Permissible Assaults Cited in Graphic Detail

[struggle4progress]

Drugging Detainees Is Among Techniques
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 6, 2008; Page A03

Thirty pages into a memorandum discussing the legal boundaries of military interrogations in 2003, senior Justice Department lawyer John C. Yoo tackled a question not often asked by American policymakers: Could the president, if he desired, have a prisoner's eyes poked out?

Or, for that matter, could he have "scalding water, corrosive acid or caustic substance" thrown on a prisoner? How about slitting an ear, nose or lip, or disabling a tongue or limb? What about biting?

These assaults are all mentioned in a U.S. law prohibiting maiming, which Yoo parsed as he clarified the legal outer limits of what could be done to terrorism suspects as detained by U.S. authorities. The specific prohibitions, he said, depended on the circumstances or which "body part the statute specifies." ...

"Having 81 pages of legal analysis with its footnotes and respectable-sounding language makes the reader lose sight of what this is all about," said Dawn Johnsen, an OLC chief during the Clinton administration who is now a law professor at Indiana University. "He is saying that poking people's eyes out and pouring acid on them is beyond Congress's ability to limit a president. It is an unconscionable document." ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/05/AR2008040502099.html?hpid=moreheadlines

[drmeow]

1. Where's Nuremberg when we need it

And this f**khead is teaching at Berkeley - I hope his students give him f**king hell.

[struggle4progress]

2. I find myself imagining a future President who decides national security requires torturing Yoo

[bhikkhu]

3. Like saying: The president would like to poke out people's eyes and pour acid on them

What sort of legal stuff do we have here to keep the president from poking people's eyes out and pouring acid on them? Do we have anything?

Perhaps everyone should just stay away from the president while we sort this out...