Dear Supporter,

This Saturday, May 10 in Berkeley, join us (World Can't Wait and many others) to PROTEST at the Berkeley Law Commencement!
 
7:30 AM: Meet up at Kroeber Plaza fountain
Bancroft Way & College Avenue
 
8 - 9 AM: Flyer Commencement guests
Hearst Greek Theatre 2001 Gayley Road

Why protest with us?  Why make the early morning trek to Berkeley -- this year, even more so than last?  (And if you have come with World Can't Wait every graduation since the Bush Years, why should you return for the 2014 graduation?)

Because this totally unacceptable situation is worse than ever, we all need to refuse to accept it. That requires public action, public voices.  We are not only pointing to Berkeley Law and its one war criminal on the faculty, John Yoo. Condoleezza Rice teaches at Stanford.  Petreaus at City University of New York, USC and Harvard. More and more Bush regime "torture team" members and associates are finding safe harbor at other prestigious campuses, or touring the campus lecture circuit like political celebrities (commanding 5 and 6-figure speaking fees).

Shouldn't all such universities take a lesson from  Rutgers?  Kudos and love to the Rutgers students and faculty - we are so uplifted to see them seize the hour, successfully campaigning to force the cancellation of Rice's appearance – see Debra Sweet's national email of yesterday. 

Why come to this protest?  Because no lawyer who enabled the Bush Regime to "legalize" and institute torture should be teaching law at any law school.  Yet here at UC Berkeley, as another Boalt Hall class graduates, John Yoo is still on the UC faculty.  This fall, yet another incoming class will arrive.  Another class will learn about constitutional law from Bush/Cheney's principal legal architect of their illegal, systematic torture program.  Another class of the next generation of American lawyers and judges will, presumably, learn about international law and human rights during their Boalt years – while a lawyer directly responsible for the crimes against humanity and war crimes exemplified by Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib sits as their professor, mentor, and role model.  (And even further prestige was awarded to Yoo by UC this year, with his appointment as co-director of UC's new Korea Law Center.)

Yoo's name is no longer attached just to the torture. He has also played a key role in drumming up support for illegal government surveillance and the use of U.S. troops against people on American soil.  He has advocated for militarization of outer space, and stumped for a lethal strike against Iran. Yoo enthuses openly in support of the killer drone program of the Obama administration.
 

 
As we prepare again to be present in conscience and outrage outside the annual Berkeley Law graduation, challenging the law school and the University of California because John Yoo remains on the faculty, our message is the same just demand:  Fire, Disbar, and Prosecute John Yoo – and ALL the Torture Lawyers!

However, if you've already heard this from World Can't Wait, the National Lawyers Guild, Act Against Torture, Code Pink, Vets for Peace, and so many of us that you know ... 

Here is someone you have never met, explaining things from another perspective.  Please take the time to read the words of Guantánamo prisoner Shaker Aamer, here.

Shaker was interviewed at length by Dr. Emily Keram for her February 2, 2014 medical psychiatric report attached to Shaker's current habeas petition.  Thanks to both Andy Worthington and Jeffrey Kaye, the public has access to excerpts of Dr. Keram's report where she quotes Shaker's narrative about his experiences under torture after his capture.   According to Dr. Kaye:  "From my experience, it is one of the most remarkable and disturbing documents to have come out of Guantánamo, as Shaker Aamer is an intelligent, sensitive man who speaks English. He has left us a record of his torture that cries out to be read."

If you read Shaker's account, and close your eyes and imagine yourself in his shoes ... remember that the Guantánamo prisoners are 454 days into their hunger strike, with up to two dozen of them continuing the strike, thus being subjected to further torture by forcefeeding.  They are all Shaker Aamer.

Then open your eyes and see: We are in our own shoes.   Torture is a crime, no matter what the U.S. government says differently.   American lives are not more important than other people's lives, no matter how hard the government tries to insist this lie is true. We can stand up, we can raise our voices, we can break the silence, say NO to the torture – and the wars and culture of violence than enables torture.
 
 
Saturday morning, let's do this.
 
Protest “Torture Professor” John Yoo, this Saturday May 10. Call (415) 864-5153 or email us to RSVP.
 
 

The World Can't Wait
SF Bay Area Chapter