Padilla Sues John Yoo, DoJ Official, for Authorizing Torture

[L. Coyote]

Padilla Sues DoJ Official for Authorizing Torture
By Paul Kiel - January 4, 2008 - http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/005022.php


Here's an approach I haven't seen before. From The Chicago Tribune (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-padilla080104,1,6749180.story?track=rss):

In the latest legal contest over the treatment of detained terrorist suspects, attorneys for Jose Padilla filed a suit in a California federal district court this morning against John Yoo, the former deputy assistant Attorney General whose legal opinions formed the basis for Padilla's detention and the interrogation techniques used against him that the attorneys call torture....

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Does he have a case?

I mean I know he's perfectly justified, but can you sue over a legal opinion?

[AlCzervik]

3. the article is pretty light on details, it doesn't say what statute.

[lala_rawraw]

15. They did after WWII

and the people involved, be they foot soldiers, order givers, or legal wordsmiths... they all got nailed. the fact the Yoo has a teaching job is what really makes me angry

[dailykoff]

2. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and perfect timing. Hillary would bury this in a new york minute.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. Sounds reasonable to me. Yoo dreamed up all that shit himself

from whole cloth. No different than the culpability of the Nazi leadership. He ought to have included that Addison asshole too.

[L. Coyote]

5. Discovery may lead up the defendant food chain and include main courses.

Maybe the guys who said, "We need to do this, write it up," will be named later.

[salin]

6. Very interesting.

[formercia]

7. Padilla has at least as much a case against Yoo

as the "Government' had against Padilla.

No matter what happens, Yoo is going to pay out the ass in legal fees.


This is how to take down these rat-bastards. Sue them for everything they own.

Sue them until they are so broke a lawyer won't give them the time of day.

Then they go to jail.

[L. Coyote]

10. Chicago Tribune: Padilla sues ex-Justice official over torture

Padilla sues ex-Justice official over torture
By Karoun Demirjian | Tribune staff - January 4, 2008 - http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-padilla080104,1,6749180.story?track=rss&ctrack=1&cset=true


In May 2002, Padilla was arrested coming through Chicago's O'Hare International Airport with $10,000 cash and a list of suspected Al Qaeda agents. Soon after, he was held in New York and later taken to a military brig in South Carolina, where he remained for three and a half years without being charged-because, the Bush administration argued, he was a known terrorist with ties to Al Qaeda who was behind a plot to attack the U.S. with a so-called dirty bomb, or radioactive device.

While in detention, Padilla alleges, in this suit and others filed previously, he was routinely subjected to torture that was authorized as legal and defensible by Yoo.

Those include being subjected to noxious odors, extreme temperatures, sleep and sensory depravation, and standing in painful stress positions in a fashion similar to the prisoners at Abu Ghraib. He also says he was given what he thought were hallucinogenic drugs, was routinely threatened with physical punishment, death, or translocation to Guantanamo, and forbade access to a Koran.

Padilla first challenged his detention in New York, and won a case directed at former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in 2004, but the Supreme Court later remanded the case to a lower court in South Carolina ................

[formercia]

11. Make Yoo's life so fucking miserable

that he will beg to go to prison.

Even a baloney sandwich and a paper cup of kool-aide will be a treat.

[Solly Mack]

8. that's encouraging

[sinkingfeeling]

9. I've been hoping someone would sue John Yoo for one of his stupid, anti-American opinions.

[L. Coyote]

12. AP: Padilla Sues Ex-Bush Official Over Memos

MIAMI - Padilla Sues Ex-Bush Official Over Memos
Jan 4, 2008 9:16 PM By CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press Writer - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-7199236,00.html


......

The lawsuit claims that John Yoo, a former senior Justice Department official, wrote several legal memos that led President Bush to designate Padilla as an enemy combatant shortly after the U.S. citizen was arrested in May 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on suspicion of involvement in an al-Qaida plot.

Yoo at the time was deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, .........

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in northern California, repeats Padilla's claims that he was subjected to extreme interrogation techniques and mistreatment he contends amounted to torture. Justice Department and Pentagon officials have repeatedly denied Padilla's claims.

Padilla and two co-defendants were convicted in August of terrorism conspiracy and material support charges, with sentencing scheduled for next week in a Miami federal court. All three men face up to life in prison.

Padilla was added to the Miami terrorism case in late 2005 shortly before challenges to his military detention were to go before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was initially accused of plotting with al-Qaida to detonate a radioactive ``dirty bomb'' in a major U.S. city, but those charges were dropped.

..........

[chelaque liberal]

13. That's assuming it doesn't get thrown out like the Plame/Wilson

civil lawsuit. Some judge could rule that it would be a threat to national security or some other BS.

[L. Coyote]

14. Indeed State secrets defense is likely here.

[lala_rawraw]

16. not gonna happen...

by the time this goes to court... those using state secrets will be at the very least out of a job

[L. Coyote]

18. good point. We are coming up on the moment a lot of prosecutions can start that will not be

finished under the Junta.

[lala_rawraw]

22. i think we will see

something really ugly right before these folks are gone... or right after.

[UTUSN]

17. AwwwRIGHT!1 Go Joementum, GO!1 n/t

[gratuitous]

19. I hope Mr. Yoo has his day in court

I hope he has full access to all the rights and procedures available to any other defendant in our civil justice system. I hope he has the best legal representation he can afford. I hope he's able to marshall every last witness he can muster, every document he can obtain or cause to be obtained. I hope he can conduct depositions before a certified court reporter in a neutral setting, asking and answering all questions put to every witness.

And then I hope a judgment is rendered against him that reduces him to penury.

[Oilwellian]

20. Yes, isn't it ironic...

Yoo will take advantage of every Constitutional right he was bestowed at birth, and defend his belief that not ALL Americans have the same rights.

Well said gratuitous. While DU'ers are embroiled in these primary threads, important news sinks to the bottom. C'mon DU'ers. Give this thread a kick.

K&R

[L. Coyote]

21. Ditto that. Don't let the primaries distract from the work.