Anti-Torture Protesters Greet John Yoo at Pro-Torture Conference

         EVENT:         Rally & Protest
         WHEN:         Friday, August 26, 6:30 PM
         WHERE:         Marines' Memorial Club Hotel,  609 Sutter St., San Francisco

Protesters will gather when the California Young Republican Federation hosts the University of California's premiere torture advocate JOHN YOO in San Francisco.

Public and political controversy over U.S. military and intelligence operations involving practices constituting torture has not waned in the years after the Bush administration’s pro-torture stance.  The posture of the Obama administration to continue Bush “torture state” policies, rather than to criticize or reverse them, has deepened this debate.

John Yoo, a principal architect of the Bush administration’s policies and practices of torture in the post-9/11 period, has not yet been prosecuted by the Obama administration for Yoo’s well-known role in instituting illegal torture.  Yoo remains employed by UC Berkeley Law to teach constitutional law, with UC now promoting him as an expert on issues of human rights – while Yoo continues to dodge legal charges in U.S. and international arenas where torture constitutes a war crime, and a crime against humanity.

As Yoo is feted at the Young Republicans’ reception, outside the hall many protesters from World Can’t Wait, Code Pink, and other anti-torture groups will demonstrate against torture.  Protest spokesperson Stephanie Tang of San Francisco says the demonstration will welcome conference-goers with information, displays, and a moral challenge: Are You Saying Yes to the Crime of Torture?