Bush's big lies
Behind the sordid memos that purported to give legal justification for the war on terror.
Rosa Brooks
LA Times
March 5, 2009
How did they ever get away with it?
On Tuesday, the Justice Department released a batch of memos drafted in 2001 and 2002 by lawyers in the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel. Written mainly by John Yoo, then a deputy director in the office, they laid out the purported legal justifications for a theory of presidential power amounting to virtual dictatorship.
Collectively, they declare that if the U.S. military were deployed against suspected terrorists inside the United States, even U.S. citizens wouldn't be protected by the 4th Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure. They also conclude that citizens and noncitizens could be designated "unlawful enemy combatants" by the president on the basis of secret evidence. And once that happens, they could be locked up indefinitely and tortured, without charge, access to counsel or any procedure through which to challenge the detention or treatment.
I know: All this is old hat. With so many leaks over the years, who doesn't know by now that the Bush administration sought virtually unlimited executive power to monitor, detain and use force against individuals anywhere around the globe in the name of the "war on terror"?
(More here.)
Rosa Brooks
LA Times
March 5, 2009
How did they ever get away with it?
On Tuesday, the Justice Department released a batch of memos drafted in 2001 and 2002 by lawyers in the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel. Written mainly by John Yoo, then a deputy director in the office, they laid out the purported legal justifications for a theory of presidential power amounting to virtual dictatorship.
Collectively, they declare that if the U.S. military were deployed against suspected terrorists inside the United States, even U.S. citizens wouldn't be protected by the 4th Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure. They also conclude that citizens and noncitizens could be designated "unlawful enemy combatants" by the president on the basis of secret evidence. And once that happens, they could be locked up indefinitely and tortured, without charge, access to counsel or any procedure through which to challenge the detention or treatment.
I know: All this is old hat. With so many leaks over the years, who doesn't know by now that the Bush administration sought virtually unlimited executive power to monitor, detain and use force against individuals anywhere around the globe in the name of the "war on terror"?
(More here.)
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