Mr Yoo, isn't it true that torture is a war crime?

If anyone hears the faint sound of yelping and jumping for joy it's me doing summer saults down the street in the Berkshires and cheering!!!

Finally! Some good news!!!

I just hope C-Span covers it so we can watch his attorney keep telling him, "Don't answer the question." "Plead the fifth."

Boy, I'll bet all the suits at the Justice Department are scrambling right now trying to decide how to put the ol' kibosh on this thing.

Ha!

Accountability.

I can live with the slow erosion of these bastards.

I'm glad we'll finally have a court record with Yoo attempting miserably to defend himself and his bosses, but I just see this as another potentially futile exercise in lawyering up. It REALLY depends on if this Federal Judge is going to keep up this hardass stance and not wither in the face of mean Republicans (they have a tendency to do that when the heat gets high).

Still, I will raise a glass to screwing Yoo!

According to the SF Chronicle, Yoo himself is the target of the suit.

Judge: Ex-Bush lawyer can be sued over torture

A prisoner who says he was tortured while being held for nearly four years as a suspected terrorist can sue former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo for coming up with the legal theories that justified his alleged treatment, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White's decision marks the first time a government lawyer has been held potentially responsible for the abuse of detainees.

"Like any other government official, government lawyers are responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct," White said in refusing to dismiss Jose Padilla's lawsuit against Yoo.

If Padilla, now serving a 17-year prison sentence on terrorism charges, can prove his allegations, he can show that Yoo "set in motion a series of events that resulted in the deprivation of Padilla's constitutional rights," White said.

White, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, noted that Padilla's lawsuit accuses Yoo of helping to design administration policy on detention and torture, and then crafting legal opinions to justify it - stepping outside the usual role of a lawyer. ..

John Eastman, law school dean at Chapman University in Orange County, where Yoo taught for the past year, said the ruling is unique - the first to hold any administration official potentially liable for alleged mistreatment of terrorist suspects.

Eastman predicted that the Justice Department will file an immediate appeal, going to the Supreme Court if necessary. Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in Chicago in 2002 and accused by the Bush administration of plotting with al Qaeda to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb."

Declared an enemy combatant, Padilla was held in a Navy brig for three years and eight months and was denied all contact with the outside world for the first half of that period, his suit said. He was then taken out of the brig and charged with taking part in an unrelated conspiracy to provide money and supplies to Islamic extremist groups. He was convicted and has appealed.

His suit against Yoo covers his time in the brig. He says he was detained illegally, held for lengthy periods in darkness and blinding light, subjected to temperature extremes and sleep deprivation, confined in painful stress positions, and threatened with death to himself, harm to his family and transfer to a nation where he would be tortured.

The suit said Yoo - who has acknowledged being a member of an administration planning group known as the "war council" - personally reviewed and approved Padilla's detention in the brig and provided the legal cover for his treatment...

But White said Friday that Padilla had a right to sue "the alleged architect of the government policy" on enemy combatants. He said an examination of Yoo's publicly disclosed writings would not damage national security, and an inquiry into "allegations of unconstitutional treatment of an American citizen on American soil" would not affect foreign relations.

Much Much Better Then The NY Times Reports !!!

My only complaint is that Yoo should get his own lawyer instead of using DOJ lawyers.

He is no longer a part of the US Government and does NOT deserve our legal protection from his crimes.

AND I resent spending taxpayers' dollars to defend him.

To hear the right wing wailing and gnashing of teeth on this one.

Yoo is a criminal immigrant. According to the Immigration Act of 1996, he should be deported.