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Mar. 5th, 2009
WHEN NEO-CONS WALKED THE EARTH
Mar. 5th, 2009 09:47 pmITEM [via Threat Level]: Yr new Attorney-General, Eric Holder, releases nine (9) memos issued by the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (the formerly obscure office that tells the White House what is and isn't legal) during the Junior Bush era and kept top-secret by Team Bush in the name of national security.
One of the memos, issued Oct 23, 2001, secretly authorized President Bush to use the military inside the United States to snoop on, raid and even kill citizens in order to fight terrorism without regard to the Fourth or Fifth Amendments.
FUN FACT: That gem was co-written by deputy assistant attorney general John Yoo, who also advised the Bush Admin that torture was, like, totally legal if you do it right. His replacement, Stephen Bradbury, wrote a memo repudiating that advice in October 2008.
In other words, this is the kind of legal advice that Junior Bush was receiving during most of his presidency. Neoconservatives who support this sort of Jack Bauer diplomacy tend to argue that (1) stopping terrorism is the end that justifies the means, and (2) anyway, Bush never actually ordered the military to do that sort of thing, so what’s the big goddamn deal, you f***ing America-hating hippie?
Doesn’t matter. Whatever he coulda/woulda /did, the fact is that he was surrounded and advised by people who told him the Constitution didn’t matter, and that they were bent on keeping this as secret as possible. Bush at the very least was actively complicit in hiding as much as he could legally get away with from the public.
And while I’m pleased that Obama is doing what he can to reverse this legacy of secrecy (albeit somewhat selectively, but hey, he’s only been president six weeks), it’s worth remembering that while Bush is gone, his minions just enjoyed a rousing and productive weekend at CPAC. And they will not be going away anytime soon.
So we’ve got a ways to go to shake ourselves free from The Big Fear. But at least we’re headed there.
Bad advice,
This is dF
One of the memos, issued Oct 23, 2001, secretly authorized President Bush to use the military inside the United States to snoop on, raid and even kill citizens in order to fight terrorism without regard to the Fourth or Fifth Amendments.
"We do not think a military commander carrying out a raid on a terrorist cell would be required to demonstrate probable cause or to obtain a warrant," the Office of Legal Counsel memo said. "We think that the better view is that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to domestic military operations designed to deter and prevent future terrorist attacks."
FUN FACT: That gem was co-written by deputy assistant attorney general John Yoo, who also advised the Bush Admin that torture was, like, totally legal if you do it right. His replacement, Stephen Bradbury, wrote a memo repudiating that advice in October 2008.
In other words, this is the kind of legal advice that Junior Bush was receiving during most of his presidency. Neoconservatives who support this sort of Jack Bauer diplomacy tend to argue that (1) stopping terrorism is the end that justifies the means, and (2) anyway, Bush never actually ordered the military to do that sort of thing, so what’s the big goddamn deal, you f***ing America-hating hippie?
Doesn’t matter. Whatever he coulda/woulda /did, the fact is that he was surrounded and advised by people who told him the Constitution didn’t matter, and that they were bent on keeping this as secret as possible. Bush at the very least was actively complicit in hiding as much as he could legally get away with from the public.
And while I’m pleased that Obama is doing what he can to reverse this legacy of secrecy (albeit somewhat selectively, but hey, he’s only been president six weeks), it’s worth remembering that while Bush is gone, his minions just enjoyed a rousing and productive weekend at CPAC. And they will not be going away anytime soon.
So we’ve got a ways to go to shake ourselves free from The Big Fear. But at least we’re headed there.
Bad advice,
This is dF
