video and audio: February 2010 Archives

In Maryland, two Johns Hopkins University students disrupted a lecture Wednesday by former Bush administration attorney John Yoo. Yoo helped author the notorious Justice Department memos justifying waterboarding and other forms of torture. Before Yoo began his talk, students stood at the front of the lecture hall holding a banner reading "Try Yoo for Torture." They refused to move, but agreed not to interrupt Yoo's speech. Yoo then delivered the lecture with the students holding their banner throughout. Protester: "We wanted to make it very clear that John Yoo is not accepted at Johns Hopkins University and that wherever he goes--not simply because of his views, but rather because of his material support for the administration of torture--that it is unacceptable, and we're voicing that quite clearly." -text quoted from democracynow.org

In this song series, Canadian composer Ben Mueller-Heaslip exposes the horror of John Yoo's Torture Memos by setting the text of the Torture Memos to music sung by Kristin Mueller-Heaslip. Listen here to track six:
Medical Personnel are on the Scene

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From the website; "We just released our new recording of the Torture Memos: a musical reworking of the legal documents that attempted to justify torture. The text is all by John Yoo and his cronies at the U.S. Department of Legal Counsel, taken directly from the documents with no alterations, additions, or misleading combinations. This music says exactly what these criminals intended to say....In lieu of paying our "lyricists" we're donating 15% of the sales of this record to the American Civil Liberties Union." The singer Kristin Mueller-Heaslip said in an email to firejohnyoo.net; "...we definitely want to keep the Torture Memos project moving forward. There's been a fantastic response every time we perform it, and the music brings out the banal evil of the text like nothing else can. We're thinking of organizing a US tour, assuming of course that we can get across the border."
parkdalerevolutionaryorchestra.com/torturememos