>>> EARLIER THIS WEEK, I DID A COMMENTARY ABOUT KIRSTJEN
NIELSEN
NIELSEN NIELSEN’S FUTURE IN WHICH I
ARGUED THAT SHE’S RESPONSIBLE
FOR SOME TRULY TERRIBLE THINGS
AS A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL
AND AS SUCH DESERVES TO BE HELD
ACCOUNTABLE.
ACCOUNTABLE. AND I REFERENCED ANOTHER PERSON
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SOME
TRULY TERRIBLE THINGS AS A
GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL AND WHO HAS
GOTTEN OFF MORE OR LESS
SCOT-FREE.
SCOT-FREE. AND THAT WOULD BE JOHN YOO
JOHN YOO WROTE THE INFAMOUS
TORTURE MEMO DURING THE BUSH
ADMINISTRATION
ADMINISTRATION THE MEMO REDEFINED WHAT
INTERROGATORS COULD DO IN ORDER
TO ALLOW THEM TO COMMIT WHAT IS
WIDELY UNDERSTOOD AND WAS
UNDERSTOOD BEFORE HIS MEMO AS
TORTURE AND JUST NOT CALL IT
TORTURE.
TORTURE. ON TRUMP TV, MR. YOO WAS ASKED
ABOUT ME CALLING HIM OUT AND
THIS WAS HIS RESPONSE.
>> I GOT TO SAY, NO ONE EVER
TOLD ME THAT ONE OF THE PERKS OF
BEING IN THE GOVERNMENT WOULD BE
BEING SECOND GUESSED BY SOME,
YOU KNOW, PIP-SQUEAK AT MSNBC
YEARS LATER.
YEARS LATER. WHILE THIS GUY’S PROBABLY IN
COLLEGE, TRYING TO PULL
ALL-NIGHTERS AND GET HOT COFFEE
AT 1:00 A.M., THE SERIOUS POINT
IS, YOU KNOW, WE WERE SENDING
MEN AND WOMEN TO AFGHANISTAN,
SOME OF THEM TO DIE, TO STOP A
FUTURE TERRORIST ATTACK.
AND I WANTED TO DO MY SMALL PART
AS A LAWYER, WAS TO MAKE SURE
THEY HAD ALL THE TOOLS AT THEIR
DISPOSAL WITHIN THE LAW TO STOP
THE NEXT ATTACK.
AND THAT’S WHAT WE DID IN THE
BUSH ADMINISTRATION.
BUSH ADMINISTRATION. AND THERE WERE NO OTHER
SUCCESSFUL ATTACKS
SUCCESSFUL ATTACKS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION STOPPED
THESE POLICIES
THESE POLICIES SKPUFRL
SKPUFRL AND WONDERFUL, WE’VE HAD A
LITANY OF ATTACKS, THE BOSTON
MARATHON
MARATHON >> WELL, THEY NEVER WANT PEOPLE
TO BE ABLE TO WORK AGAIN
WE ALL KNOW THAT
THAT IS HOW DESPERATE THE LEFT
HAS BECOME
HAS BECOME >> WE INVITED JOHN YOO TO JOIN
US TONIGHT, TALK ABOUT ALL OF
THIS, HE DECLINED.
BUT HERE ARE SOME OF THE POINTS
I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO MAKE TO
HIM.
HIM. IF JOHN YOO DIDN’T UNDERSTAND
BEFORE HE WENT INTO GOVERNMENT
THAT PEOPLE COULD CRITICIZE HIM,
THEN HE NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN
IN GOVERNMENT.
IN GOVERNMENT. AND IF HE’S THAT IGNORANT ABOUT
THE NATURE OF PUBLIC CRITICISM,
HE SHOULDN’T BE TEACHING LAW,
BECAUSE IT’S ONE OF THE MOST
FUNDAMENTAL ASPECTS OF THE
CONSTITUTION, THE FIRST
AMENDMENT, AMERICAN DEMOCRACY,
THAT WHEN YOU GO INTO
GOVERNMENT, YOU GET CRITICIZED
I’M SORRY HE DIDN’T REALIZE THAT
AHEAD OF TIME.
IN FACT, YOU CAN EVEN GET
CRITICIZED BY PEOPLE LIKE ME,
WHO IT IS TRUE, WAS JUST A
23-YEAR-OLD OUT IN THE WORLD
WHEN JOHN YOO WROTE HIS MEMO
AND I DIDN’T HAVE ANY OF JOHN
YOO’S FANCY CREDENTIALS.
JOHN YOO, I, HOWEVER, THOUGH
THAT THE WAR ON IRAQ WAS A
TERRIBLE IDEA AND TORTURE WAS
WRONG.
