There’s a Torturer on the Berkeley Campus!

 You’re invited:    Information in Action

 

On Thursday, August 27 –  the second day back in class for the University of California (UC)  – join World Can’t Wait on world-famous Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley when  "detainees" in orange jumpsuits bear witness to the presence of a torturer – John Yoo – on this very campus.

 

During the busiest time of the campus day, we’ll display this reality. We’ll get out our new brochure, and talk to everyone we meet.

 

On Monday August 24, the awaited news broke: the 2004 CIA report , that’s been repeatedly postponed, first by Bush, and then Obama, was published. Even in this heavily redacted version (words and lines blacked-out), the report is horrendous. Besides waterboarding, walling, and all the other brutality we already knew about, the torturers’ playbook included additional techniques: threatening hooded people with mock executions, power drills, and smoke — and threats to kill children of detainees if they didn’t talk, and to rape their mothers in front of them.

 

In fact, what’s NOT blacked out makes you ask how much worse are the passages that ARE blacked out. Read it for yourself: it is revolting, but it is real.

 

Read it and then decide if you want to leave this matter in the hands of a president who says prosecution of Bush era war crimes will disrupt his own agenda, so "let’s look forward, not back!"

 

Read it, and then think about this: Attorney General Holder will now start investigations toward prosecution, but he’s already said; (1) he will only go after CIA operatives who did the actual hands on torture, not higher criminals, from the lawyers like John Yoo and Jay Bybee, to their "clients" at the top (Bush, Cheney, et al). And; (2) Holder says the "enhanced interrogation techniques" would be a crime, if and when torturers went past the limits set by John Yoo’s memos – when those memos THEMSELVES were criminal! Those memos changed the very definition of torture so the Bush Regime could ignore the international and U.S. laws against torture. In other words, Holder and Obama’s terms ACCEPT the terms set by the whole Bush-Cheney Torture Team.

 

Then read World Can’t Wait’s reports — and the news coverage too — about the successful action and arrests at Boalt Hall last week on the law school’s first day back. And ask yourself why it’s crucial for students to take up the challenge of saying NO to torture. How important is it for every student to have the information they need to understand why torture matters and what it means to take responsibility for stopping it – or not?

 

Do you want to help make sure this happens?

 

All ages welcome. Take an hour or two of your Thursday and wear a jumpsuit, or pass out flyers, and meet students. The more of us take part, the more people we can reach out and talk with. We’ll have a brief orientation at 11:45 — meet at the Sproul Hall steps — then put on the jumpsuits and begin.

 

And if you can’t be personally present this Thursday, there are two things you can do within the next two minutes. You can forward this to everyone you know – it will strengthen this movement. And you can send a contribution to help keep this work going forward (see sidebar) – that will strengthen it, too.

 

UC can not be allowed to harbor a war criminal. People of conscience have to step forward, have to stand up to the great crimes being committed in our names. And we have to resist. The World Can’t Wait.

 

The World Can’t Wait!