Protesters Plan Two Bay Area Meetings with John Yoo and Jay Bybee

This week, two protest demonstrations will focus on John Yoo and his former Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) superior, Jay Bybee, when both men make Bay Area public appearances. The demonstrations are sponsored by The World Can’t Wait and other anti-torture organizations, lawyers, and activists.

** Tuesday, March 9, steps of UC Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall), Berkeley

PRESS CONFERENCE 12:30 PM [followed by protest action]

John Yoo will speak, moderating a Federalist Society lunch program at Boalt,“The Ninth Amendment and Unenumerated Rights” from 12:40-1:40 PM.

** Wednesday, March 10, James R. Browning Courthouse, 95-7th St., San Francisco

PRESS CONFERENCE 1:00 PM [Rally/protest action 12:30-1:30 PM]

In San Francisco, Jay Bybee will be on the bench all week as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals bench hears cases. [NOTE: This action is jointly sponsored with The World Can’t Wait by Progressive Democrats of America and the National Accountability Action Network.]

As legal architects of the Bush-Cheney administration’s policies and practices of torture, Yoo and Bybee are key subjects of the recently released report by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). Protest organizers claim the OPR report provides new evidence that both men are not only guilty of professional misconduct – but that by legal standards established through the post-World War II Nuremberg trials, Yoo and Bybee have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity and should face prosecution.

The protesters call for Yoo to be fired from the University of California, and disbarred, as well as prosecuted for war crimes. They are calling for Jay Bybee to be impeached [from his lifetime appointment to the federal bench as a reward for Bybee’s work enabling torture] and disbarred, as well as prosecuted for war crimes.

Stephanie Tang, a World Can’t Wait leader recently arrested protesting outside Yoo’s classroom, said yesterday: “John Yoo and Jay Bybee represent a simple question: do people living in the U.S. find torture an acceptable weapon in their government’s arsenal? Is torture part of the world we want to live in? And if we answer NO – what will we do to make that real?”