WRONG. THOSE TWO IDEAS THAT JOHN YOO
DID NOT BELIEVE WITH ALL OF HIS
FANCY CREDENTIALS.
FANCY CREDENTIALS. BUT HERE’S THE THING, HE WAS
WRONG AND I WAS RIGHT.
EVEN WHEN JOHN YOO’S LAW DEGREE
AND SUPREME COURT CLERKSHIP.
ALSO, FOR HIM TO COME OUT AND
INVOKE THE TROOPS WHO WERE OUT
ON THE BATTLEFIELD IN
AFGHANISTAN AND HIDE BEHIND
THEIR VALOR AND WHAT THEY DID IS
AS COWARDLY AS IT IS PATHETIC.
JOHN YOO DID NOT SERVE IN THE
MILITARY, HE DID NOT GO TO
AFGHANISTAN, HE DID NOT SERVE IN
THE WARS, HE DID NOT IMPLEMENT
THE DETAINEE POLICY THAT HE
HIMSELF AUTHORIZED
HIMSELF AUTHORIZED HE DID NOT HAVE TO SUFFER THE
TRAUMA OF BEING TORTURED OR OF
TORTURING PEOPLE OR OF BEING IN
THE ROOM WITH THEM, NOR THE
LEGAL OR MORAL EXPOSURE THAT
CAME WITH IT
NO, JOHN YOO SAT A AT A DESK
WRITING MEMOS THAT LED TO OTHER
PEOPLE COMMITTING THOSE ACTS
THAT WAS ALL THE BRAVERY THAT
JOHN YOO SHOWED.
ALSO, THE IDEA THAT STOPPING
TORTURE STOPPED ATTACKS WAS
BELIED BY THE FACTS THAT WHILE
THE U.S. WAS EMPLOYING TORTURES,
U.S. TROOPS AND IRAQI AND AFGHAN
TROOPS WERE ATTACKED TIME AND
TIME AND TIME AGAIN AT THE COST
OF THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF
LIVES.
LIVES. FINALLY, ON THE IDEA THAT THIS
IS SOME OUT THERE CRITIQUE
OFFERED BY SOME WILD-EYED CABLE
NEWS HOST OR A LEFTIST OR A
LIBERAL, LET’S JUST GO CHAPTERS
AND VERSE.
AND VERSE. THERE ARE DOZENS OF SCHOLARS,
EXPERTS ON INTERNATIONAL AND
DOMESTIC LAW WHO HAVE WRITTEN
THAT YOO’S MEMO WAS WITHDRAWN.
IN FACT, IT WAS SO LAWLESS, IT
WAS FORMALLY WITHDRAWN BY THE
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION WHEN IT
CAME TO POWER.
AND THIS IS NOT LIMITED TO
LIBERALS
LIBERALS HERE ARE A FEW OF THE PEOPLE WHO
THINK THAT WHAT JOHN YOO WROTE
WAS WRONG.
WAS WRONG. SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM, FORMER
MILITARY LAWYER, WHO TOLD
"NEWSWEEK" IN 2006, WHEN YOU
SAY, WEAPON WON’T USE TORTURE
UNLESS WE THINK WE REALLY,
REALLY NEED IT, WE’RE NOT A RULE
OF LAW NATION.
SECRETARY COLIN POWELL SAID THAT
THE WORLD IS BEGINNING TO DOUBT
OUR MORAL BASIS FOR THE WAR
AGAINST TERRORISM.
AGAINST TERRORISM. AND SENATOR JOHN McCAIN, WHO OF
COURSE EXPERIENCED THIS
FIRSTHAND WHEN HE WAS TORTURED
WHILE A P.O.W. IN VIETNAM, WHO
WROTE IN A 2011 OP-ED, QUOTE,
MUCH OF THIS DEBATE IS A
DEFINITIONAL ONE, WHETHER ANY OR
ALL OF THESE METHODS CONSTITUTE
TORTURE.
TORTURE. I BELIEVE SOME OF THEM DO,
ESPECIALLY WATERBOARDING, WHICH
IS A MOCK EXECUTION, AND AS
SUCH, AN EXQUISITE FORM OF
TORTURE.
TORTURE. AN EXQUISITE FORM OF TORTURE
PROHIBITED BY AMERICAN LAWS AND
VALUES
VALUES AND JOHN YOO WORKED TO
FACILITATE THAT EXQUISITE
TORTURE.
TORTURE. HE JUSTIFIED IT, AND HE
CONTINUES TO THIS DAY TO JUSTIFY