Judge orders White House to produce wiretap memos

Judge orders White House to produce wiretap memos

ap.google.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge has ordered the Justice Department to produce White House memos that provide the legal basis for the Bush administration's post-Sept. 11 warrantless wiretapping program.
U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. signed an order Friday requiring the department to produce the memos by the White House legal counsel's office by Nov. 17. He said he will review the memos in private to determine if any information can be released publicly without violating attorney-client privilege or jeopardizing national security.

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This could get interesting!

I wonder if there actually is any legal basis... or if they just passed this and hoped that no one would ask questions...

anyway, I'm sure nothing will be released until the last min... and half the document will be black lined with the official presidential sharpie

any thoughts?




ap.google.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Thoughts? Yeah, too little too late. This should have come a long time ago, such as when the president enacted this policy. If this is found to be an illegal action, then perhaps they will take the power away before it can be abused by the next president to enter office, which is a good thing and sets a precedent to deter this action in the future.
I highly doubt anything will be done to Dubyah though. If they squelch him or try to punish him, he is only a few months away from being a civilian again. This could possibly serve to reduce the amount of damage he can do as an ex-president. They should have done this a long time ago and perhaps a few of the lies could have been uncovered and some of the damage he has done since could have been avoided.
In the end, hopefully justice will prevail and be served.

reply to post by wheresthetruth


I don't know about that... I just started a thread about this video too:

www.liveleak.com...

It sounds like they are going to go after him... maybe this is why he bought his house in south america

I would imagine that they are just going to use the "National Security" blanket as justification and nothing will become of this.

I pray that the judge finds it to be unconstitutional and revokes the privilege with maybe an added bonus of prison time for the people who cooked it up.

I am not holding my breath though.

Well, the judge challenged their original assertion that it contained matters relevant to national security...

Pretty much he wants to see the papers for himself, and he'll decide.

I think they will release everything... it will just have a date... a solid black line through the entire body of the text, and sig block

reply to post by nj2day


Or they will just lose the records like they did with the email that they were ordered to produce. There is ZERO accountability with this administration.

I don't know... I wonder how well they can keep things quiet when they aren't in the white house to monitor the situation anymore...

I'm sure they won't be able to destroy, hide, and cover up everything. They will have to forget something somewhere...

As long as we don't find any tapes that a secretary accidentally deleted a' la Nixon...

reply to post by nj2day


You have more faith in the next administration actually pursuing these issues than I do. I don't expect there to be more than a mere courtesy investigation with nothing substantial being uncovered. A dog and pony show if you will, similar to the formality that was the 9/11 commission. I also believe that these guys look out for each other and if charges end up being filed, we will just see a "Pardon" like President Ford did for Nixon.

I don't think it would be the administration as much as congress pushing for something...

I think there are a lot of people on capital hill that want blood...

I do agree it would be a total kangaroo court though.

Might not matter though, with Bush's new estate in south America.

reply to post by nj2day


Congress? They are just as complicit as the Bush administration. They won't be pushing for any sort of legitimate investigation because they don't want to face the consequences. The current system of checks and balances is completely broken. These guys have free reign to do whatever they want.

Congress needs to take action to get these documents for legislative review.