Yoo: I wouldn’t change the substance of my torture memos, but they do ‘lack a certain polish.’
Yoo: I wouldn’t change the substance of my torture memos, but they do ‘lack a certain polish.’
Yesterday, the Orange County Register released an interview with John Yoo, the former Bush Justice Department official who took the lead in crafting the legal justifications for the the former president’s torture policies. Despite the fact that Yoo’s “sloppy” memos were subsequently withdrawn by the Justice Department, Yoo told the Register that he doesn’t believe that he would “have made the basic decisions differently.” His only regret, he said, was that the memos “lack a certain polish“:
QUESTION: Is there anything you would have done differently?
YOO: These memos I wrote were not for public consumption. They lack a certain polish, I think – would have been better to explain government policy rather than try to give unvarnished, straight-talk legal advice. I certainly would have done that differently, but I don’t think I would have made the basic decisions differently.
Later in the interview, Yoo told the Register that he doesn’t worry about his legacy because he has “the time to write books” defending himself. Asked about the Justice Department’s current inquieries into the legality of his work, Yoo remarked, “I wish they weren’t doing it, but I understand why they are.”
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Why isn’t Yoo in a jail cell already?
March 4th, 2009 at 5:48 pmDo we have to go around the block again as to torture not working?
March 4th, 2009 at 5:48 pmI thought they lacked a legal justification. Courts determine constitutionality, not poltical hacks in the Justice Department.
March 4th, 2009 at 5:50 pm“Yoo told the Register that he doesn’t worry about his legacy because he has “the time to write books” defending himself.”
Yes, Yoo. Most prisoners do.
March 4th, 2009 at 5:52 pmYoo: I wouldn’t change the substance of my torture memos, but they do ‘lack a certain polish.’
They also lack a whole helluva’ lot of legality , honesty , integrity and morality ….
March 4th, 2009 at 5:53 pmMaybe we should hold you in a green house, and grow bamboo sticks through your body…maybe that will change your mind
March 4th, 2009 at 5:58 pmYoo are a War Criminal.
March 4th, 2009 at 5:59 pmWe’re just now discovering the extent of the Bush administration’s “unitary executive” fantasies. Yoo re-wrote the Constitution for Bush. Which he had no business doing.
March 4th, 2009 at 6:00 pmSorry Yoo but constitutional scholars and most of the legal community say that your work was shoddy at best and criminal at worst. I am so hoping that the California Bar Association yanks his ability to practice law. I also hope that Cal Berkeley finally wakes up and fires his a$$.
March 4th, 2009 at 6:16 pmFTA: “John Yoo has brought attention to the Chapman University School of Law, where he is a distinguished visiting professor…”
Must be some new definition of the word distinguished that I am not familiar with.
March 4th, 2009 at 6:16 pmRegarding the Justice Dept. investigation, Yoo says:
“I wish they weren’t doing it, but I understand why they are.”
yeah, I bet you wish they weren’t doing it. But you know what they say,
March 4th, 2009 at 6:30 pm“If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.”
US V Liddy, 1973
hmmm . . . memos legalizing torture and shredding the Constitution were “not for the public???”
Yea, I guess when you cross over into WAR CRIMINAL territory one wouldn’t want it made “public” . . . .
Disbar this “lawyer” . . .
March 4th, 2009 at 6:31 pmChuck, maybe they meant “Extinguished”…
March 4th, 2009 at 6:31 pm“…they lacked a certain polish…”
Yeah, you can’t polish a turd, you’ll just get sh*t all over yourself. That’s why this whole thing stinks like Limbaughs hog wallow. Write yourself a memo to report to Gitmo, JackAss.
March 4th, 2009 at 6:31 pmYoo is definitely a prime candidate for disbarment. Soon the burning question will be whether he wrote these memos willingly or was he coerced into writing them. I trust he will answer this question honestly when the time comes. [snickers]
March 4th, 2009 at 6:36 pmyeah rite yoo I bet you were gettin that veinna sausage you call a pecker a chubby writeing that bullshyt
March 4th, 2009 at 6:42 pmYOO: These memos I wrote were not for public consumption. They lack a certain polish, I think – would have been better to explain government policy rather than try to give unvarnished, straight-talk legal advice.
The ‘legal’ sophistry was there because they weren’t intended for the general public, but rather intended to be the definitive exegesis of the law by the Department of Justice?!?!?
I’d think it the other way around; were these policy speeches for the great unwashed, it might be acceptable to skim over (or ignore) relevant cases, twist words, and engage in ‘justification’ of a position rather than legal analysis. But when it’s supposed to be for lawyers, you should produce a document that comports with the law as it stands….
Cheers,
March 4th, 2009 at 6:44 pmCold Mr Yoo. This is why we must have checks and balances within our government.
March 4th, 2009 at 6:45 pmAsked about the Justice Department’s current inquieries into the legality of his work, Yoo remarked, “I wish they weren’t doing it, but I understand why they are.”
Yeah , I’m sure Nixon echoed that same exact sentiment , jerkoff …….
March 4th, 2009 at 6:51 pmHere’s to hoping he has all the time in the world to write his books — as a prison inmate.
