Post-9/11 Memos Show More Bush-Era Legal Errors

Post-9/11 Memos Show More Bush-Era Legal Errors

www.washingtonpost.com

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers

Tuesday, March 3, 2009; Page A05 The number of major legal errors committed by Bush administration lawyers during the formulation of its early counterterrorism policies was far greater than previously known, according to internal Bush administration documents released for the first time by the Justice Department yesterday.

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Related News Links:
www.usdoj.gov
www.miamiherald.com

This is a topic that’s been fairly well covered in the past on ATS but new releases by the U.S. Department of Justice this week provide a wealth of new documents regarding how far the Bush Administration was prepared to go and going when it came to curtailing Civil Liberties.

One quote from today’s Miami Herald editorial section struck me as particularly unnerving.

To say that some of these memos indulge in tortured reasoning to reach their novel conclusions is an understatement. An opinion authorizing the military to operate domestically, for example, would blithely set aside the need to obtain search warrants in going after ''terrorist cells.'' The writers said any objections based on the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches would be of little consequence because the search would probably result in the use of ''deadly force,'' and the matter of injury would override privacy concerns.

That our government thinks in these ways is truly frightening.

It is true that these Memos are being released as promised by the Obama Administration but to date no effort has been made to repeal the Patriot or FISA Acts and there is no indication that such a move will be forthcoming anytime soon.

Bellow are links to the actual memos released by the Department of Justice as well as the Editorial from today's Miami Herald.



www.washingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)