Glenn Greenwald: John Yoo Was Against Executive Privilege Before He Was For It
By Logan Murphy Tuesday Jul 24, 2007 12:32pm
Salon: (watch ad for day pass)
The Wall St. Journal Editorial Page wanted someone to defend George Bush's serial assertions of "Executive Privilege" to block investigations into his wrongdoing, and it turned, of course, to ex-Bush-DOJ-lawyer John Yoo, who is not only the most authoritarian but also the most partisan and intellectually dishonest lawyer in the country. Yoo is not only willing -- but intensely eager -- to defend literally anything George W. Bush does or would want to do, including -- literally -- torturing people and crushing the testicles of children if the Leader decreed that doing so was necessary to fight Terrorists. Yoo, of course, is a principal author of most of the radical executive power theories which have eroded our constitutional framework over the last six years.
In defending the President, Yoo's Op-Ed yesterday touts the grave importance of Executive Privilege and makes all the claims one would expect. He stresses the "president's right to keep internal executive discussions confidential"; proclaims that "without secrecy, the government can't function"; compares Bush's assertions to George Washington's; and concludes that by asserting Executive Privilege (nowhere mentioned in the Constitution), Bush "has the Constitution on his side."
But this isn't the first Op-Ed Yoo has written on the topic of Executive Privilege for the Wall St. Journal. Back in 1998, when Bill Clinton was asserting the same privilege to resist Congressional demands that his closest aides testify about the President's deliberations in responding to the various Lewinsky investigations, Yoo became one of the leading spokespeople denouncing the assertion of this privilege. Read more...
Be sure to read the update at the bottom of the article, another great find from Glenn...
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first
When is Joanie Caucus Redfern going to lead a demonstration at her alma mater against their having Yoo on faculty?
oh, and btw. . .
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House Judiciary Committee voted contempt of Congress citations Wednesday against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and President Bush's former legal counselor, Harriet Miers.
The 22-17 vote -- which would sanction for pair for failure to comply with subpoenas on the firings of several federal prosecutors -- advanced the citation to the full House.
A senior Democratic official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the House itself likely would take up the citations after Congress' August recess. The official declined to speak on the record because no date had been set for the House vote.
The War on Terror is a War on Change.
This Admin sees the writing on the wall and will do ANYTHING INCLUDING ATTACKING/KILLING Americans under the guise of a foreign entity to maintain power. That is all this is. nothing more.
BushCo = small men with small ideas.
They're all lying hypocrites. Nothing new here.
people like these give lawyers bad name.
What a well educated dough whore of the highest order. The Ivy League (Yale and Harvard) should be quite proud in bestowing undergraduate and law degrees on this most internally inconsistent, non-prioritized and most severe ass licking idiot sycophant.
Nobody backs Bushs crimes anymore, so Yoo is certainly in a losing battle he can't win.
benj @ 6:
LOL!!!! As if they had a good name to begin with. :lol: :lol:
It has become quite clear that these hacks have no principles or even understand the concept. Their entire stance on any given issue has nothing to do with the issue, but who benefits from the issue. They somehow fail to grasp that concept that their arguments today could only bite them in the butt once someone who they do not approve of is in power.
As with so many issues, the underlying theme that everything is appropriate so long as a member of their party is in power. The issue doesn't matter, nor do the ramifications.
sycophants to a fascist don't have opinions, they have orders to follow.
Well, since Yoo feels that way, why not send him to Gitmo, where the first act upon his arrival is to put his nuts in a vice for expeditious crushing and ask him while you're in the process how he REALLY feels about executive privalege and see how he answers upon pain of balls being crushed.
John Yoo will surely hang.
Are we seeing the real crime(s) yet..?
John Yoo...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yoo
...Helped write The Patriot Act
--> It was written before Sept 11
We have to remember that Cheney, Bush and advisors, are
not the only co-conspirators working to undermine our people and Country...
--> The "Media" has been directly participating in obstruction of Justice
and the coverup of crimes, past and present.
The sad thing about all of this...
Most people do not know what is going on.
I dont know when more people will wake up. What will it take for people to see what bush and cheney have done to our US economy, our precious jobs, our precious dollar and our precious constitution.
