Protests and Speeches Mark Berkeley's "Say No to Torture" Week

[unhappycamper]

Protests and Speeches Mark Berkeley's "Say No to Torture" Week
Thursday 14 October 2010
by: Nadia Prupis, t r u t h o u t | Report

As the heat rose in Berkeley, California, this week, so did the temperament of the students, faculty and organizations that formed the city's first "Say No to Torture" week, a seven-day call to action created by World Can't Wait, Progressive Democrats of America, and several other groups. The week was developed in response to the recent surfacing of evidence of torture used abroad by US forces, with Berkeley feeling a particularly personal stake in the effort as the home of law professor and alleged war criminal John Yoo.

While serving as deputy assistant attorney general of the United States under the Bush administration, Yoo drafted a memorandum advising the president, the CIA and the Department of Defense on the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques," stating that acts of torture such as sleep deprivation and waterboarding may be legally permissible through wide interpretation of presidential authority. Yoo's August 1, 2002, Interrogation Opinion, signed by Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, has now become widely known as the Torture Memos.

On October 12, Yoo was the theme of the day. A morning protest on the UC Berkeley campus combined organizers of FireJohnYoo.org, Berkeley law students and the Boalt Alliance to Abolish Torture (BAAT) on a march from the law school entrance to Yoo's office, toting signs and orange ribbons. Several protesters dressed in chains with hoods over their faces to reference the images of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Throughout the student village, posters of Yoo's face framed by the words "Arrest John Yoo" decorated telephone poles, billboards and bus stops.

The demonstration hearkened back to an August 16 rally as students protested against Yoo on the first day of classes. BAAT organizer and Berkeley law student Yanin Senachai spoke at the rally, stating, "International law establishes an absolute prohibition on torture. We shouldn't even be allowed to practice law if you don't understand that."

Stephanie Tang of World Can't Wait said, "The University of California is harboring a war criminal ... (Yoo) should be prosecuted under international law just as the lawyers and judges who worked for the Third Reich under Hitler were taken to court at the Nuremberg trials."