MIAMI, Jan. 5, 2008
Ex-Bush Lawyer Sued Over Torture Memos
Man Held For Years As Enemy Combatant Says Yoo Gave Legal "Green Light" For Interrogations
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Photo
Jose Padilla, who was detained in isolation without criminal charge for 3½ years, filed a lawsuit against a former government lawyer who authored the "torture memos" which gave legal cover to the administration's detention policies and interrogation techniques. Padilla is seeking $1 in damages. (AP Photo/U.S. Government)
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Timeline
Enemy Combatant
A summary of Jose Padilla's alleged activities and his court proceedings.
The lawsuit claims that John Yoo, a former senior Justice Department official, wrote several legal memos that led President Bush to designate Padilla as an enemy combatant shortly after the U.S. citizen was arrested in May 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on suspicion of involvement in an al Qaeda plot.
Yoo at the time was deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, which provided many of the main legal justifications for Bush administration policy on treatment of terror detainees.
The lawsuit, filed by Padilla and his mother, Estela Lebron, asks only $1 in damages, seeking mainly a judgment declaring that the policies violated the Constitution.
"This is ultimately about right and wrong, not money," said Padilla attorney Jonathan Freiman, a professor at Yale Law School.
Yoo, now a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, declined comment in an e-mail. His Los Angeles-based lawyer did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.
Padilla attorney Jonathan Freiman said Yoo was sued because "he gave the green light" to how to deal with Padilla, which ultimately led to his detention without criminal charge for 3½ years at a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in northern California, repeats Padilla's claims that he was subjected to extreme interrogation techniques and mistreatment he contends amounted to torture. Justice Department and Pentagon officials have repeatedly denied Padilla's claims.
The alleged mistreatment included forced hooding, deprivation of light and sleep, extreme heat and cold, stress positions, threats of death, use of drugs and introduction of odors into his cell. Padilla used these same claims in an attempt to be declared mentally incompetent to stand trial in Miami, but a federal judge rejected the attempt.
Padilla and two co-defendants were convicted in August of terrorism conspiracy and material support charges, with sentencing scheduled for next week in a Miami federal court. All three men face up to life in prison.
Padilla was added to the Miami terrorism case in late 2005 shortly before challenges to his military detention were to go before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was initially accused of plotting with al Qaeda to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a major U.S. city, but those charges were dropped.
Ultimately the jury in his trial was told only that Padilla was recruited by Islamic extremists in the U.S. and filled out an application to attend an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan.
Associated Press writer Matt Apuzzo in Washington contributed to this story.
By Curt Anderson
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
When Europe was liberated and everything found out, all the legal arguments ever written by the Nazis didn''t help them one bit at Nuremberg. I guess we were smarter back in 1947-48!
The only way that the Great Emperor Bush, Darth Vader Cheney, and the rest of their allies will pay for their crimes is to be arrested by Interpol and brought to justice in an international court. Donald "Rummy" Rumsfeld is already a wanted man in Europe for crimes against humanity, lets add the entire Bush family (starting with Senior and "Babs") and Cheney and his family to the list.
SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!!!!
That being said, since he was engaging in his job when he wrote the opinions (even though the undisclosed opinions are likely to be guano), it is likely that a variety of legal doctrines related to immunity will prevent the lawsuit from going beyond the pleading stage. The lawsuit is a "nice" gesture, but essentially worthless.
Hangman, hangman, upon your face a smile,
Pray tell me that Im free to ride,
Ride for many mile, mile, mile.
Oh, yes, you got a fine sister,
She warmed my blood from cold,
Brought my face to boiling hot
To keep you from the gallows pole,
Your brother brought me silver,
Your sister warmed my soul,
But now I laugh and pull so hard
And see you swinging on the gallows pole
How the heck did he get this gig!?
Posted by jerr11
same way feith and wolfowitz got theirs - azz-licking neocons have their own union now.
Jailing Americans for years, without charge, torturing them, and then "convicting" them before a kangaroo court, has all the "hallmarks" of the Bush terror crusade.
Folks are crying foul over these petty techniques??
Nancy Boy Sissy stuff right there ...
Even if it took 3+ years to charge this so called "American", no loss there ... he is a traitor who was convicted of terrorism conspiracy and material support charges ... that''s good enough for me
scorp79,
Re: "So before you people go blaming congress for "doing nothing," know the facts. The fact will lead you to conclude that IN ORDER FOR THE DEMS TO REVERSE BUSH ERA WAYS, they need the FULL power of all THREE branches of government."
The fact is that the Democrats helped to bring us the PATRIOT Act, the Military Commissions Act, Der Homeland Security, The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007, NAFTA and the WTO, illegal war of aggression, Corporate rape and plunder, slavery to Israeli extremism, and other grossly un-Constitutional abuses.
The Democrats are offering us little hope of any substantial change. They are clearly part of the problem, and those hoping that they will defy their paymasters, once they take power....pull my other finger...
Will you ever learn?
What makes you think that the Bush regime will allow elections?
Won''t NPSD51 allow them to "postpone" elections, for our own safety, if we are suddenly hit with a "TERRA" attack?
RowdyTexan2,
Re: "Was this young man''s only real crime filling out an Al Queda application, and that''''s all they had on him?"
