"TORTURE 101 - A NEW CLASS AT BERKELEY LAW SCHOOL"

Or, Why Has a California Law School Decided a Torture Advocate Should Teach There?

Would someone please ask the Dean of UC Berkeley Law School why he woo'd John Yoo, the author of the memo to Bush on how to get away with torturing both suspects and the American Constitution, to be on the faculty? Does the Dean suffer from Alzheimer's? Is it because like Bush he never reads a newspaper? Is it because there is some sort of Affirmative Action program at UC Berkeley for torturers? Is the school going to open a branch at Gitmo or perhaps rename itself the Torquemada School of Depravity? Does the Law School no longer teach Constitutional Law? Has the Dean never read the Constitution? Did the Dean get his own law degree from a school that advertises on matchbooks? Does the Dean think that hiring Bush's henchmen likely to get the Dean awarded the inaptly named Presidential "Medal of Freedom"? Does the Dean hate America and all it once stood for? Doesn't the Dean think America has been embarrassed enough?

Come to think of it, why hasn't Consigliere Yoo's license to practice been revoked for unethical conduct? Lawyer are not supposed to assist clients in the commission of crimes. They are supposed to act at all times as Officers of the Court. And, if their clients insist on continuing to break the law, then the lawyer is supposed to report him to the police or courts. When Yoo gave Bush cover to conduct torture at whim, to search without warrants, to violate centuries old habeas corpus rules, to deprive defendants of counsel, to do much of the grievances that Thomas Jefferson decried in the Declaration of Independence and to lie about it, he became an unindicted co-conspirator and should never be allowed to be a model for students, unless Gestapo are the new models.

Yoo should be disbarred, not at the bar drinking with impressionable youngsters. Doesn’t anyone in California remember Yoo is teaching at a Law School, not a Liar School?

If the Dean at the UC Berkeley Law School refuses to answer any of the foregoing questions, does that mean we are free to waterboard him to get answers or at least lock him away without counsel until he talks?