One of the most tragic legacies of the Bush administration was its endorsement of harsh and inhumane treatment of terrorism suspects. One of the chief advocates for these policies was former Justice Department official John Yoo, who authored legal memos that authorized the use of torture on suspects.
Last night, Yoo appeared on the Daily Show and faced questioning by host Jon Stewart over his views on the limits of presidential power during wartime. During a testy exchange between the two — which did not air on TV but which can be found on the extended interview online — Yoo admitted to Stewart that he didn’t think the Bush administration “made a mistake” in going beyond “the law enforcement paradigm” in dealing with terrorism with a new radical legal paradigm that would allow for the brutal mistreatment of terrorist suspects because the effort to combat Al Qaeda and similar groups involved an “unprecedented type of war.” When Stewart rightly pointed out that terrorism is far from unprecedented and that it has frequently occurred in the past, Yoo responded that the Bush administration’s approach was justified because of the number of people terrorists killed on 9/11:
YOO: I don’t think they made the mistake in deciding to go beyond the law enforcement paradigm. Because it was an unconventional, unprecedented type of war.
STEWART: How is terrorism unprecedented? In the 1930′s we had anarchists bomb government buildings.
YOO: They didn’t blow up and kill 3,000 people in NYC either. They didn’t destroy the world trade center and try to decapitate the government, either.
STEWART: What? So it’s all based on how many? So if you kill 100 you can torture? [...]
(crosstalk)
STEWART: I’m not understanding why it’s unprecedented, terrorism has been around as long as people have been around … we all came to the conclusion that we would not treat prisoners inhumanely.
Watch it:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c |
| Exclusive – John Yoo Extended Interview Pt. 2 | |
Yoo is currently teaching law at UC Berkeley. The course he is teaching this semester, “Constitutional Design and the California Constitution” begins today.
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