2001 Memo Reveals Push for Broader Presidential Powers

[flyingfysh]

At http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6732484/site/newsweek/:

A Justice Department lawyer may have been laying the groundwork for the Iraq invasion long before it was discussed publicly by the White House

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek
Updated: 5:45 p.m. ET Dec. 18, 2004

Dec. 18 - Just two weeks after the September 11 attacks, a secret memo to White House counsel Alberto Gonzales’ office concluded that President Bush had the power to deploy military force “preemptively” against any terrorist groups or countries that supported them—regardless of whether they had any connection to the attacks on the World Trade Towers or the Pentagon.

The memo, written by Justice Department lawyer John Yoo, argues that there are effectively “no limits” on the president’s authority to wage war—a sweeping assertion of executive power that some constitutional scholars say goes considerably beyond any that had previously been articulated by the department.

Although it makes no reference to Saddam Hussein’s government, the 15-page memo also seems to lay a legal groundwork for the president to invade Iraq—without approval of Congress—long before the White House had publicly expressed any intent to do so. “The President may deploy military force preemptively against terrorist organizations or the States that harbor or support them, whether or not they can be linked to the specific terrorist incidents of Sept. 11,” the memo states.

The existence of the memo, titled “The President’s Constitutional Authority to Conduct Military Operations against Terrorists and Nations Supporting Them,” was first reported by NEWSWEEK in the fall of 2001. But its contents—including the conclusion that Bush could order attacks against countries unrelated to the 9/11 attacks—were not publicly available until late this week when, with no notice to the public or the news media, the memo was posted on an obscure portion of the Web site of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. (There is nothing on the site calling attention to the memo. It is was simply added to a list of previously published memos posted for the calendar year 2001.)

...

[KoKo]

1. Why is Issikoff bringing this up again? We already knew about this last

Spring! :crazy: Has Issi lost his marbles?

[KoKo]

2. This was out last April/May of 2004 here are just two links "cached" from

"San Francisco Gate" online and Issikoff's own article!

NOTE THE DATE: May 19, 2004 where he calls it a "Web Exclusive." :eyes:

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Michael Isikoff
Investigative Correspondent
Newsweek
Updated: 9:14 a.m. ET May 19, 2004

May 17 - The White House's top lawyer warned more than two years ago that U.S. officials could be prosecuted for "war crimes" as a result of new and unorthodox measures used by the Bush administration in the war on terrorism, according to an internal White House memo and interviews with participants in the debate over the issue.

The concern about possible future prosecution for war crimes—and that it might even apply to Bush adminstration officials themselves— is contained in a crucial portion of an internal January 25, 2002, memo by White House counsel Alberto Gonzales obtained by NEWSWEEK. It urges President George Bush declare the war in Afghanistan, including the detention of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, exempt from the provisions of the Geneva Convention.

In the memo, the White House lawyer focused on a little known 1996 law passed by Congress, known as the War Crimes Act, that banned any Americans from committing war crimes—defined in part as "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions. Noting that the law applies to "U.S. officials" and that punishments for violators "include the death penalty," Gonzales told Bush that "it was difficult to predict with confidence" how Justice Department prosecutors might apply the law in the future. This was especially the case given that some of the language in the Geneva Conventions—such as that outlawing "outrages upon personal dignity" and "inhuman treatment" of prisoners—was "undefined."

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Furor over UC prof's brief on war
He advised Bush on prisoners' rights
- Robert Collier, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, June 7, 2004

A UC Berkeley law professor is under fire for his former role as a legal adviser to the Bush administration in its war against terrorism, with critics saying he served as the intellectual author of policies that led to the mistreatment of Iraqi detainees by U.S. soldiers.

As a Justice Department aide, John Yoo wrote a legal brief in January 2002 arguing that fighters captured by U.S. troops in Afghanistan are not covered by the Geneva conventions -- the treaties that embody the laws of war.

Yoo's memo led to the controversial decision by President Bush that al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners being held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, do not qualify as prisoners of war and have no right to lawyers or a trial. The result, human rights activists say, has been a legal twilight zone in which abuses against prisoners in U.S. custody abroad have occurred.

The controversy pits a rising star at Boalt Hall School of Law against liberal sentiment on the Berkeley campus. Ever since Yoo's memo was disclosed by Newsweek magazine last month, students and graduates have rallied and petitioned. At the law school commencement ceremony on May 22, about one- quarter of the graduates wore black armbands to protest Yoo's role and called on him to resign.

"I'm a conservative professor, so I'm used to people objecting to my views," Yoo said in an interview with The Chronicle.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/06/07/MNGKP721F21.DTL&type=printable