The Terrorism Debate: John Yoo, Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice & Professor of Law at Berkeley (GNLA)

April 13, 2011, 7:00pm

Summary:

It has been almost 10 years since the attacks of September 11th, 2001, almost 20 years since the Clinton Administration criminalized terrorist acts, and almost two years since President Obama issued his first executive order, which stated that the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba would be closed within one year. Today, the facility at Guantanamo Bay remains open.

The debate about how to classify those who wish us harm, and have acted upon, or explicitly expressed those wishes, is one that several administrations have grappled with.

Detail:

John Yoo, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice, recently visited Gen Next LA for a lively discussion.

Yoo made it apparent that when new administrations come into the White House they have ideological ideas about what they would like to do with the problem of terrorism, however shortly into their service they realize they must face reality.                                                                                                                                                                   

This reality includes the issue of the most important weapon for the United States to fight against terrorist, which is intelligence. Yoo informed us that one of the best ways to identify these terrorists and their attacks is by studying the other sides’ leadership and spreading capitalism and democracies to oppressive regimes. 

Yoo outlined a few ways the US can mitigate terrorism.

1) Winning the war first and concentrating on capturing leaders of terrorist groups so we can gain intelligence.

2) Taking down the websites of terrorists and oppressive regimes.

3) Supporting revolutions.

4) Making Al Qaeda and other terrorist regimes irrelevant by spreading democracy.