Heck of a Job, Yooie"

Prof. Yoo is worthy of study as a master of the non sequitur defense. When challenged, he talks and talks but studiously avoids any substantive response. His book is in large part a defense of his "torture" memos, but its index reveals no mention of "torture," "war crimes," or any such inconveniences. At a recent debate in Berkeley with Prof. Peter Irons and Prof. Gordon Livingston, and again on NPR this week, Prof. Yoo blithely ignored direct challenges to his role in legitimizing torture, instead bloviating on abstract principles and dubious precedents. Neither the word "torture" nor any of its cognates ever passed his lips. Lawyers do this when their client's behavior has been indefensible: the murderer's advocate never talks to the jury about "the murder." He mentions it, if at all, as little as possible, and then only as "the incident."