Philippe Sands on John Yoo's Torture Memo and Berkeley Law School Dean Chris Edley

Over here: http://delong.typepad.com/the_torture_memo/2008/05/philippe-sand-1.html.

Here is a taste of what Philippe Sands has to say. He is reassured that his conclusions "have not been challenged":

VF Daily: Guantanamo Update: A New York Times editorial described [John] Yoo’s continued employment at Berkeley as “inexplicable”, and this seems to have stung the Dean at that law school, Chris Edley, into explaining the limited options available to him.... I have less sympathy... for Dean Edley’s assertion that:

no argument about what [Yoo] did or didn’t facilitate, or about his special obligations as an attorney, makes his conduct morally equivalent to that of his nominal clients, Secretary Rumsfeld, et al., or comparable to the conduct of interrogators distant in time, rank and place...

[L]awyers play a crucial role, as gatekeepers of legality.... When the lawyers bend... cross a line... ethics violations... criminal violations.... I was told that, under their rules of criminal law, “the lawyer has the same responsibility as the interrogator,” and that, when it comes to torture authorized by a lawyer, “the lawyer who gives such legal advice is not [treated] as an accomplice, it is as though he is the author"...