This is something I've been thinking about for a while now. There are a number of Asian Pacific Americans who are in powerful positions, are touted for their Asian American heritage, yet somehow always manage to be working against the interests of Asian Americans. I'm going to spend some time compiling this over the year and I'll do a year-end list. For now, though, I am pleased to introduce the first inductee:
JOHN C. YOO
According to the NYT, Yoo, a University of California law professor who served in the Justice Department from 2001-2002, co-authored:
[a] series of Justice Department memorandums written in late 2001 and the first few months of 2002 [that] were crucial in building a legal framework for United States officials to avoid complying with international laws and treaties on handling prisoners, lawyers and former officials say.The confidential memorandums... provided arguments to keep United States officials from being charged with war crimes for the way prisoners were detained and interrogated. They were endorsed by top lawyers in the White House, the Pentagon and the vice president's office but drew dissents from the State Department.
The memorandums provide legal arguments to support administration officials' assertions that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to detainees from the Afghanistan war. They also suggested how officials could inoculate themselves from liability by claiming that abused prisoners were in some other nation's custody.
Congratulations, John. If there were any justice in this world, it'd be you suffering the abject humiliation and torture that the detainees are going through in Guantanamo, Afghanistan, and Iraq that your memos have now subjected hundreds of people to. Thanks to your memo, the U.S. is almost universally thought of as a hypocrite when it comes to rights and freedoms and you're provided the legal framework for the best recruiting posters that Osama bin Laden could have. Way to go.
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