, the Pennsylvania State Bar, and the UC Berkeley Academic Senate to conduct an investigation of “Torture Memo” Lawyers. Berkeley City Council has publicly condemned Yoo’s work and requested action from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and local activists have made it clear through dozens of protest actions that Yoo is not welcome in Berkeley.

By instructing a class with Mr. Yoo, you are helping to legitimize his illegal and unethical actions. The timing could not be worse for a partnership with Mr. Yoo - just as the calls for justice are starting to be heard. We urge you to reconsider. We ask that you teach the course alone, or if Dean Edley won’t allow that, that you withdraw from co-teaching it with Yoo.

We would very much like to sit down with you in the near future to discuss this further.

Signatories:
National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
joined by Alliance for Justice, Bay Area Association of Muslim Lawyers, Berkeley La Raza Law Students Association, Boalt Alliance to Abolish Torture, East Bay La Raza Lawyers Association, Law Students for Justice in Palestine, National Lawyers Guild UC Berkeley School of Law Chapter
Carlos Villarreal, Executive Director
National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
www.nlgsf.org
415.285.5067x304