torture memo debate at chapman turns up the dialogue rather than the drama.

[julie anne ines]

Despite the presence of a handful of people in orange, prison-issue jumpsuits, those who covered their faces in black sacks Gitmo detainee-style, and members of Code Pink, an anti-war organization, the debate held today at the Chapman University School of Law to discuss "Presidential Power and Success in Times of Crisis" was surprisingly civil.

To tell you the truth, I was kind of hoping there would be some sort of huge protest at the event, which featured former Bush administration legal adviser John Yoo and dean John Eastman on one side, and professors Katherine Darmer and Lawrence Rosenthal on the other, discussing the limits of presidential power and the infamous torture memos Yoo co-authored with his former boss Jay Bybee, now a federal appeals court judge.

I was disappointed, however.

When Yoo, currently a visiting professor at Chapman Law, first stood up to speak to give his remarks, there were the expected shouts of “war criminal” and the like, but for the most part the crowd at the school’s Memorial Hall listened to what Yoo had to say.

And he had a couple of interesting things to say about presidential power. Namely, that the law allows presidents during times of crisis to draw on what he calls a “reservoir of power”, to take the lead in order to address the conflict head-on. Presidents who have been considered successful have drawn on this reservoir, whereas presidents who have refrained from doing so and have instead followed the lead of Congress failed, Yoo said.

For the first part of the debate, Yoo avoided the issue of the memos that he co-authored that condoned the use of torture and the memos that were released last week by the Obama administration. Professors Darmer and Rosenthal quickly changed that.

Darmer called the torture memos, which narrowed the definition of torture, an “incredible power grab,” and pointed out that the opinions presented in the memos were so flawed that they were no longer relied upon by the Office of Legal Counsel. The positions taken were “a profound threat to the rule of law,” she said.

Rosenthal called on Yoo to request that an independent body investigate the effectiveness of the heightened interrogation methods, which Yoo stated was responsible for 50 percent of important intelligence gathered post-Sept. 11.

Throughout the debate, Eastman supported Yoo’s position, and encouraged the audience to read the full length of the memos. According to Eastman, the mainstream media overlooked important aspects of the memos that surrounded the definition of torture. Further, Bush administration legal advisers had the difficult task of interpreting torture statutes, which Eastman stated were not clearly defined, and were pressed for time under the threat of other possible attacks in the wake of Sept. 11.

After almost two hours of debate, it wasn’t certain whether there was a clear winner.  It also wasn’t clear what Yoo must be feeling about the release of more of the memos last week, the possibility of a criminal investigation for torture from Spain, and President Obama’s statement this morning stating that it was the attorney general’s prerogative to take action against those who allowed torture.

It was clear, however, that the issue is going to be something that’s talked about in the weeks and months ahead, and that today was only the beginning of the conversation.

Read more about the debate this afternoon here.

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