I've watched an interview of John Yoo and he did not appear insane or evil. He was being interviewed in connection with The Patriot Act, which I still consider radical in certain areas, yet so much of what he spoke of seems "quaint", borrowing that word for AG Alberto "Abu" Gonzales description of the Geneva Conventions, now that we know of the illegal actions of the NSA and ... John Yoo was/is an inexperienced pup when he was developing these radical justifications yet Dick Cheney and this Bu$hCo cabal loved what the kid was providing them.In the beginning, the elements of the war paradigm appeared to be expediencies, conceived as a series of emergency measures in the struggle against al-Qaida. But, in fact, their precepts were developed in law review articles before Sept. 11 by John Yoo, promoted to deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, where Vice President Cheney's office assigned him to write key secret memos on torture, surveillance and executive power. Once Bush approved them, the clerisy of neoconservative lawyers, at least as tightly knit as Opus Dei, put them into effect. The war paradigm is Bush's "Da Vinci Code," the difference being that its high priests acknowledge in private that it is real.
They fervently believe that the Constitution is fatally flawed and must be severely circumscribed. The Bush administration's "holy grail," another phrase officials use in private, is to remove suspects' rights to due process, speedy trial and exculpatory evidence. The war paradigm, which they contrast with a caricatured "law enforcement paradigm," is to be constantly strengthened to conduct a permanent war against terror, which can never be finally defeated. There is no exit strategy from emergency.
Yet we know they thought it and wanted it all along don't we! Peace ... or War!
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