Even that claim was called into serious question.
This means he is teaching new republican lawyers ways to circumvent the constitution so they can turn it into the monarchy Bush has begun to create.
Waterboard Him,Hang dead eye Dicck too !
Crimes Against Mankind,..Leading "THE Greedy Oil Perverts" into a War against All People,Both Foreign & Domestic ! Enough IS Enough ! NO MORE GOP!! NO MORE GOP!! NO MORE GOP !! Friends Don`t friends vote republicon.
The last time I understood the law is that ''bring me the body'' does not come into play until they have a dead body to bring for proof, stolen goods, illegal goods to be marketed, something!
I don''t suppose that since I don''t like Mr. Bush and his actions, know that he is a liar and war mongerer, know that he has conspired to commit war and death on another nation illegally, commited acts of torture, etc, etc, etc, that I can perform a citizens arrest, have everything in the White House and the Crawford Ranch confiscated as evidence, have all his co-conspirators rounded up and all their goods confiscated, throw all of them in jail, and have them tortured into admitting all the unspeakable crimes they''ve commited, would be applicable application of law? As a citizen of the United States, I don''t suppose this would fly, would it?
Mr Scorp79 you like I know this as fact I do not understand why more do not write the same thing as you did to remind the idiots who think different.
I have posted the same remark at leat 10 ot 12 times in the past 14 or so months.
I hope that gw bush and his friends in the white house follows the trail that Hitler took at the end as it would save America tons of money on law suits for all the citizens they have wroned. The best of good thoughts and the best of good byes from Austin, TX and Frank Bofwerws
All reports show that torture gets you lies - cause you see those being tortured will do or say anything to stop the torture - yes - even make up lies and stories.
Only a fool thinks that the torture will save America - but then again that does describe you and Bush both - fools in a fool''s paradise.
We leave every one of those persons perfectly capable of performing every act and skill that they were ever capable of whether mental or physical.
We do not ask for confessions, but for information that can then be verified.
We have saved tens of thousands of American lives by doing this.
If the court cannot protect Padilla it will not protect you jackass. This has nothing to do with Islam - if Padilla was making a dirty bomb arrest, charge and put him on trial. This is the American way, we do not lock people up on the the order of King George Bush and then concern ourselves with the finer points of legality. this was the whole point of the 4th and 14th amendments.
Of course you would know this if you were not an ignorant _________
John Yoo will be back as a nominee for Supreme Court - just watch. All these GOP *** kissers will be back if we are not careful.
The torture part no, but I''m 100% with you on the rest.
So you accept the word of someone who is so far batting .000 on the truth?
Posted by jaimieandlis
Like your mother.
Wow, somebody pick up this guy''s burning cross and hooded sheet and hand it back to him...
These boards are actually a joke - they do not enforce the terms and conditions on here - racism, bigotry, homophobia rule the roost and CBS refuse to do anything to moderate these boards even though they have rules of engagement which specifically prohibit this behavior. I jut wonder what mindset of person really believes that racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry, are acceptable in this day and age - who believes that we are not all human beings and all of equal value in this world - it is beyond my comprehension why someone can be so small minded and unable to accept difference.
I strongly urge a national campaign to bring pressure on The Hastings College of Law, U.C. Berkeley Law School to fire Yoo.
War criminals belong in jails, not in classrooms.
k2345 at 03:00 PM,
Very good.
Please post often!
runningralph,
Re: "He conspired with enemies of the US to do terrorism."
Padilla is an American citizen, held for years, without charge, and tortured.
Unable to try this American citizen for the crimes that he was originally accused of, but not charged, the Bush regime dreamed up some alternate charges, which are irrelevant since this American was held for years, and tortured, without being charged.
It is clear that the vast majority of those held in the Bush regime secret prisons and torture centers, never posed the slightest threat to anyone.
Your cheering for the wrongful imprisonment and torture of Americans is sickening.
You sound like a Zionist.
An advocate for repression and torture at Berkley....talk about an oxymoron...LOL
Folks are crying foul over these petty techniques??
Nancy Boy Sissy stuff right there ...
Posted by dowjones20k at 04:09 PM : Jan 05, 2008
Your ignorance is screaming.
1. sleep deprivation can lead to hallucinations and death
2. "Stress positions" can refer to anything from making someone stand for hours on their tiptoes to using a torture rack. It is a euphemism for causing severe discomfort or pain. Hog tying a person is a "stress position" as is twisting a persons body into a pretzel.
3. There have been deaths due to waterboarding
4. Use of lights, water and extreme temperatures were highlighted in the Nuremberg trials and resulted in convictions for torture for Nazis and Japanese--America led the way in convicting.
Waterboarding has been considered torture since used in the Spanish Inquisition and was declared so in America as early as the 1890s.
That said--never wish to subject a person to something you would not want to endure or would not want your family to endure--because the difference between who "gets it" is often a matter of degrees and sooner or later--what is used for just a certain group will ultimately be used on ordinary people who run afoul of someone in power. Taser? Anyone?
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by nevminer735
January 7, 2008 1:37 PM EST
- Another case of the Bush administration bending the rules to suit the mindset of corrupt officials that think that they do not have to play by established rules. Most think that the rules do not apply to their actions.
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