Right-Wing Harassment Strategy Against Dems Detailed In Memo: ‘Yell,’ ‘Stand Up And Shout Out,’ ‘Rattle Him’ ThinkProgress July 31, 2008 This morning, Politico reported that Democratic members of Congress are increasingly being harassed by “angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior” at local town halls. For example, in one incident, right-wing protesters surrounded Rep. Tim Bishop […]
U.S. Adviser’s Blunt Memo on Iraq: Time ‘to Go Home’ The New York Times By MICHAEL R. GORDON July 30, 2009 WASHINGTON — A senior American military adviser in Baghdad has concluded in an unusually blunt memo that Iraqi forces suffer from entrenched deficiencies but are now able to protect the Iraqi government, and that […]
Prisoners of War have rights. Criminals have rights. But the net claim of the Bush Era OLC Memos is that there is a category of people [description unspecified] who do not have [or deserve] human rights. Among those rights they do not have is a right to trial, the presumption of innocence, due process, humane […]
Abolish the White House Counsel And the Office of Legal Counsel, too, while we’re at it. Slate By Bruce Ackerman April 22, 2009 President Obama is right. Whatever we do about the sordid acts of torture during the Bush years, it is more important to prevent their recurrence in the future. Unfortunately, the president has […]
March 13,2002 Memorandum for William J. Haynes, II General Counsel, Department of Defense Re: The President’s power as Commander in Chief to transfer captured terrorists to the control and custody of foreign nations You have asked for our Office’s views on the laws applicable to the transfer of members of the Taliban militia, al Qaeda, […]
The references at the end of this post are the Office of Legal Counsel Memos that have been officially repudiated by the Department of Justice, primarily in the OLC Memo [Re: Status of Certain OLC Opinions Issued in the Aftermath of the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001] written by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General […]
Usually, when I become obsessed with a topic, I feel better after I’ve learned a lot about it – there’s some feeling of cognitive mastery. This is not the case with the Office of Legal Counsel [OLC] Memos that came out of the Department of Justice [DoJ] during those early years after the September 11th […]
The Office of Legal Counsel [OLC] in the Department of Justice [DoJ] exists to render legal opinions for the Executive Branch: The Attorney General has directed the Office of Legal Counsel to publish selected opinions for the convenience of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government, and of the professional bar and the […]
In the dawning moments of 2003, the march to war in Iraq became a public farce. On January 28th, President Bush gave his State of the Union speech – the one with the now famous sixteen words, "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." This will […]
On September 8th, 2002, the Bush Administration began its blitz for Invading Iraq. Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, and Powell each appeared on television pushing the Iraq WMD story, and Judith Miller has an INC inspired piece in the New York Times. Four days later, George Bush Addressed the United Nations. And within a month, Congress had […]