College OTR: Should UC Berkeley Professor John Yoo Be Tried for War Crimes?

Should UC Berkeley Professor John Yoo Be Tried for War Crimes?

Posted by Tracy O'Neill 12/05/2008 6:05 PM
Category: Tags: berkeley lawsuit, john yoo, war crimes

Berkeley's City Council now must again vote on whether or not to try UC Berkeley professor John Yoo for war crimes. Some consider these efforts hostile to academic freedom, while others argue that he provided fodder for atrocities such as the torture techniques of Abu Ghraib.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Yoo, a tenured professor at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, wrote the memos offering legal justification for torture while he worked for the White House from 2001 to 2003.

The five measures attacking Yoo were drafted by the city's Peace and Justice Commission, the same group that recommended that the city tell the Marines they were "unwelcome intruders."

The City Council will vote Monday on the five measures. In addition to demanding that Yoo be charged with war crimes, the city will decide whether to order Boalt to offer alternatives to Yoo's courses, so no student is forced to take a class from him if they don't want to. Yoo has taught constitutional and international law at Boalt since 1993.