""The Powers of War and Peace" - Berkeley Law Professor John Yoo

[Coastie for Truth]

Opponents of the the war in Iraq has often includes the argument that President Bush lacked the constitutional authority to wage the war. Legal scholar John Yoo wrote a secret memo to then White House counsel Alberto Gonzales which argued that the executive had the right to use military force preemptively against terrorists or nations that harbored them. In his new book, "The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs after 9/11," Yoo outlines a defense of his position and examines constitutional history and the Framers' intent for presidential power. "The Powers of War and Peace" also looks at the role of Congress in the funding the use of military forces overseas.

John Yoo , a professor at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law and former counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, will be online Friday, Jan. 13, at 1 p.m. ET to discuss his new book, "The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs after 9/11."

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Personal, nasty, editorial comment: If Dan Lungren is elected Senator in 2006 - will Bush nominate Yoo to the 9th Circuit - or maybe to SCOTUS? :shrug:

[atreides1]

1. Berekely?????

How in the world did this pre-Nazi clown get hired by UC Berkeley in the first place????

Were they trying to do affrimative action for believers in imperial power and the torture of children?

[Coastie for Truth]

2. I only pay (very very high) CA taxes

I am not on the faculty search committee.

[Surya Gayatri]

3. That frozen inscrutable stare

gives me the creeps. Yoo reminds me of the Korean thug "Oddjob" in the Bond film "Goldfinger". :scared: SG

[Coastie for Truth]

4. See comment

:toast: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :toast:

That's a good one - score one for you

(Like the criticism of Frist - saying he reminded the appender of the Cardiac Surgeon in Denzel Washington's "John Q")

[Surya Gayatri]

5. Wow, yeah,

can't you just imagine all of these people as character actors in the ultimate horror movie--only this is for real? Scary, evil stuff...SG

spelling edit

[teryang]

6. He's wrong

the President does not have the power to unitaterally initiate war. The UN charter precludes it. This is why Nuremberg prosecuter Benjamin Ferencz says that the Iraq war is a war crime. It was never sanctioned by the Security Council. The Charter is a a treaty that was entered into and ratified with Constitutional authority. This is why neo-cons hate the UN. Even without the charter an invasion of a sovereign state without the necessary prerequisite of a foundation of legitimate self defense remains a war crime just the same.

The fact that the Congress and the press (intimidated by a Reichstag fire event like 911 or anthrax attacks) ratified the illegal invasion by funding it, does nothing to legitimate the war or enhance the presidential power as commander in chief under the Constitution.

The notion that the executive power of the republic is enhanced to dictatorial status has no precedent in constitutional law. It is a clever but deceitful tool of straussian ideologues enamored with Michavellian ploys to maintain corporate elite dominance in a fictional republic.