Tuesdays, 12:30 - 1:30 pm
UC Berkeley Campus, Boalt Hall

Starting September 5, 2006

Teach-In and Vigil on American Torture
and the Dictatorial Presidency

Professor John Yoo of the University of California Berkeley Law School is the primary legal architect of the Bush-Cheney policy of worldwide torture and of Bush’s use of “signing statements” to place himself above the Law. Yoo teaches at UC Berkeley without UCB disassociating itself from his views.

We do not seek to limit Prof. Yoo’s academic freedom, but we will exercise our own free rights to hold vigils and teach-ins expressing our strong moral objection to the torture and unlimited presidential powers that he advocates.

When: Teach-ins and Vigils are held 12:30 to 1:30 pm, every Tuesday, from Sept 5 until Dec. 21.

Where: The West entrance of Boalt Hall, on Bancroft Avenue at the fountain at the end of College Avenue, on the UC Berkeley campus. Click here to see a campus map, with a close-up of Boalt Hall location.

Weekly speakers will be featured, along with pictures and accounts of American torture. The list of upcoming featured weekly speakers so far includes:

• September 5:  Dennis Bernstein - host of KPFA's Flashpoint

• September 12:  Carlos Mauricio - survivor of Torture by a Salvadoran death squad; winner of major Legal case against the El Salvador Minister of Defense

• September 19:  Joanna Macy - Buddhist scholar, author, and activist on behalf of Deep Ecology, Nuclear Guardianship, and Future Generations

• September 26:  Dan Ellsberg - Pentagon Papers whistle-blower, anti-War activist, author of Secrets

• October 3: Father Louis Vitale - peace and justice priest, long-time civil-disobedience practitioner

• October 10:  Rebecca Gordon -University of S.F. Ethics professor, Graduate Theological Union Doctoral candidate, co-founder of "War Times"

• October 17:  Andres Conteris - Methodist missionary, "Democracy Now" staff member, & active torture opponent throughout Latin America.
  
• October 24:  Laurel Fletcher - UC Berkeley Boalt Hall professor, expert on International Human Rights Law.
  
• November 7:  Larry Everest - journalist covering the Mideast; member of the International Commission On Crimes Against Humanity by the Bush Administration.
  
• November 14:  David Sylvester - journalist, formerly of San Jose Mercury News; School of the Americas Watch activist and recent prisoner of conscience.

Other speakers will include:

Gregory Wood - citizen activist & Protector of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, owner of Forest Books, S.F.

Taigen Leighton - Zen Buddhist Teacher, scholar, author, & activist; faculty member, Graduate Theological Union

Spring 2006 vigil speakers included: Daniel Ellsberg, Joanna Macy, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Melody Ermachild and Alan Senauke of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Taigen Leighton of the Graduate Theological Union (and BPF), Davis Riemer of the American Civil Liberties Union, Andres Contera (staffer of Democracy Now), Stephen McNeil (Assistant Regional Director for Peacebuilding of the American Friends Service Committee).

All are invited. Please come to witness and learn of Bush’s torture programs and all-powerful Presidency, advocated by UC Berkeley Professor John Yoo.

Sponsoring organizations include: Act Against Torture, American Civil Liberties Union, American Friends Service Committee, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Code Pink, Global Exchange, Network of Spiritual Progressives, Nonviolence International, Northern California Interreligious Conference, Revolutionary Books, St. Joseph the Catholic Worker Church, United for Peace and Justice, University Lutheran Chapel, World Can’t Wait.

For more information contact:
Taigen Dan Leighton
Graduate Theological Union
(510) 649-0663
taigendan@earthlink.net