"John Yoo Grants Your Humble Correspondent First and Only Blogger Interview on His Crisis and Command Book Tour"

By Heather Robinson

"John Yoo: FDR saw the threat of Nazi Germany long before [the American public and Congress] did…In the 1940’s he fought an undeclared naval war …[he also] declared oil and steel embargoes on Japan. Some think he was painting Japan into a corner. Imagine if FDR had followed the isolationist sentiment of Congress…Lincoln, too, had [a broad] view of Presidential power. If Lincoln had had a narrow view of Presidential power, then the United States would be two separate countries. Buchanan, [whose Presidency preceded Lincoln’s], also thought secession was unconstitutional, but he wanted Congress to deal with it. If Lincoln had not had a broad view of Presidential power in crisis, we would not have had the Emancipation Proclamation, which was authorized by Lincoln without the approval of Congress.

HR: Do you see President Obama as heir in any way to this Presidential tradition?

Yoo: President Obama in some ways has upended the framers’ vision for the Presidency. They thought it would be a modest office in peacetime and it would expand during war to meet the crisis, and once the crisis has passed the [President’s] powers would retract….Obama’s vision [of the Presidency] seems to be expansive on domestic affairs and narrow on foreign affairs and the framers had the opposite vision.

HR: Do you think the Bush administration’s—and your—most vocal critics have any misconceptions?

John Yoo: People tend to [look at Presidential decision-making during times of crisis and] think, ‘If the President is exercising his power so broadly, it’s not in the Constitution.’ In reality, it’s more that we don’t have big wars that often. The Constitution is designed so that the power of the President can expand during wartime and contract during peacetime.

People think if individuals like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are not being treated as civilians, there are no rules [with respect to treating them]. But people are not familiar with our military system of justice, a system of rules for dealing with those we are at war with. This idea that there are no rules with regard to handling a terrorist enemy unless you treat them like American citizens is false.

HR: Right now there is much debate over whether to try terror suspects like KSM and, more recently, the underwear bomber, in U.S. civilian courts. Do you believe that is appropriate from a legal standpoint, and why or why not?

John Yoo: Al Qaeda wants us to think of terrorism in this confused way; if we treat them like common criminals they benefit. [In bringing them to civilian trial,] we give them a free platform to make speeches and demand that our government produce all the intelligence it can on al Qaeda and make it public."

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