Obama Releases Bush's Secret Anti-Terror Memos

by Damozel | There. That's change I can believe in. The AP reports here.  As previously noted, one little clarification that's been forthcoming is that the CIA destroyed not two, but 92, videotapes of "enhanced interrogation" (which I'm guessing you and I couldn't tell from torture). 

But there's lots more!  Now available for your viewing pleasure, nine memos from Bush's Department of Just-Us.  Read the Bush Administration's rationalizations for things such as warrantless wiretaps by the military!

"Too often over the past decade, the fight against terrorism has been viewed as a zero-sum battle with our civil liberties," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a speech a few hours before the documents were released. "Not only is that school of thought misguided, I fear that in actuality it does more harm than good."  (HuffPost)

Ya think?

 HuffPost has the story on the infantilization of a formerly brave and freedom-loving people by an oppressive government self-servingly pursuing its own will to power.  Er, I mean, the rationalizations of "a government grappling with how to wage war on terrorism in a fast-changing world."

Oddly enough, the Bush administration seems always to have reached the same conclusion on how best to achieve this end:  "The conclusion, reiterated in page after page of documents, was that the president had broad authority to set aside constitutional rights."

So first we had the trauma of 9-11, then the trauma of seeing our own "democratically" "elected" government use that crisis to encourage us to sit back cravenly and let them get on with doing whatever they wanted in the service of "making us safe," which turned out to be stamping on the very civil liberties on which the country was founded.

Here are some of the conclusions our government reached, none of which will evoke more than a weary "Duh!" from those of us who were paying attention.

But how many were?  For instance, did you know:

Fourth Amendment protections against unwarranted search and seizure, for instance, did not apply in the United States as long as the president was combatting terrorism, the Justice Department said in an Oct. 23, 2001, memo.

"First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully," Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo wrote, adding later: "The current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically."

On Sept. 25, 2001, Yoo discussed possible changes to the laws governing wiretaps for intelligence gathering. In that memo, he said the government's interest in keeping the nation safe following the terrorist attacks might justify warrantless searches....

The memos reflected a belief within the Bush administration that the president had broad powers that could not be checked by Congress or the courts. That stance, in one form or another, became the foundation for many policies: holding detainees at Guantanamo Bay, eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without warrants, using tough new CIA interrogation tactics and locking U.S. citizens in military brigs without charges. (HuffPost) ?

Other tactics, as noted earlier, included destroying evidence of war crimes.  I can't wait to read more on why that was okay. 

Tapes of those interrogations were destroyed, in part, the Bush administration said, to protect the identities of the government questioners at a time the Justice Department was debating whether or not the tactics used during the interrogations were legal.

Former CIA director Michael Hayden acknowledged that waterboarding _ simulated drowning _ was used on three suspects, including the two whose interrogations were recorded.(HuffPost)

Yes, and the guy who gets arrested for drunk driving always only drank three beers.  We know.

For the discerning civil liberties fan, I recommend:  Memorandum Regarding Applicability of 18 U.S.C. § 4001(a) to Military Detention of United States Citizens (06-27-2002). 

It is choice. 

But I'm still working my way through this literal embarrassment of riches.

If you have any special favorites, let me know. 

Memeorandum has more....

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Comments

[Deb]

GREAT post, Damozel.