Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter

NEWS ABOUT: John Yoo

John Yoo stories: 19 news summaries

 Yoo Fights Back on Torture 


Jul 27, 09 7:13 AM CDT
(Newser) - The embattled Bush administration lawyer who drafted memos justifying waterboarding and warrantless wiretaps is fighting back as his role comes under greater scrutiny, the Washington Post reports. John Yoo, now a University of California law professor, has been giving speeches around the country defending the tactics and his view that... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Bush administration • Department of Justice • surveillance • warrantless wiretapping • waterboarding • John Yoo • torture memo

(Newser) - President Bush seriously considered deploying the military to arrest terror suspects in a Buffalo suburb in 2002, former Bush administration officials tell the New York Times. Dick Cheney was in favor of the almost unprecedented deployment of troops on American soil, the officials say, while Condoleezza Rice and others were... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Bush administration • War on Terror • Dick Cheney • US military • John Yoo • terror suspects • George W. Bush • Buffalo

(Newser) - If ex-Justice Department hand John Yoo thought he could fade into obscurity after writing infamous memos justifying the government’s use of torture and warrantless wiretapping, he was wrong. An Australian comedian crashed his class at Chapman University School of Law in California last week, dressed up like a detainee... More »

MORE ABOUT:
California • torture • prank • John Yoo • comedian • torture memo • Chaser%u2019s War on Everything • warantless wiretap

OPINION

Yoo: Wiretaps Were Legal and Necessary

President had right to violate 'obsolete' FISA, Bush lawyer writes

Jul 16, 09 7:24 AM CDT
(Newser) - Last week the inspectors general of the Justice Department, CIA, and other agencies suggested the Bush administration violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, singling out lawyer John Yoo for memos justifying warrantless wiretapping. Yoo defends himself today in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, writing that FISA was "an obsolete... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Bush administration • Department of Justice • surveillance • FISA • Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act • warrantless wiretapping • John Yoo • electronic surveillance laws • wiretapping • memo

(Newser) - The Bush administration's warrantless wiretap program wasn't such a great anti-terror tool after all, says a new federal report. The wiretaps—on the international communication of Americans—"generally played a limited role" in counterterrorism efforts, despite the assertions of President Bush, Dick Cheney, and other top officials that they... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Bush administration • national security • FBI • surveillance • wiretap • warrantless wiretapping • John Yoo

Wiretapping Memos Drafted in 'Inappropriate' Secrecy: Report

Only 3 Justice officials knew of program

Jul 10, 09 4:59 PM CDT
(Newser) - The legal justification for the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program was handled with unprecedented secrecy that sidestepped usual Justice Department procedure, the Washington Post reports. Only three Justice officials—John Ashcroft, John Yoo, and staff attorney James Baker—were made aware of the program and participated in drafting memos... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Bush administration • Department of Justice • John Ashcroft • Department of Defense • secrecy • warrantless wiretapping • John Yoo • James Baker

Terrorist Can Sue Over Torture Memos: Judge

Ruling on Padilla may open door against former Justice lawyer

Jun 13, 09 5:10 PM CDT
(AP) - A convicted terrorist can sue a former Bush administration lawyer for drafting the legal theories that led to his alleged torture, ruled a federal judge who said he was trying to balance a clash between war and the defense of personal freedoms. The order by judge Jeffrey White of San... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Jose Padilla • lawsuit • terrorist • John Yoo • torture memo

Bush Lawyers Face Calls for Dismissal

But disbarring Yoo
or impeaching Bybee
is an uphill battle

May 7, 09 7:00 AM CDT
(Newser) - The Justice Department has signaled it won't prosecute the Bush administration lawyers who approved interrogation tactics widely considered to be torture, but they may have trouble keeping their jobs. A forthcoming report from the DoJ will recommend possible disciplinary action by state bar associations for the Bush lawyers, sources tell... More »

MORE ABOUT:
torture • Department of Justice • impeachment • UC Berkeley • John Yoo • harsh interrogation • Jay Bybee

(Newser) - The Bush lawyers who gave their blessing to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques should not face criminal charges, a Justice Department report has concluded. The report does, however, say that Jay Bybee, John Yoo, and Steven Bradbury showed poor judgment and suggests that state bar associations consider reprimands and... More »

MORE ABOUT:
CIA • torture • Department of Justice • waterboarding • John Yoo • harsh interrogation • Steven Bradbury • Jay Bybee

analysis

Torture Convictions
Would Be a Long Shot

Prosecution possible, but nailing Cheney a legal headache

May 4, 09 8:34 AM CDT
(Newser) - Those calling for Bush administration prosecutions on torture-related grounds may have their way—but whether those in question can actually be convicted is a whole other kettle of fish, Jeffrey Rosen writes in New York. Much of the case would likely hinge on whether authorities believed their own claims in... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Bush administration • Dick Cheney • torture • Condoleezza Rice • conviction • lawyer • waterboarding • John Yoo • Steven Bradbury • Eric Holder • Obama administration • prosecutions • Jay Bybee

