The Cellar - View Single Post - Eric Holder releases 9 secret documents from Bush administration

sugarpop · 03-05-2009, 03:48 PM

Secret legal opinions issued by the Bush administration lawyers after the September 11, 2001 attacks were among the nine that were released and disclosed publicly by the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday March 2, 2009.

In a Department of Justice Press Release announcing this action, Eric Holder the current U.S. Attorney General is quoted as saying: "Americans deserve a government that operates with transparency and opennes...it is my goal to make OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] opinions available when possible while still protecting national security information and ensuring robust internal executive branch debate and decion-making." http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/03/...rst-amendment/

2001 Bush legal memo allowed ‘First Amendment speech and press rights’ to be ’subordinated.’

Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder released several Bush administration Office of Legal Counsel memos, which show the astonishing extent to which the administration expanded its wartime powers. An October 2001 memo from John Yoo, for example, states that the “Fourth Amendment would not apply” for domestic military operations. The memo also restricted basic First Amendment rights:

In perhaps the most surprising assertion, the Oct. 23, 2001, memo suggested the president could even suspend press freedoms if he concluded it was necessary to wage the war on terror. “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully,” Yoo wrote in the memo entitled “Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activity Within the United States.”

“Freedom of speech is integral to a free society,” President Bush said in May 2008. After reading the memos, Harpers’ Scott Horton wrote, “We may not have realized it at the time, but in the period from late 2001-January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/03/...rst-amendment/

...Among the documents from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) is a 2001 memo declaring that in terrorism cases the military may conduct searches in the United States without a warrant if approved by the president...
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...artment-memos/

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/March/09-ag-181.html
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/documents/olc-memos.htm

Who was saying all this was just speculation... ?

03-05-2009, 03:48 PM	#1
sugarpop Professor Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: the edge of the abyss Posts: 1,947	Eric Holder releases 9 secret documents from Bush administration Secret legal opinions issued by the Bush administration lawyers after the September 11, 2001 attacks were among the nine that were released and disclosed publicly by the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday March 2, 2009. In a Department of Justice Press Release announcing this action, Eric Holder the current U.S. Attorney General is quoted as saying: "Americans deserve a government that operates with transparency and opennes...it is my goal to make OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] opinions available when possible while still protecting national security information and ensuring robust internal executive branch debate and decion-making." http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/03/...rst-amendment/ 2001 Bush legal memo allowed ‘First Amendment speech and press rights’ to be ’subordinated.’ Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder released several Bush administration Office of Legal Counsel memos, which show the astonishing extent to which the administration expanded its wartime powers. An October 2001 memo from John Yoo, for example, states that the “Fourth Amendment would not apply” for domestic military operations. The memo also restricted basic First Amendment rights: In perhaps the most surprising assertion, the Oct. 23, 2001, memo suggested the president could even suspend press freedoms if he concluded it was necessary to wage the war on terror. “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully,” Yoo wrote in the memo entitled “Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activity Within the United States.” “Freedom of speech is integral to a free society,” President Bush said in May 2008. After reading the memos, Harpers’ Scott Horton wrote, “We may not have realized it at the time, but in the period from late 2001-January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship.” http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/03/...rst-amendment/ ...Among the documents from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) is a 2001 memo declaring that in terrorism cases the military may conduct searches in the United States without a warrant if approved by the president... http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...artment-memos/ http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/March/09-ag-181.html http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/documents/olc-memos.htm Who was saying all this was just speculation... ?