Crapaganda.com

President George W. Bush’s legal counsel and chief “torture architect” John Yoo didn’t receive a warm welcome from everyone at the University of Virginia during a speech Tuesday.

Yoo, who was instrumental in constructing the legal framework with which the Bush administration carried out harsh interrogation techniques, intended to speak about his new book, Crisis and Command. But some members of the audience refused to ignore his transgressions.

According to the Charlottesville, VA newspaper C-Ville, one man shouted at Yoo and then told the audience, “I can’t believe that you all would actually tolerate a war criminal in your midst! It speaks volumes about this country and the state that we’re in!” He was promptly escorted out by the police.

Watch John Yoo try to sell his book while being shouted down

See also: John Yoo’ Speech Disrupted at Johns Hopkins University (YouTube)

Unnamed sources who spoke to Newsweek magazine said the Obama Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) has concluded that John Yoo and Jay Bybee, who penned the infamous memos, used “poor judgment” but will not be subject to disciplinary action. Yoo and Bybee worked in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, along with Steven Bradbury, who is also named in the report.

The conclusions of the OPR report provide yet another demonstration of President Barack Obama’s defense of the anti-democratic and criminal practices of the Bush administration in the “war on terror,” and the current administration’s resolve that no one—especially those at the highest levels of government—will be held to account.

An earlier version of the OPR report completed in December 2008 concluded that Yoo, presently a University of California at Berkeley law professor, and Bybee, now a federal appeals court judge on the 9th Circuit, violated professional standards when they drafted an August 2002 legal opinion authorizing brutal methods by the CIA in the interrogation of suspected terrorist detainees.

US exonerates authors of Bush torture memos (wsws.org)

See Also: The Man Who Wrote The Book On Torture (Crapaganda.com)

During the Bush Administration, the U.S. military had captured the number 3 man in Al-Qaeda.  The prisoner was “resistant to normal interrogation.”  So they approached  the CIA, The Justice Dept, and the White House  in order to see how much pressure could be exerted to obtain information.

John Yoo was the Deputy Assistant Attorney General.  He was tasked with writing the legal briefs that make it look like Constitutional law is flexible when it comes to the powers of the President.  He sends the interrogators away with exactly what they want to hear and now we have the President of the United States operating outside of the law.

They did get a fancy lawyer to write up a paper in Legaleeze before they shredded the Constitution, this time.

Watch the first of a three part interview with John Yoo on The Daily Show.

Part 2, Part 3

It has been argued that Yoo could potentially be indicted for crimes against the laws and customs of war, the crime of torture, and crimes against humanity. Criminal proceedings to this end have begun in Spain, in a move that could lead to an extradition request.

Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George W. Bush by John Yoo

Report Faults 2 Authors of Bush Terror Memos (NY Times)