Professor John Yoo to Teach New “Secret Class”

Professor John Yoo to Teach New “Secret Class” at UC Law School

BERKELEY– With anti-torture protest continuing to focus on the presence on the University of California faculty of former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo, UC officials have adopted a new tactic. Yoo will again teach spring semester at Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall) – but the location of his classroom is being kept secret from the public, and Yoo himself is unlikely to be physically present for the first night of his class Tuesday, January 12.

Yoo’s course is listed on Boalt’s schedule by day and time only, with location only as “To Be Announced.” Calls requesting the UC Registrar and Berkeley Law divulge the information are being rebuffed. Although Yoo formerly taught major courses including Constitutional Law, Separation of Powers, and Ethics, in the spotlight of controversy over his role as legal architect of the Bush-Cheney torture program Yoo has now been re-assigned to teach only a single course on the California constitution, to a class limited to 24 students, and has been given a co-teacher.

Protesters including the national organization World Can’t Wait have announced they will arrive at the office of the dean of Berkeley Law, Christopher Edley, Jr. earlier that afternoon, to ask for more information about UC’s new “secret classes” policy:

What will be taught behind closed doors that needs to be kept secret?

Is this a new policy behind which UC hides from public accountability?

“We continue to call for Yoo to be fired, disbarred, and prosecuted for war crimes, along with his entire cohort from the Bush-Cheney Torture Team,” said World Can’t Wait organizer Stephanie Tang today. “Torture is a war crime. Thousands have been tortured thanks to John Yoo’s work for the White House, long after Yoo himself returned to teaching. The faculty and students right here at UC – and all people of conscience everywhere -- need to denounce these crimes, not turn away in silent complicity.”

January 11, 2010 marks the 8th anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, now made infamous by revelations of torture and other inhumane, illegal treatment of detainees. Barack Obama’s inaugural promise to close Guantanamo had set an original deadline of January 22, 2010 – yet Guantanamo is still open, and a new Guantanamo is being prepared for opening at the Thomas Federal Correctional Facility in Illinois.

ENDS