Turns out, Yoo also drafted legal opinions justifying the NSA's surveillance program. The attorney and law professor will be the San Francisco Republican Party's guest of honor tonight, at an event in North Beach.
Yoo will speak on "the recent revelations of the NSA's PRISM program, the status of Edward Snowden, outcomes of recent Supreme Court decisions, and any other interesting topics of the day," according to the event announcement. Naturally, his talk will be a magnet for protesters, who plan to congregate outside Villa Taverna, the restaurant where he'll be speaking.
Just how important a role did Yoo play in providing legal justification for the spying program? Here's some insight from Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Barton Gellman, who was interviewed for a recent report on PBS NewsHour:
Yoo will speak on "the recent revelations of the NSA's PRISM program, the status of Edward Snowden, outcomes of recent Supreme Court decisions, and any other interesting topics of the day," according to the event announcement. Naturally, his talk will be a magnet for protesters, who plan to congregate outside Villa Taverna, the restaurant where he'll be speaking.
Just how important a role did Yoo play in providing legal justification for the spying program? Here's some insight from Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Barton Gellman, who was interviewed for a recent report on PBS NewsHour:
"Well, the brief history of [the spying program] is that it was invented largely by Vice President Dick Cheney and his lawyer David Addington, with the help of Mike Hayden, who was running the NSA. The Justice Department had secret opinions written by John Yoo, who's the same guy who wrote the torture opinions and some others that became quite controversial later."
This bit of history hasn't escaped the notice of Bay Area anti-war activists with World Can't Wait, who've turned out in the past at UC Berkeley, where Yoo teaches Constitutional law, to target him for his involvement in the torture memos. Yoo recently wrote that the NSA spying program "will not prove as bad as it first seems" and opined that it presents "no clear constitutional violations."
World Can't Wait has also rallied behind NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. "The people of the world want the U.S. to take its hands off Edward Snowden," says World Can't Wait spokesperson Linda Jacobs. "There is an enormous wellspring of public support for him." Jacobs is rallying the troops to show up outside Yoo's talk tonight.
This bit of history hasn't escaped the notice of Bay Area anti-war activists with World Can't Wait, who've turned out in the past at UC Berkeley, where Yoo teaches Constitutional law, to target him for his involvement in the torture memos. Yoo recently wrote that the NSA spying program "will not prove as bad as it first seems" and opined that it presents "no clear constitutional violations."
World Can't Wait has also rallied behind NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. "The people of the world want the U.S. to take its hands off Edward Snowden," says World Can't Wait spokesperson Linda Jacobs. "There is an enormous wellspring of public support for him." Jacobs is rallying the troops to show up outside Yoo's talk tonight.
