Protest Targets Law Professor's Prisoner Memo

Protesters charging Berkeley Law Professor John Yoo with circumventing international law relating to the treatment of Iraqi prisoners took to the streets Friday.

Berkeley law students joined a host of human rights groups in an estimated 45-person demonstration, marching from the Downtown Berkeley BART station to Boalt Hall School of Law chanting, "John Yoo you should feel shame, promoting torture in our name."

Yoo, a Boalt Hall faculty member since 1993, co-authored a controversial memo in January 2002 while working for the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel, which said that the Geneva Conventions and other customary international laws did not apply to al-Qaeda members.

Demonstrators protested the war in Iraq as well as the doctrine prescribed in Yoo's memo.

The conclusions reached in the memo may have led to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody, protest organizers said.

"The purpose of this march is for people in the Bay Area to express our outrage that someone in our

community is helping the Bush administration get around international law," said Andrea Buffa, who organized the protest on behalf of Global Exchange, an international human rights organization.

The influence of Yoo's memo extends into the U.S., said Samina Faheem, executive director of American Muslim Voice, which co-sponsored the march.

"American Muslims right now are so terrified that they are not demanding their rights, they are not participating in mainstream activities," Faheem said.

Last month Boalt Hall graduates stole national spotlight when about a quarter of the law school's graduating class wore red armbands to protest Yoo's memo at their graduation ceremony.

Several graduates demanded that the professor either repudiate his memo or resign.

"It's shameful that Boalt is associated with someone like Professor Yoo, who has in my opinion been derelict in his duty as an attorney," said Mazen Basrawi, a 2004 Boalt Hall graduate. "When one begins to look at protections in international laws as technicalities and not as moral imperatives, something is wrong."

Yoo was unavailable for comment Friday.

In an e-mail to the Daily Californian May 25, Yoo said that he had no plans to resign his post.

"There is nothing wrong with students expressing their views, if done in the proper manner," said Yoo in the e-mail. "The problematic thing is when students demand that professors resign, or change their views."

Some students and recent alumni started a petition in Yoo's defense late last month.

Friday's protesters were not calling Yoo to resign his post, said Buffa.

Protester Abby Reyes, a third year law student, said that Professor Yoo should use his influence to reverse the affects of his actions by repudiating his original position.

Yoo said he stood behind his interpretations of the Geneva Conventions, in his e-mail.

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