Protesters Greet Law Professor John Yoo at UC Berkeley
At least four protesters were arrested in Berkeley, Calif., on Monday after they refused to leave the lecture hall where former Justice Department official John Yoo was teaching a civil law class.
Protesters shouted “war criminal” as Yoo entered the building at the University of California Berkeley’s Boalt Hall law school, the Associated Press reports. The protesters say Yoo should be fired because of his Justice Department work on legal memos approving harsh interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects.
Protesters also staged a mock arrest of Yoo. Some were dressed in hoods to resemble the detainees at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. A comedian from the Australian TV show The Chaser’s War on Everything wore similar garb when he showed up at a class earlier this year at Chapman University’s law school, where Yoo was teaching a course as a visiting law professor.
Yoo has traveled across the country to refute his critics and defended his legal work on the memos in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. “To limit the president’s constitutional power to protect the nation from foreign threats is simply foolhardy,” he wrote.
