2010 Protest John Yoo Torture Boalt Law School, Part 2

August 16, 2010
UC Berkeley Boalt Law School Protest
First Day of Classes
Press Conference and Procession
Berkeley, CA

World Can't Wait and other groups protest against Torture Professor John Yoo at UC Berkeley Law on first day of class, Fall 2010.
Press conference speakers: Stephanie Tang (World Can't Wait); Cindy Sheehan (Peace of the Action); Ann Fagan Ginger (Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute); Sharon Adams (National Lawyers Guild); Yanin, law student from Boalt Alliance to Abolish Torture; Medea Benjamin (Code Pink); Cynthia Papermaster (Nat'l Accountability Action Network).

Michael Moore Posts Oakland Tribune Story (following)
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latest-news/protest-draws-dozens-uc-berkele...

August 17th, 2010 1:45 PM
Protest draws dozens at UC Berkeley for John Yoo's first day of classes
By Sean Maher / Oakland Tribune

BERKELEY -- Protesters gathered at the opening of classes Monday to protest
the school's continued employment of John Yoo, a UC Berkeley professor who
gave legal sanction to the Bush administration's views on torture.
Between 70 and 80 people gathered near the Boalt Hall School of Law around
noon and, after a series of speakers discussed torture from a number of
perspectives, dipped their hands in red paint and marched into a classroom
where they believed Yoo to be teaching this semester, organizer Linda Jacobs
said.

Yoo was not in the classroom, so the group continued on to the dean's office
and demanded to speak with him, Jacobs said. Police at the scene declared
the group an unlawful assembly, at which point the protesters walked back
outside, Jacobs said.

"There was a very heavy police presence, but no arrests," Jacobs said.
Speakers throughout the demonstration discussed historical and legal issues
relating to torture, and one second-year law student "talked about shame of
being a Boalt Hall student while a war criminal is teaching Constitutional
Law," Jacobs said.

The Boalt Hall School of Law class schedule lists courses, such as
constitutional law, to be taught by John Yoo. The protesters challenged
Yoo's presence on campus because of legal memos he wrote that were
instrumental in the development of military and CIA interrogation techniques
that some consider to be torture.
Yoo has said that the Bush administration did not authorize torture and that
he did not consider waterboarding torture.

In February, the Department of Justice completed and released its
investigative report, clearing Yoo and the Bush administration's Office of
Legal Counsel of any professional wrongdoing, which Berkeley Law Dean
Christopher Edley said underscored the importance of the school's discretion
in not firing Yoo.

"Any effort to discipline a faculty member for their outside activities
creates dangers that ideological or political agendas may be advanced under
the vague banner of 'morality,'" Edley said. "I hope these new developments
will end the arguments about faculty sanctions, but we should and will
continue to argue about what is right or wrong, legal or illegal in
combating terrorism."

The organizers have several events planned throughout the semester, Jacobs
said, including a Berkeley Says No To Torture Week beginning Oct. 10 and the
screening of a WikiLeaks video of U.S. soldiers killing people, which
organizers hope to do Friday night near Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way
after dark.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• protest
• fire
• disbar
• torture
• professor
• john
• yoo
• memos
• academic
• freedom
• boalt
• law
• school
• rendition
• guantanamo
• bay
• abu
• ghraib

[QWERTY34990]

We need a huge protest here!! Close down UC Berkeley and their anarchist group Code Pink, Change we can do without government intervention. Spead the Word!!!

[underthebox]

"The time is always right to do what is right." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.