Activists Protest John Yoo on UC Berkeley Campus

An AUC Berkeley police officer instructs activist B. Johnson to move her sign, which he claims violates a law that allows only signs 30 square inches to be displayed on campus property. Johnson then moved her wheelchair with the sign attached to a public sidewalk nearby. Staff photo Phil Pasquini

Continuing to publicly call for the firing and prosecution of “torture memo” author Prof. John Yoo, members of the World Can’t Wait protested Sept. 3 on the Berkeley campus of the University of California where the former Bush administration attorney teaches a class in civil procedures.

During the lunch hour as students walked to and from their classes, human rights activists—dressed in orange jumpsuits, black hoods and chains to represent prisoners and torture victims—stood and kneeled in Sproul Plaza, a popular location for student protests since 1964 and the site of early teach-ins and protests against the Vietnam War and apartheid-era South Africa.

Members of FireJohnYoo.org distributed flyers detailing Yoo’s activities as a former deputy assistant attorney general for the Bush administration from 2001 to 2003, during which time he drafted memoranda justifying torture during interrogation of detainees. University of California Dean of Law Christopher Edley, Jr. has refused to fire the tenured law professor or meet with the human rights activists.

In related developments, following the recommendation of the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility to reopen certain cases of alleged CIA prisoner abuse, on Aug. 25 Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. appointed prosecutor John H. Durham to review prisoners’ allegations of torture by interrogators and the legal opinions—some written by Yoo—which sanctioned the actions and provided interrogation guidelines.

—Elaine Pasquini