What part of “three, co-equal branches of government” did he and W’s group fail to understand? (rhetorical, I know)
March 4th, 2009 at 6:55 pmand this grinning clown hasn’t been disbarred yet why?
March 4th, 2009 at 6:57 pmEvery time I see this guy, I wonder if his mom scrubs his face every morning. He’s positively shining with evil.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:08 pmI think the name John Yoo will eventually be remembered alongside other great American crooks like Benedict Arnold, Richard Nixon, Oliver North.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:13 pmThe world according to Yoo:
Who needs testimony and trials when you can pile up the bodies of the “enemy combatants”?
March 4th, 2009 at 7:13 pmI can hardly wait for the day his cell mate wipes that smirk off his fat face.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:15 pmHey Yoo,
your memos, the ones undermining the Constitution and the Bill Of Rights, don’t lack a certain polish, they lack legality, morality and intellectual grounding.
You are a fraud and a disgrace to this country. You should not be allowed to teach another generation of lawyers. You should be in the dock.
It’s no wonder you clerked for Thomas; another intellectual midget who doesn’t deserve to be where he is either.
Anger / Off
March 4th, 2009 at 7:25 pmYoo belongs in jail!
March 4th, 2009 at 7:28 pmYour legal opinions were LAME because:
Yoo is a moron.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:30 pmWouldn’t you like to just smack this guy in the face?
March 4th, 2009 at 7:36 pmThe man is a sociopath.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:38 pmShorter Yoo: I don’t want to be tried as a war criminal.
http://www.pufferfishblog.com/
March 4th, 2009 at 8:46 pmThat this man is actually employed by a prestigious university as a law professor is a shame to the university and an embarrassment to the nation. Deport his sorry ass to North Korea.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:38 pmIf I ever bsee this animal in person I’ll spit on it!
March 4th, 2009 at 9:42 pmPolish? Who has time for “polish” when you have dozens of “agents” on stand-by in Guantanamo with waterboarding equipment ready to go?
March 4th, 2009 at 10:13 pmThe absolute arrogance of this man. In essence from Yoo: “They lack a certain polish, but with time, I will be able to sway public opinion to my side by convincing the American people with my eloquently written defense.”
What ever happened to the law? Do lawyers ever talk about the law anymore? Shouldn’t the value of Yoo’s arguments be weighed in the court of law?
March 4th, 2009 at 10:35 pmYoo belongs in Guantanamo. An orange suit would compliment that smirk.
March 4th, 2009 at 11:27 pm.
What Yoo meant was:
.
March 5th, 2009 at 1:17 amExtrordinary rendition candidate!
March 5th, 2009 at 1:24 amYoo is an Asian.
There are some similar features between the Asian race and the Jewish race.
On balance, George W. Bush hates Jews (indicated at http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/george-w-bush-dislikes-or-hates-jews-in.html “George W. Bush dislikes or hates Jews in his heart and mind”).
And this means that Bush must, however appreciable or to whatever extent, dislike Yoo’s racial background.
Yoo made a fool of himself by helping Bush with illegal activities where Bush does not like Yoo’s kind.
Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
March 5th, 2009 at 3:23 amB.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993
“not polished enough” = “Not Orwellian enough” and that the language in them is too easy for people to understand and puts him bang to rights .
March 5th, 2009 at 7:08 amSo they lack polish? Is that all they lack? This charicature
of an ethical attorney, this destroyer of American rights, should be tarred and feathered.
He had enabled a terrible President, a worthless human being to become a defacto dictator. He encouraged with his own rash, ideological bias and disregard for the law a man like himself. Yoo in the guise of a knowledgeable, and supposedly researched opinions, to dominate our freedom at home as well as the freedom of others with his ideas. These memos written with careless disregard for their veracity or their humanity.
Yoo must have wanted very badly to be accepted by those in power to have given them so outrageous a green light to shred the Constitution. Perhaps he thought never to have to answer to those Constitutional lawyers that have said differently. These many Constitutional lawyers that have come out over the years to say he is wrong. He hoped perhaps to see the Bush crime family and their ideas to stay in power by way of the Republican party. He did not expect them to lose. He did not expect the repudiation by the American people of all of the Bush policies. He hoped to remain near the seat of power after trashing what he could, including his own ethical standards in the process. Supposing he had standards at all.
He teaches law at Berkeley now. To have such a man on the faculty expressing his philosophy of a dictatorship is an abomination. These budding lawyers that will absorb by a kind of osmosis his legalistic mumbo jumbo. One day he will lose his job we hope. For men like Yoo, surely there must be a price to pay. A price to pay for trying to destroy a Constitution that protected his rights. You would think, at the very least, he would want the rights of others to be as safeguarded as his were. How we retain our rights when we are at war, is the measure of how law abiding we are, and how civilized.
At what point could this man have gone so far off the rails? At what point did his parents fail or his professors fail to give him ethics? He is a Constitutional moron.
March 5th, 2009 at 12:23 pmIf I were him, I’d think of trying to lay a groundwork for a defense, should it be needed.
It lacked a polish but said exactly what I wanted – not exactly a good defense.
March 5th, 2009 at 2:06 pmAnd then he goes back to teaching college. I think we should have him go hunting with cheney.
March 5th, 2009 at 4:16 pmYoo is a communist spy.
March 5th, 2009 at 4:20 pm