Obama releases secret Bush anti-terror memos

[SF_BHT]

Obama releases secret Bush anti-terror memos

What in the hell are these guys doing. No Matter what was done in the past they should not have published this in the open. All they are going to do is open up our government to a lot of pot-shots and also aid our enemy's by letting the tree hugger's get more ammo to tie up our hands in combating our enemies.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090302/...e/terror_memos

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration threw open the curtain on years of Bush-era secrets Monday, revealing anti-terror memos that claimed exceptional search-and-seizure powers and divulging that the CIA destroyed nearly 100 videotapes of interrogations and other treatment of terror suspects.

The Justice Department released nine legal opinions showing that, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration determined that certain constitutional rights would not apply during the coming fight. Within two weeks, government lawyers were already discussing ways to wiretap U.S. conversations without warrants.

The Bush administration eventually abandoned many of the legal conclusions, but the documents themselves had been closely held. By releasing them, President Barack Obama continued a house-cleaning of the previous administration's most contentious policies.

"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."

The Obama administration also acknowledged in court documents Monday that the CIA destroyed 92 videos involving terror suspects, including interrogations — far more than had been known. Congressional Democrats and other critics have charged that some of the harsh interrogation techniques amounted to torture, a contention President George W. Bush and other Bush officials rejected.

The new administration pledged on Monday to begin turning over documents related to the videos to a federal judge and to make as much information public as possible.

The legal memos written by the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel show a government grappling with how to wage war on terrorism in a fast-changing world. The conclusion, reiterated in page after page of documents, was that the president had broad authority to set aside constitutional rights.

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.

That memo did not specifically attempt to justify the government's warrantless wiretapping program, but it provided part of the foundation.

Yoo, now a professor at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, did not return messages seeking comment.

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.

Obama has pledged to close the Guantanamo Bay prison within a year. He halted the CIA's intensive interrogation program. And last week, prosecutors moved the terrorism case against U.S. resident Ali Al-Marri, a suspected al-Qaida sleeper agent held in a military brig, to a civilian courthouse.

A criminal prosecutor is wrapping up an investigation of the destruction of the tapes of interrogations.

Monday's acknowledgment of videotape destruction, however, involved a civil lawsuit filed in New York by the American Civil Liberties Union.

"The CIA can now identify the number of videotapes that were destroyed," said the letter submitted in that case by Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin. "Ninety-two videotapes were destroyed."

It is not clear what exactly was on the recordings. The government's letter cites interrogation videos, but the lawsuit against the Defense Department also seeks records related to treatment of detainees, any deaths of detainees and the CIA's sending of suspects overseas, known as "extraordinary rendition."

At the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters he hadn't spoken to the president about the report, but he called the news about the videotapes "sad" and said Obama was committed to ending torture while also protecting American values.

ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said the CIA should be held in contempt of court for holding back the information for so long.

"The large number of videotapes destroyed confirms that the agency engaged in a systematic attempt to hide evidence of its illegal interrogations and to evade the court's order," Singh said.

CIA spokesman George Little said the agency "has certainly cooperated with the Department of Justice investigation. If anyone thinks it's agency policy to impede the enforcement of American law, they simply don't know the facts."

The details of interrogations of terror suspects, and the existence of tapes documenting those sessions, have become the subject of long fights in a number of different court cases. In the trial of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, prosecutors initially claimed no such recordings existed, then acknowledged after the trial was over that two videotapes and one audiotape had been made.

The Dassin letter, dated March 2 to Judge Alvin Hellerstein, says the CIA is now gathering more details for the lawsuit, including a list of the destroyed records, any secondary accounts that describe the destroyed contents and the identities of those who may have viewed or possessed the recordings before they were destroyed.

But the lawyers also note that some of that information may be classified, such as the names of CIA personnel who viewed the tapes.

The separate criminal investigation includes interrogations of al-Qaida lieutenant Abu Zubaydah and another top al-Qaida leader. 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.

John Durham, a senior career prosecutor in Connecticut, is leading the criminal investigation, out of Virginia, and had asked that he be given until the end of February to wrap up his work before requests for information in the civil lawsuit were dealt with.

[TOMAHAWK9521]

YOU GOTTA BE SH*TTING ME!!

[Box]

So, its ok to air out our security secrets but somehow its ok to institute non-disclosure statements gagging folks from talking about the military budget...
...so some secrets are bad, but others are ok. How bizarre

Have I mentioned I feel like I am in a bad dream yet?

[Richard]

MOO - we knew this s**t was going to be working its way down the political leachline to our garden plots, we just didn't know when or to what extent. What galls me is the absence or blatant ignoring of political SA beyond the borders of this country or one's home state which these guys show, and the predictable dangers it exposes us all to from a committed enemy seeking nothing but our enslavement or destruction...and not some form of pipe dream, 'community organized,' kymbayeffinyah coexistence. My avatar says it all.

Richard's $.02

[HOLLiS]

A friend had a T-shirt that said,

"When amateurs are in charge, people die"

He did 2 1/1 tours Force Recon in RVN.

The US political system, Amateurs in charge.

[SF_BHT]

Now that my head is a little clearer and I have downed a few Bourbons on the rocks I can not think.

Now that they have outed the government that had to start from square 1 after 9/11 and make some of the hardest decisions since passably WWII what will he do next?

Well I figured they would do this but not this bad. Now all we have to do is sit back and wait to King O to sick the DOJ after all of the people that fought and protected our country form all of those people that we did not have to read about. In Dec 08 King O said that it would not serve the country by trying to investigate and prosecute Bush administration officials. Well I see this as laying the ground work for him to have to do what he said he would not. Every day I am becoming more and more embarrassed of my government. Looks like Chicago Politics Pennsylvania Ave style.