No Torture Trial for 'Bush Six': Spain's Top Cop

Case would turn
courts into political
'plaything,' he says

Apr 16, 09 9:13 AM CDT
(AP) - Spanish prosecutors will recommend against opening an investigation into whether six Bush administration officials sanctioned torture against terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, the country’s attorney general said today. The case against former high-ranking figures like Alberto Gonzales was without merit, he said, because the men weren’t present when... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Bush administration • torture • Alberto Gonzales • human rights • Spain • trial • Guantanamo Bay • John Yoo • David Addington • Douglas Feith

Obama Defends Bush 'Torture Memo' Author

Yoo case should be up to executive, Congress, Justice Dept argues

Mar 8, 09 2:38 PM CDT
(Newser) - President Obama’s Justice Department is defending a Bush official being sued over his interrogation memos, ABC News reports. Lawyers for Jose Padilla, who was sentenced to 17 years in jail for conspiring to support Islamist extremists, are arguing in court that John Yoo’s memos were behind Padilla’s... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Bush administration • torture • Jose Padilla • lawsuit • John Yoo • George W. Bush • Obama administration • torture memo

 Bush Lawyer Authorized 
 Suspending 1st Amendment 

Yoo memo also let military attack buildings inside US

Mar 3, 09 4:23 AM CST
(Newser) - Immediately after 9/11 the Justice Department under President Bush approved military attacks on apartments and offices, high-tech surveillance of citizens, and a suspension of press freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. The actions detailed in the newly released memo, co-written by John Yoo and sent to Alberto Gonzales, were seen... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Bush administration • Alberto Gonzales • Department of Justice • John Yoo • 9/11 attacks • torture memo • memo

Torture Lawyer Flees Berkeley Amid Protests 

Law prof takes 1-year gig at OC's Chapman U.

Feb 11, 09 11:48 AM CST
(Newser) - It can be hard to be a professor: publish or perish, sit on committees…dodge protesters? Just ask John Yoo, author of the memos that laid out and justified the harsh interrogation tactics used by the Bush administration. Yoo, a Berkeley law professor, has taken leave from his left-leaning professional... More »

MORE ABOUT:
California • torture • UC Berkeley • Berkeley • Chapman University • waterboarding • John Yoo • Berkeley Law School • torture memo

OPINION

Court's Gitmo Ruling
a Judicial 'Power Grab'

Former Justice Department official says justices overstepped boundaries

Jun 17, 08 5:23 PM CDT
(Newser) - The Supreme Court's decision on Guantanamo Bay detainees got such praise from newspaper editorials that one might think a “dictator” had been stopped “from trampling civil liberties,” writes former Justice Department official John Yoo in the Wall Street Journal. In fact, the ruling is an unprecedented judicial... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Guantanamo Bay • John Yoo • US Supreme Court • Boumediene

Bush Threw Out 4th Amendment After 9/11

Newly revealed Yoo memo voided search and seizure protections

Apr 4, 08 1:23 PM CDT
(Newser) - Just a month after Sept. 11, 2001, the Justice Department concluded that anti-terror military operations on US soil were not constrained by the Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure. The conclusion was detailed in a memo written by John Yoo, the theorist behind many of President Bush's expansions of... More »

MORE ABOUT:
War on Terror • torture • Department of Justice • warrantless wiretapping • Fourth Amendment • John Yoo • executive power

OPINION

This Is What a War Criminal Looks Like

Newly released docs show ex-deputy AG's 'depraved criminality'

Apr 2, 08 5:35 PM CDT
(Newser) - John Yoo, who as deputy AG wrote a crucial memo justifying torture, is a war criminal, Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald bluntly argues: Newly released documents reveal "a government official who, in concert with other government officials, set out to enable a brutal and systematic torture regime, and did so.... More »

MORE ABOUT:
torture • Department of Justice • war crimes • John Yoo • moral authority • Berkeley Law School • torture memo

DOJ Probes Itself Over Torture Memos

Ethics chief reveals inquiry into advice that OK'd waterboarding

Feb 22, 08 8:15 PM CST
(Newser) - The Department of Justice is probing its own legal approval of waterboarding for the CIA, the New York Times reports. DOJ ethics chief H. Marshall Jarrett confirmed today that his office is conducting the first public inquiry of the 5-year-old advice and may issue a non-classified report when it... More »

MORE ABOUT:
CIA • torture • Department of Justice • waterboarding • John Yoo • Sheldon Whitehouse • Dick Durbin • Office of Professional Responsibility • H. Marshall Jarrett • Glenn A. Fine

Ex-Thomas Clerk Says Critics Are Unfounded

Emphasizes justice's humanity, at-times liberal ideology

Oct 9, 07 10:47 AM CDT
(Newser) - A former clerk for Clarence Thomas lashes out at critical reaction to the justice's new autobiography in a Wall Street Journal commentary today. While liberals accuse Thomas of excessive bitterness over the grilling he received on his Supreme Court nomination, as well as subsequent unfairness, John Yoo points to a... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Clarence Thomas • John Yoo • My Grandfather • US Supreme Court

19 Stories


from our news partners