Bush Admin Still Withholding Key ‘War on Terror’ Memos

[bigtree]

ProPublica
January 9, 2009

Today the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel released a handful of legal opinions, dating from as far back as November 2001, about such minor issues as, oh, the war in Iraq and counterterrorism. We are reviewing the documents. But early word from legal experts is, today’s list is most interesting for the memos it doesn’t contain.

The OLC, the most powerful cadre of lawyers in the executive branch, gained fame under this administration for generating the so-called torture memos. Those are the ones that purportedly justified CIA "enhanced interrogation" techniques such as waterboarding. Many of them were not released today. Nor were some two dozen others having to do with surveillance, military commissions and executive power, according to Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, which has sued to obtain the memos under the freedom of information law.

"Hundreds or even thousands of Americans were subjected to warrantless wiretapping – and thousands of prisoners at Guantanamo and in Afghanistan and Iraq were abused or tortured – as a result of the still-secret memos," Jaffer told ProPublica. "The public has a right to see these memos, and they should be released immediately."

DOJ spokesperson Peter Carr, asked whether those memos would be made public before the Bush administration exits – and if not, why not – checked with the OLC attorneys and responded: "While I cannot speak to specific opinions, in general, each publishing decision is made on a case-by-case basis and requires that releasing the opinion would be consistent with executive branch confidentiality interests, including the need to protect both attorney-client confidences and classified information." (He said today’s released memos had previously been provided to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.)

read: http://www.propublica.org/article/bush-admin-still-withholding-key-war-on-terror-memos-0108


opinions released: http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/whatsnew.htm

ASSERTION OF EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE OVER COMMUNICATIONS REGARDING EPA'S OZONE AIR QUALITY STANDARDS AND CALIFORNIA'S GREENHOUSE GAS WAIVER REQUEST
(June 19, 2008) (added 1/08/09)

"PROTECTED PERSON" STATUS IN OCCUPIED IRAQ UNDER THE FOURTH GENEVA CONVENTION
(March 18, 2004) (added 1/08/09)

STATUS OF TALIBAN FORCES UNDER ARTICLE 4 OF THE THIRD GENEVA CONVENTION OF 1949
(February 7, 2002) (added 1/08/09)

AUTHORITY OF THE PRESIDENT UNDER DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL LAW TO USE MILITARY FORCE AGAINST IRAQ
(October 23, 2002) (added 1/08/09)

EFFECT OF A RECENT UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION ON THE AUTHORITY OF THE PRESIDENT UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW TO USE MILITARY FORCE AGAINST IRAQ
(November 8, 2002) (added 1/08/09)

WHETHER FALSE STATEMENTS OR OMISSIONS IN IRAQ'S WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION DECLARATION WOULD CONSTITUTE A "FURTHER MATERIAL BREACH" UNDER U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 1441
(December 7, 2002) (added 1/08/09)

LEGALITY OF THE USE OF MILITARY COMMISSIONS TO TRY TERRORISTS
(November 6, 2001) (added 1/08/09)

[sakabatou]

1. Once more, Bush likes fucking people over

[I814U]

2. All that changes in 11 days

...hopefully.