John Yoo, attorney with the Bush Administration will speak at UVA on March 19 at the Miller Center for Public Affairs. Yoo was an author of the ‘torture memos’ which advised the Bush Administration that water boarding and other harsh techniques of interrogation were legal.
John Yoo was deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. He currently has returned to teaching at the University of California at Berkeley’s law school and is promoting his book, “Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George W. Bush.”
Last week after a long series of DOJ investitgations, it was determined that Yoo and other attorneys “exercised poor judgment” in formulating their legal advice to the Bush Administration. The ruling was very controversial and polarized political factions.
Expect to see heated debate at UVA. Various liberal groups have called Yoo a war criminal. Thomas Jefferson’s academic village will be rocking on March 19 with this latest visitor. I don’t expect the students to go quietly with this guest speaker.
