The Chaser’s War

A former Justice Department official who wrote controversial memos authorizing the Bush administration to conduct torture was the object of a prank by an Australian comedian during one of his recent law class lectures.

John Yoo, a former deputy assistant attorney general who has faced intense criticism for authoring constitutionally-questionable memos justifying torture and the government’s warrantless wiretapping program, was confronted last week during a lecture he was giving on international law at Chapman University School of Law, a private school in Southern California.

The Chaser’s War on Everything ist eine Sendung, die auch andere Witze in der Art macht; da, wo ich das ganze her habe, steht weiterhin über die Sendung:

The Chaser’s War on Everything is an ABC Australia show starring Chris Taylor, Julian Morrow, Craig Reucassel, Andrew Hansen, and Chas Licciardello.

In 2006, the team pulled a prank on Virgin Blue airlines staff at the Sydney Airport when they purchased online tickets for a flight from Sydney to Melbourne under the names Al Kyder and Terry Wrist. When the passengers failed to show up for the flight, Virgin Blue staff made a final boarding call over the airport PA system calling for the missing passengers, whose names sounded like Mr. Al Qaeda and Mr. Terrorist.

An airline spokeswoman said about the comedians and their stunt, “They obviously have Bart Simpson as a consultant and while we are happy to take the $282 taxpayer dollars they spent on the bookings, we don’t think in the current climate, their childish humor is appreciated by anyone.”

In 2007 in Sydney, they breached security during the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit by driving a fake motorcade up to the restricted zone where nearly two dozen world leaders were meeting. The convoy, consisting of three black cars, was waived through two security check points and drove within yards of former President Bush’s hotel before being stopped, at which point Licciardello, dressed as Osama bin Laden, stepped out of one of the cars and asked why he’d not been invited to take a seat at the APEC table. Authorities arrested 11 people from the team, who were wearing “insecurity” passes. The prank exposed vulnerabilities in the summit’s $250 million security operation.

Wenn also jemand demnächst einem “Terry Wrist” oder einem “Al Kyder” begegnet, das könnte ich sein…