Thanks to Greenwald. He is a true patriot.
amazing. an bush-extremist lawyer , and a obviously a conjoined twin.
I'm for more openness in government. Advice given in secrecy, like the oil company executives and Cheney, should always be suspect regardless of which party is in power.
IOKIYAR
John Yoo.... Another sick fuck I'd like to [deleted - please don't advocate violence here]... At least Darth asswhipe would have a ligitimate reason to carp about assault then... Waterboarding is too easy for this pair of assholes.....John Yoo should be tun out of California on a rail... tar and feathers optional...............little prick!!!...JD
Yoo does not believe the things he says. You can see it on his face. He's a professional liar and has no shame.
The Wall St. Journal is a propaganda rag. The only real news is that Bush, Cheney, and the GOP, are engaged in crimes against the Constitution of the United States and international war crimes. That what's going on in Iraq ... is an armed robbery and killing zone not a "war".
John Yoo is just another whore with "credentials" that is only to excited to do his part for the Bush crime family and the GOP criminal enterprise. There are plenty of rich Republicans that will suck in every lie he spews so that they can go about their filthy lives thinking they are clean and justified in their greed.
Oh Shock... a conservative hypocrite!
As John Dean pointed out in a findlaw article;
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20070629.html
Since Yoo authored the rationale for Cheney, if he ever is tried for war crimes Yoo should be named and accomplice and receive the same sentence.
That cocksucker makes me glad I didn't go to Berkeley (Boalt Hall) for law school.
I dunno, I think Gonzo could give him a run for his money.
Not surprising at all about Yoo because, as Greenwald pointed out, this is very typical authoritarian behavior. Highly advise reading this http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/%7Ealtemey/ If you want to know what is going on with the hard right conservatives in this country.
indeed. he teaches at the "liberal bastion" UCB! For shame to the Cal Bears for allowing him to sully their university
dan @ 3:
Congress is going on their August recess? I'm shocked, with our troops still in harm's way. How will they attack the Iraqi government for being on recess while they are?
What he lacks in scruples he more than makes up for with his lack of shame. I mean, he must have known someone would find out what he'd written on the subject in the past -- he just didn't give a damn that a few blog readers would know he's a complete fraud. You can fool some of the people all the time, and that's good enough for him.
Yoo Who?
Yoo's Defence: "My 1998 op-ed was Pre-9/11. Today is post 9/11 and we are at war with the people who attacked us on 9/11 (terrusts, not the Saudis).
9/11 is the Fulcrum from which BushCo. has been leveraging his criminality.
At some point a serious, honest and open examination of that day is needed in order to take away their trump card.
I know John doesn't want that to happen here and over-run C&L, and I respect that, but it still needs to happen.
Stonicus @ 23:
The image is this, Gonzo and Yoo in a salad tossing 69.
Secrecy Emboldens Reckless Tyrants
I'm most fascinated by Glenn's comments, when compared with the similar finding of the court in re State litigation against NSA:
Glenn
Greenwald raised many important points with this key phrase, all of which illustrate the problems with this President's threats to block enforcement of contempt proceedings against Miers and Bolten:
Judge Vaughn Walker
This phrase is from the recent Court opinion permitting State AGs to continue with litigation against the NSA and President for their illegal violations of State privacy statutes. The defendants include the telecoms and civilian contractors putting the illegal activity into effect:
Even if the US government will not resolve these issues, the records is clear: Justice requires someone resolve these issues. The States are well positioned to conquer the apparent impasse You would have us believe can only be resolved by deferring to the President. Indeed, asserting, as Yoo did, that the government "cannot function" is absurd: It is only when the government abuses secrecy, and engage in illegal activity, that the government is non-functioning.; It can function, so long as those operations are lawful; claiming "it cannot function" is not credible. If the Court does not have to review the matters, the government will continue to function. Yoo would have us believe that secrecy -- when invoked -- must be respected as an impenetrable shield. The problem this President, Miers, and Bolten have over these secrecy/privilege claims is Congress is not attempting to breach anything; the information has been disclosed.
Yoo's arguments aren't compelling. He's asking that information -- the President himself disclosed about illegal activity -- be protected. The courts are not required, and cannot reasonable protected or keep hidden things which have surfaced, are on the Internet, and the President has publicly commented on; and the White House counsel has e-mailed and discussed.
