http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/09/BA0I14K7P3.DTL

Berkeley Council urges war crimes prosecution

Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

(12-09) 11:19 PST Berkeley -- After an emotional, rancorous debate over torture and
academic freedom, Berkeley's City Council passed a measure late Monday night
imploring the United States to prosecute Berkeley resident and former White House
official John Yoo for war crimes.

Yoo, a tenured professor at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, wrote the legal
memos justifying torture during the interrogation of terrorism suspects when he
served as deputy assistant attorney general for the Bush administration in 2001-03.

"John Yoo took a material involvement in the deaths and torture of untold numbers
of people," said Councilman Max Anderson, choking back tears during the council's
debate. "The broken bodies, the broken spirits, the broken trust he wrought with his
actions - that's why they call these crimes against humanity."

Yoo could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The council stopped short of passing the full original measure, put forth by the Peace
and Justice Commission, which called for the city to urge UC Berkeley to rearrange its
class schedule so no student would be required to take a course from Yoo.

"I don't think we should be dictating course policy to the university," Councilman
Laurie Capitelli said.

Yoo teaches constitutional and international law at Boalt, but he won't be in Berkeley
much longer. He was appointed in September to be a visiting professor at Chapman
University in Orange County, serving from January to May 2009.

Monday's debate drew several dozen activists clad in black hoods and orange
jumpsuits, UC Berkeley students, Nazi Germany war survivors and other Berkeley
residents, most of whom thought the council should have taken a stronger stance
against Yoo.

"If you want to live in a world where people are tortured, then we already live in it,"
Stephanie Tang, an activist with the anti-war group World Can't Wait, told the
council. "But we can change it, if we demand that it changes."

Anderson, who represents South Berkeley, wept as he recalled torture he had
witnessed as a soldier during the Vietnam War. His arguments against the city scaling
back the measure drew a standing ovation.

"To water this thing down is an abdication of our responsibility as a city and as a
community," he said. "John Yoo led us down a path we're just now trying to find our
way back from, and this is one step."

The city will send a letter to the incoming U.S. attorney general and the U.S. attorney
for Northern California asking that they prosecute Yoo for war crimes. The measure
updates a March 2007 initiative asking the United States to prosecute former Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Yoo and other officials.

The city also plans to ask UC Berkeley to fire Yoo if he's convicted. Yoo has never
been charged with war crimes, and the arguments Yoo used to justify torture were
struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Councilman Gordon Wozniak abstained from two of the three votes on the issue,
calling the measure a "slippery slope."

"I have some problems assuming John Yoo is guilty before he's tried," he said. "I
think everyone in Berkeley is against torture, but this is a slippery slope. I think we
have to respect academic freedom, even if it's for people whose opinions we don't
agree with."

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This article appeared on page B - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle