Change Yoo Can Believe In

John Yoo: The Bushco™ Torquemada

To some extent, Obama's argument that Bushco™ officials like John Yoo should not be prosecuted for past crimes is compelling. At a purely pragmatic level, it would be a 'backward-looking' exercise and, as a country, we need to move on.

But if Obama does block action against Bushco™ minions for past crimes, he is effectively condoning those crimes and may as well admit 'business as usual'. He might as well admit that torture, rendition and the suspension of habeas corpus are tools he intends to keep in reserve for himself. Not exactly 'change' anyone can believe in. The Obama government needs to demonstrate its commitment to justice and its disavowal of the Bushco™ tactics that lost us so much support around the world. They need to let justice take its course.

As the main engineer of Bushco's most troubling policies, John Yoo needs some serious cell time. Without this sadistic f***, Cheney's crazy ideas would have died at birth and not matured into the crazy reality that destroyed America's reputation as a benign democracy. When Bushco™ asked him to give legal credibility to their Geneva Convention-dodging tactics in the war on terror, Yoo surpassed their expectations by writing a document that "dismissed virtually all national and international laws regulating the treatment of prisoners, including war-crimes and assault statutes." He's the piece of work who convinced Cheney that mobilizing US troops on US soil to go after terror suspects would be cool - an idea so brazen even Bush balked at it.

So it's heartening to hear that three federal courts (ones appointed by Bush no less) have left open the possibility that the former Justice Department official, along with former Attorney General John Ashcroft, may be held personally liable in some upcoming civil rights lawsuits.

If there is any justice in the world, Yoo and his cohorts need to suffer legal consequences. And Obama, who's inherited the uncomfortable task of protecting still practicing Bushco-era government officials such as Yoo, needs to suck it up and let it happen.