The Constitution is on the side of justice and We the People: Whether our rights are protected; the Constitution is not on the side of tyrants who have violated treaties, their oath, the Supreme law, and Constitution under the guise of protecting us. No, this President has assented "I'm here to protect you" as an excuse to be abusive; all the while we are less safe, and the war against AlQueda is failing in Afghanistan.
It is absurd for this President to argue his domestic illegal activity -- and attempt to hide evidence of that illegal activity -- are helping us: Despite and because of secrecy and lack of oversight, he is still bungling abroad, and abusing us at home. Franklin got it right: We cannot be asked to give up privacy to get more security; we will have neither. This President has delivered what the Framers did not intend for we the People to endure: Illegal activity violating our rights; and a less secure world driving the President to bungle foreign warfare. This President alone -- without oversight -- decided to engage in illegal activity both at home and abroad; and his failed legal arguments are well matched by his failed war planning. This failed, deceitful, lying, reckless President deserves nothing less than the label Reckless Tyrant.
Another great aspect to this story is that Yoo, is a law professor at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall Law School. Conservatives love to piss and moan about Berkeley. This (John Yoo) is another example of why colleges and universities tend be liberal - for every Ward Churchill there is an egregiously opposite and more than equal John Yoo.
He doesn't look like an American to me. I mean, real Americans don't look like him. How did he get that job? Was he born here? I think an investigation is in order. Are his papers in order?
We have to be careful about who has access to our top government officials. We must be cautious. We're in the post 9/11 world ya know.
John Yoo will do anything to get a pat on the head by the Alitoans
Arroyo @ 31:
Ohhh...he's a college professor. Hmmm...well we all know that that provides a great cover for him. I mean, colleges are havens for liberals and closet liberals...and we all know that liberals hate our freedoms, so...I say again...what do we REALLY know about this Yoo. What kind of a name is that? Not very American if ya ask me...not like Smith or Jones or even Bush.
Who is this man?!?!
Rusty Shackleford @ 22:
lol Rusty ... I have three friends who went to Boalt, and they're all involved in Public Interest Law.
What do you expect? Yoo is a lawyer. He is paid to lie. It's his job.
Yoo won't even qualify for a tenure in the dustbin of history. Hounded and hunted down for War Crimes the rest of his living days by just about every Government on earth is probably the best he can hope for at this point. Guess he should thought of that huh?
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_09/review.html
Liberal AND Proud @ 34:
We know that he's a royalist.
Woo has stated crushing the testicles of children in front of their parents is legal.
Harley @ 39:
Wow, a "reporter" actually said that a loud. That comment was in the story.
Arroyo @ 35:
I think it would be in the Public Interest for them to go back to their alma mater and kick Yoo in the nertz.
Who are YOOOO? Who who...who who...
Yoo's obviously as delusional now as he was back when he authored Bushes torture policy.
Guess he should have thought, "will this sh*t come back to haunt me someday?" before he sold out his soul completely for short term gratification.
Karma Can a Bitch!
The Whitehouse Coup
Seriously. What sane human being would want a legacy as "that weird and deranged guy who wrote Bushes torture policy back at the start of the century". . ?
Liberal AND Proud @ 33:
I know you're joking with those comments, unless you suddenly slipped into Bizarro World and became a right wing nutcase, but Yoo is an immigrant from Vietnam, thus making his entry into the U.S. the only rational argument against ending the Vietnam War when we did, because otherwise the waste of skin and oxygen known as Yoo would never have made it to our shores. Pity that our soldiers died so he could come over here and destroy what they were fighting for, eh?
And that goes double for our troops in Iraq.
This is hardly news.
His modus opandi is to do the politically expedient thing.
He's an unprincipled asshole.
Fuck Yoo, Yoo!
Straight Shooter @ 47:
Paranoia...big destroya.
Just to make a point that it's not so much fun when you're the TARGET of the wingnuttery...is it.
THIS is what the founders feared. Xenophobia, bias and bigotry. Yes, I know they held slaves, but the beauty of this country and their dream...is that the Constitution and our society are living, breathing things capable of evolving.
George Bush, his enablers and the other fascist wingnuts are devolving this great country.
