Happy Memories

When Torture Memo Author John Yoo Met Darth Vader

John Yoo posing with Darth Vader. (Photo: Facebook)

Here is a photo of the Bush administration’s “torture memo” author John Yoo posing with Darth Vader. Sorry to disappoint any conspiracy theorists desperate for evidence of evil intergalactic villain forces at work in the White House, but in spite of their smiling photo together, Mr. Yoo and Mr. Vader aren’t actually friends.

Mr. Yoo encountered a man dressed as the Dark Lord of the Sith at the 2012 symposium of Stanford University’s Federalist society and they snapped this picture together. According Federalist Society membet Ilan Wurman, who posted a picture of the meeting, the costumed Darth Vader was actually there to demonstrate against Mr. Yoo and didn’t realize who he was posing with.

“Darth doesn’t recognize John Yoo, the man he is protesting,” Mr. Wurman wrote.

Mr. Yoo is currently a professor at Berkeley law school. The so-called “torture memos” he wrote provided the legal rationale for the government to use “enhanced interrogation techniques” such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation.

Follow Hunter Walker on Twitter or via RSS. hwalker@observer.com

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