Legal memos released on Bush-era justification for warrantless wiretapping

[DonViejo]

Source: Washington Post

By Ellen Nakashima September 6 at 11:01 AM

The Justice Department released two decade-old memos Friday night, offering the fullest public airing to date of the Bush administration’s legal justification for the warrantless wiretapping of Americans’ phone calls and e-mails — a program that began in secret after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The broad outlines of the argument — that the president has inherent constitutional power to monitor Americans’ communications without a warrant in a time of war — were known, but the sweep of the reasoning becomes even clearer in the memos written by then-Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith, who was head of President George W. Bush’s Office of Legal Counsel.

“We conclude only that when the nation has been thrust into an armed conflict by a foreign attack on the United States and the president determines in his role as commander in chief .?.?. that it is essential for defense against a further foreign attack to use the (wiretapping) capabilities of the (National Security Agency) within the United States, he has inherent constitutional authority” to order warrantless wiretapping — “an authority that Congress cannot curtail,” Goldsmith wrote in a redacted 108-page memo dated May 6, 2004.

The program, code-named Stellar Wind, enabled the NSA to collect communications on U.S. soil when at least one party was believed to be a member of al-Qaeda or an al-Qaeda affiliate, and at least one end of the communication was overseas.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/legal-memos-released-on-bush-era-justification-for-warrantless-wiretapping/2014/09/05/91b86c52-356d-11e4-9e92-0899b306bbea_story.html

[grasswire]

1. friday news dump, eh? nt

[SoapBox]

2. BushCo. should be in prison.

[99th_Monkey]

3. So now we can prosecute BushCo torturers & war criminals?

Oh wait. Nevermind.

I forgot that Obama says we're "moving on" i.e. letting war criminal & torturers walk free.

[24601]

11. Will President Obama have an adjacent cell? Bush never authorized a drone strike on a US Citizen.

That distinction belongs to President Obama and him alone.

[99th_Monkey]

13. You mean Barak "No-boots-on-the-Ground" Obama?

He does have that going for him, however heartless that may be, or
however lethal for thousands of innocents getting "taken out" w/ drones.

[24601]

15. I don't mean "Obama" or "Barry" or "Barak". I refer instead to President Obama. And the question

is this: How many US Citizens can the President order killed without trial before it is inferred that he crossed a red line from legal to criminal?

[99th_Monkey]

16. Well now that POTUS has ISIS to scare the bejesus out of us,

that line just got pushed WAY further out than either of us would like.

Thankfully (our "enemies&quot Iran and Assad are fighting ISIS on our behalf.

You'd think Kissinger would show a little gratitude, instead of saying Iran's a "bigger threat than ISIS".

[rhett o rick]

4. This is an open-ended authority, as apparently was the Iraq Resolution. nm

[Fred Sanders]

6. It had no time limit, no sunset clause, no review mechanism, the open ended authority is galling.

[rhett o rick]

12. I think it's a violation of the Constitution. Congress does not have the authority to abrogate

the powers given to them by the Constitution.

[DallasNE]

5. 19 Box Cutters = Armed Conflict

That sets the bar really, really low. Same with "believed" as the standard for permitting a warrantless wiretap. Not answered is why they felt the need to bypass the rubber stamp FISA Court. It has never made any sense.

[Fred Sanders]

7. And "foreign attack", would that have included The British Invasion and The Beatles attack on music?

[Deadbeat Republicans]

8. If only the 9/11 commission had subpoena power?

[santamargarita]

9. What do we, Americans, need to do to get these criminals prosecuted?

[Dragonfli]

10. There is nothing we can do, In America there are those simply above the law.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024852198

[blkmusclmachine]

14. We can't ask the Criminals to prosecute themselves. Prosecution will have to come from outside DC's

grip of corruption. Don't expect elected DEMS to go after the GOP; they are both deeply compromised Parties.