[Razor]

Typical stage magician trick--"Hey, look what my left hand is doing, moving all around and waving...ignore me slipping my right hand into my pocket", except in this case, he and Congress are slipping their right hands into our pockets.

I find it ironic that they think its a good idea to reveal all these documents, but there's still an original birth certificate in HI that's under wraps.

[rubberneck]

Obama is playing a very dangerous game with not only our country but his future. He won't be President forever and there are likely to be skeletons in his Presidential closet. After burning his predecessor as publicly as he has, I wonder if his successor will feel obligated to return the favor.

[DbeforeD]

You know? I better get into monitoring the news more. because all the news I get comes from you guys, and you’re starting to scare me. Well… you guys aren’t scaring me, the contents of your reports are. During the 72 hour probation period (which sucked), I have been educated on a lot of topics. Such as my Galil, excuse me, my Golani and the Stolen Valor Act. But this is crazy! I get this feeling like the rest of my career is going to be like walking thru a hypothetical mine field. Do these politicians even consider how their actions effect the common soldier? The common citizen?

What I don’t understand is the motivation of releasing this information? Who does it benefit? I was always taught to leave things better than how you got it. Airing dirty laundry never enforced this concept.

I guess it’s time for this cubical commando to wake up and smell the coffee.

Sgt. V

[Red Flag 1]

Originally Posted by Richard

MOO - we knew this s**t was going to be working its way down the political leachline to our garden plots, we just didn't know when or to what extent. What galls me is the absence or blatant ignoring of political SA beyond the borders of this country or one's home state which these guys show, and the predictable dangers it exposes us all to from a committed enemy seeking nothing but our enslavement or destruction...and not some form of pipe dream, 'community organized,' kymbayeffinyah coexistence. My avatar says it all.

Richard's $.02

SA of a highschool sophmore!

Political savy of a butterfly!

A VP with the organizational ability of a BB in an empty boxcar for "backup"!

I could go all day, I just don't have enough Bushmills to feel good about any of this.


This should help Pelosi in her quest to prosecute the Bush Administration. This should indicate to our allies that our government can be trusted with nothing. Our enemies win a big one with the BHO administration. Our national security will be in the tank along with the stock market.

I said it before.....BHO could well make POTUS after Ford look like John Wayne!

My $.02

RF 1

[TOMAHAWK9521]

Originally Posted by Razor

Typical stage magician trick--"Hey, look what my left hand is doing, moving all around and waving...ignore me slipping my right hand into my pocket", except in this case, he and Congress are slipping their right hands into our pockets.

I find it ironic that they think its a good idea to reveal all these documents, but there's still an original birth certificate in HI that's under wraps.

Razor,

We used to say it like this "Look at the monkey, look at the monkey!" But I suppose in this day and age that would be viewed as highly racial and politically incorrect.

[Richard]

But I suppose in this day and age that would be viewed as highly racial and politically incorrect.

Yep...'animal acts' have pretty much been a career ender ever since we last pulled out of SEA in mass!

Richard's $.02

[afchic]

Originally Posted by Red Flag 1

SA of a highschool sophmore!

Political savy of a butterfly!

A VP with the organizational ability of a BB in an empty boxcar for "backup"!

I could go all day, I just don't have enough Bushmills to feel good about any of this.


This should help Pelosi in her quest to prosecute the Bush Administration. This should indicate to our allies that our government can be trusted with nothing. Our enemies win a big one with the BHO administration. Our national security will be in the tank along with the stock market.

I said it before.....BHO could well make POTUS after Ford look like John Wayne!

My $.02

RF 1

I guess what amazes me is the total lack of SA outside our borders. Given we are having tough economic times, can no one in the WH fathom what another terrorist attack would do to this nation? Think we are in bad financial straights now, I can not even imagine what it would be with another 9-11 type attack on either our soil, or the soil of one of our allies. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to know that 2+2=4 yet those in leadership right now seem to think 2+2= anything other than 4.

[Red Flag 1]

Originally Posted by afchic

I guess what amazes me is the total lack of SA outside our borders. Given we are having tough economic times, can no one in the WH fathom what another terrorist attack would do to this nation? Think we are in bad financial straights now, I can not even imagine what it would be with another 9-11 type attack on either our soil, or the soil of one of our allies. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to know that 2+2=4 yet those in leadership right now seem to think 2+2= anything other than 4.

afchic,

YUP!!!

9/11 can come in many forms. Last time it was on our civillians and our economy. Given that our land borders are compromised, we have no security there. Our larger water boarders are likely unsecure as well. IMHO . I would love to find a credable expert tell us that we are physicaly secure! 9/11 again from about any physical arena!

Cyber attacks are a huge threat; without our elected ceo opening the playbook to all who care to look. The USAF is looking to form a Wing to combat Cyber intrusions. Cyber 9/11!

The economy went in the tank with 9/11, that was part of the plan. Our economy is in the tank again. Our elected ceo is making decisions that drive Wall Street deeper in the tank every time he says, our does anything. Economic 9/11 continues!

The very core of our nation's decision tree has been layed bare. Who would do such a thing? Why would our elected ceo do this? Where is the gain for our nation, and it's security?

Please tell me that I am way off base, and that things will be fine.

My $.02.

RF 1

[Richard]

Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was. His words are responsible; his character is inspiring. But his actions betray a transformational liberalism that should put every centrist on notice. David Brooks, NYT, 2 Mar 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/op...=3&ref=opinion

Although Brooks' piece is more about economics and party values than security, I think it shows that people are beginning to question the emperor's choice of wardrobe--in everything he is doing.

Richard's $.02