Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff highlights an exchange in the Office of Professional Responsibility report released Friday night between an OPR investigator and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, principal author of a 2002 Office of Legal Counsel memo authorizing harsh interrogation techniques against terrorism suspects.
John Yoo (Berkeley)
Pressed to explain his expansive view of executive power, the OPR investigator asked, according to a partial transcript:
“What about ordering a village of resistants to be massacred? … Is that a power that the president could legally—”
“Yeah,” Yoo replied. “Although, let me say this: So, certainly, that would fall within the commander-in-chief’s power over tactical decisions.”
“To order a village of civilians to be [exterminated]?” the OPR investigator asked again.
“Sure,” Yoo answered.
Read Isikoff’s report here.
Mary Jacoby must never have heard of Dresden, Nagasaki or Hiroshima. Yoo is correct. Suggest you read some history.