Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertoad
Bush used the AUMF to authorize the NSA to bypass the FISA courts or perhaps you forgot that little fact.
Does the AUMF give him that ability, or doesn't it? Imagine that I don't know and am just asking.
I dont know who suggested that. Another straw man?
You can drop the snark any time, BTW.
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Ashcroft (DoJ)/Gonzales (WH) provided the memo or "finding" to justify (or provide cover for)using the AUMF to give the president the unilateral power to authorize the NSA to bypass FISA.
Rumsfeld (DoD)/Woo(DoJ)/Addington (WH) provided the memo or "finding" to justifying (or provide cover for) using the AUMF to give the president the unilateral power to authorize the circumvention of Geneva Conventions and US Convention on Torture, both of which the US is a signator.
Bush and/or Cheney signed off on both of the above.
No one has suggested going after "all the administration officials." IMO, the decision makers are the ones that should be held accountable and those, for the most part, are limited to the above individuals....not the hundreds of government officials who carried out the activities.
I dont know if those actions are legal...many constitutional scholars believe the actions represented an abuse of power.
IMO, that is why we need an investigation... so that the limits of executive power are clear to Obama and all future presidents.
Snark for snark.