[...] Clark Link to Article george w bush Glenn Greenwald: John Yoo Was Against Executive Privilege Before He [...]
Yoo is just the guy to float this "Absolute Immunity" idea, what
Bush is going to give all his cronies on the way out the door.
In Yoo's mind (and I use that term with reluctance) a Bushie could
go into a mall with a machine gun, and blow away people, and as
long as the Bushies believed he was fighting terror, he'd be OK with it.
If a Liberal even THINKS something against Dear Leader, Yoo thinks he should be renditioned to Libya and tortured to death.
All consistant in the mind of "Consitutional Scholar" Yoo!
He would have had a lovely time with the SS in Berlin in the late 1930s...
Straight Shooter @ 47:
"John Choon Yoo (born 1967), is a professor of Law at the Boalt Hall School of Law, the University of California, Berkeley. A Korean-born American...
As an infant, Yoo emigrated with his parents from South Korea to the United States..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yoo
Despite his ethnicity, Woo is a giant dick.
Lehigh University's biology department keeps this disclaimer/explanation on its website to say, in short and more civilly, that their colleague, creationist Michael Behe, is a crackpot and they completely disown his nonsensical faux biology.
Shouldn't Berkley's School of Law have a similar disclaimer about their colleague, the intellectual degenerate crypto-fascist John Yoo?
Yoo's a hack.
Sounds like he is a secret admirer of North Korea's system of government.
We must prevent a mating of Yoo and Malkin, or society may well be doomed.
Is Yoo a Moonie? He seems deranged enough to be one and Moon wants to destroy this country.
I can't believe he keeps a job as a professor, STOP THE INSANITY,
or beat his ass, i care not which
sharkcellar @ 45:
Thanks for this link. Ever since reading Adam Parfrey's introduction to Smedley D. Butler's "War is a Racket" I have been looking for more information on the 1933 Coup attempt. 'preciate it.
Clearly Yoo is a sadist.
David Vitter's diaper pals.
[...] Court Link to Article white house Glenn Greenwald: John Yoo Was Against Executive Privilege Before He Was [...]
510-642-6483: Deans Office at Berkeley. Call them and ask: "Why does a reputable university such as UCB still employ someone as intellectually dishonest as John Yoo?"
Pretty typical GOP hypocrisy.
I can't help but wonder if this guy is a friend of Reverend Moon.
Korean; Neocon; Servant of extreme-right political interests; Blatant Republican partisan in his writings and tenure at the DOJ; Author of legal opinions in support of the unitary executive, torture, restrictions on habeus corpus . . .
If he's a Moonie, it would certainly be consistent with the rest of his life.
If the currently "honest" WSJ prints such tripe, then how much more partisan can it possibly become if Murdoch suceeds in buying it?
As I recall, WSJ has always been about the lies that help Repugs or the smears that hurt the Dems.
Annoyed Canuck @ 65:
The modern American fascist has such a wholesome look, dont' they. Suits, ties so well spoken. You can't even see the forked tongue.
Liberal AND Proud @ 67:
According to Yoo's bio, posted on various sites, he worked as a newspaper reporter in Washington, DC between college and law school. I can't find out what paper it was, but I wonder if it's the Washington Times - Rev. Moon's paper.
Wonderfully cruel. Would I be out of line to hope the blade was unsanitized before Glenn twisted it between Yoo's shoulderblades?
John Yoo and the entire Bush team of neocons should not be turned over to an international court, as I first thought, but to the Iraqis.
Next Ag if Ag goes?
That's AG
What on earth is wrong with the California Bar?
Yoo should be disbarred!
Yoo should be sitting in Slobodan Milosevic's old prison cell in the Hague. He is clearly a war criminal.
Funny how Ward Churchill was forced out of his job but this bonafide war criminal still collects a college paycheck.
-GSD
hey, wasn't john yoo the guy that said that there is no law perventing the president from ordering the crushing the testicle of 5 year old boy in order to get information from their parents?
I so can't wait for Yoo to get a pink slip, once Rupert buys out his employer. It won't be because he's not loyal, either, but because of "budget cuts". (I.E. Murdoch syphoning off more money to his bank account.)
GSD @ 74:
Ward Churchill was forced out for being an idiot.
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