Marjorie Cohn: Newly Released Secret Memos Provide the Blueprint for Bush's Police State

[marmar]

from AlterNet:



Newly Released Secret Memos Provide the Blueprint for Bush's Police State

By Marjorie Cohn, AlterNet. Posted March 4, 2009.

The memos' authors, John Yoo and Jay Bybee, should be investigated, prosecuted, and disbarred.



Seven newly released memos from the Bush Justice Department reveal a concerted strategy to cloak the President with power to override the Constitution. The memos provide "legal" rationales for the President to suspend freedom of speech and press; order warrantless searches and seizures, including wiretaps of U.S. citizens; lock up U.S. citizens indefinitely in the United States without criminal charges; send suspected terrorists to other countries where they will likely be tortured; and unilaterally abrogate treaties. According to the reasoning in the memos, Congress has no role to check and balance the executive. That is the definition of a police state.

Who wrote these memos? All but one were crafted in whole or in part by the infamous John Yoo and Jay Bybee, authors of the so-called "torture memos" that redefined torture much more narrowly than the U.S. definition of torture, and counseled the President how to torture and get away with it. In one memo, Yoo said the Justice Department would not enforce U.S. laws against torture, assault, maiming and stalking, in the detention and interrogation of enemy combatants.

What does the federal maiming statute prohibit? It makes it a crime for someone "with the intent to torture, maim, or disfigure" to "cut, bite, or slit the nose, ear or lip, or cut out or disable the tongue, or put out or destroy an eye, or cut off or disable a limb or any member of another person." It further prohibits individuals from "throwing or pouring upon another person any scalding water, corrosive acid, or caustic substance" with like intent.

The two torture memos were later withdrawn after they became public because their legal reasoning was clearly defective. But they remained in effect long enough to authorize the torture and abuse of many prisoners in U.S. custody. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/rights/129972/newly_released_secret_memos_provide_the_blueprint_for_bush%27s_police_state/

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[bdamomma]

2. that is more than enough evidence the bush regime must be arrested.

disgusting.

[SpiralHawk]

3. May justice be done

k and r

[elizfeelinggreat]

4. "Yoo said the Justice Department would not enforce U.S. laws against torture"

Unbelievable.

"a concerted strategy to cloak the President with power to override the Constitution.

Unbelievable.

" The memos provide "legal" rationales for the President to suspend freedom of speech and press; order warrantless searches and seizures, including wiretaps of U.S. citizens; lock up U.S. citizens indefinitely in the United States without criminal charges; send suspected terrorists to other countries where they will likely be tortured; and unilaterally abrogate treaties."

Unbelievable.

"unilaterally abrogate treaties"

Unbelievable! No matter how many times I read it I am shocked.

We all knew it was going on but these reports are so blunt I do not understand why we're not finally charging these bald-faced-lied-to-the-American-people bastiges with crimes against our country.

[midnight]

5. The constitution was not inforced because they said so.

In one memo, Yoo said the Justice Department would not enforce U.S. laws against torture, assault, maiming and stalking, in the detention and interrogation of enemy combatants.
That to many was the red flag that we were living in a police state.

[gratuitous]

6. I guess we were shrill at the wrong time

All those years spent decrying the unconstitutional overreaches and power grab by the outlaw Bush administration, only to be airily dismissed by the Wise Ones of Washington and the Inside the Beltway voices of the Responsible Media. The evidence was there all along, but none of them had what it took to take on the Bush administration. Now that the criminals have safely scattered, they feel brave enough to sift through the wreckage of the Constitution and tentatively put the hat on the man who would be dictator - with a ten foot pole.

In the meantime, all us dirty fucking hippies who had no other basis for accusing Bush of outright criminality than our blinding hatred, are justified more and more every day. Yet, who do we see holding forth on the teevee, telling us how the country should be run? Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay and Ari Fleischer. As bad as the criminality is, I think it has to take second place to the stubborn stupidity of the network and cable shows that just can't quit the Republican party.

[Demeter]

7. Blinding Hatred Founded in Reason and Rule of Law

Hatred of the oath-breakers, the criminals destroying our nation.

[chill_wind]

8. K & R. Marjorie Cohn should be heeded.

She is President of The National Lawyers Guild and has been sounding the alarms on the Bush Admin for years.
More of her writings.

http://www.alternet.org/authors/6984/

K & R.

[Supersedeas]

9. Instead, Bybee is a Federal Judge and Yoo is teaching at prestigious law school, what does that

tell you about the Corporate culture at many Bar Associations