S.F. Bay Area Actions to Confront War Criminals John Yoo and Jay Bybee

Wednesday, March 10

James R. Browning Courthouse
95-7th St., San Francisco, CA
PRESS CONFERENCE 1:00 PM
Rally/protest action 12:30-1:30 PM

"Torture Professor" John Yoo will moderate a Federalist Society program, this Tuesday, at Boalt, "The Ninth Amendment and Unenumerated Rights" from 12:40-1:40 PM. The Federalist Society is a right-wing organization, whose members like John Yoo and Boalt students join the likes of Edwin Meese, Bork, Scalia, Roberts and Alito.

Join World Can’t Wait, lawyers, students, and other anti-torture voices on the Boalt Hall steps for the 12:30 press conference — then stay for the protest action.

In San Francisco, Jay Bybee will be in court all week while the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals hears cases. Join World Can’t Wait, Progressive Democrats of America, the National Accountability Action Network and other anti-torture voices for a courthouse rally, this Wednesday at 12:30 PM.

Volunteers are needed:

to display the 14 torture techniques authorized by Torture Judge Bybee
to stand in tableau in orange jumpsuits representing the torture victims
to pass out flyers and talk to people passing the courthouse
to attend court, witnessing against torture. Court starts at 9:00 AM with the rally to follow at 12:30 in the afternoon.

Torture is not a "policy issue" — torture is a war crime.

This week, World Can’t Wait and other anti-torture organizers are calling TWO protest demonstrations, focused on John Yoo and his former Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) superior, Jay Bybee when both men make Bay Area public appearances.

You’re invited and urged to come give your presence and your voice to these actions. Speak out, be counted — tell the world the crimes of our government are an outrage that you will not tolerate.

The media sometimes comments on Bybee’s relatively lower protest profile – compared to John Yoo, who lately gets met with protest everywhere from NY and SF to Texas, Chicago, and Johns Hopkins — and soon (March 19) in Charlottesville, VA. John Yoo is being made a public celebrity, while Bybee tends to more lurk in the shadows.

This may be so — however, it needs to change. Bybee was Yoo’s boss, and had an active role himself in producing legal handiwork promoting torture at the direct behest of the Bush-Cheney White House. Bush appointed him this lifetime federal judgeship as a direct reward for those crimes. Bybee is as much a war criminal as is John Yoo.

For their roles as legal architects of the Bush-Cheney policies and practices of torture, Yoo and Bybee are key subjects of the recently released report by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). The report contains damning evidence against both men, despite the cover letter crafted by Department of Justice 40-year hack, David Margolis that attempted to downgrade its findings and protect Yoo and Bybee from professional discipline (disbarment proceedings) or more (criminal prosecution).

People of conscience should not be misled by this Margolis whitewash. The OPR report, revised and de-clawed and redacted as it is — still provides new evidence that both men are not only guilty of huge professional misconduct, but of war crimes. Read the OPR report. It proves that Yoo and Bybee committed war crimes and crimes against humanity and should face prosecution.

Both criminals should be disbarred – and their entire profession should be demanding this. As a federal judge, Bybee should be immediately impeached, and Yoo should be brought up for full investigation under the UC faculty code of conduct.

At the law school, Dean Christopher Edley should be told by the community at large – as well as by his professional community, and by his colleagues in the UC system – that his refusal to take responsibility for a situation where a war criminal is retaining tenure and teaching students is shameful and itself complicit. And now that Edley is further arguing that the OPR report closes the book on the Yoo problem, he needs to be challenged even more loudly and widely.

John Yoo and Jay Bybee represent a simple question: do people living in the U.S. find torture an acceptable weapon in their government’s arsenal? Is torture part of the world we want to live in? And if we answer NO – what will we do to make that real?"

Be part of the answer that the world is waiting to hear. Join us Tuesday at Boalt, Wednesday at the courthouse.

Call or email World Can’t Wait to RSVP, and for more protest information.

Check www.FireJohnYoo.org daily for all the latest updates from the leading edge of the anti-torture movement.

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