While we’re keeping our eye on Obama here in Blather’s Skibbereen office, it’s nice to find out that he’s introduced some openness in government, by releasing this information:
‘The secret legal opinions issued by Bush administration lawyers after the Sept. 11 attacks included assertions that the president could use the nation’s military within the United States to combat terrorism suspects [sic] and to conduct raids without obtaining search warrants. any objections based on the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches are swept away, they said, since any possible privacy offense resulting from such a search is a lesser matter than any injury from deadly force… The Oct. 23 memorandum… said that “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully.” It added that “the current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically.” …in addition, the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally bars the military from domestic law enforcement operations, would pose no obstacle…’
Full article in the New York Times, 2 March 2009.
Update. William Pfaff on the memos, the pernicious influence of the tv series 24 and how Bush was like Hitler: ‘The license to torture‘ 5 March 2009.
