[Infowarrior] - Secret anti-terror Bush memos made public by Obama

[Richard Forno]

Secret anti-terror Bush memos made public by Obama 	
Mar 2 04:11 PM US/Eastern
By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer 	
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96M4N682&show_article=1

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department on Monday released a long- 
secret legal document from 2001 in which the Bush administration  
claimed the military could search and seize terror suspects in the  
United States without warrants.

The legal memo was written about a month after the Sept. 11 terror  
attacks. It says constitutional protections against unlawful search  
and seizure would not apply to terror suspects in the U.S., as long as  
the president or another high official authorized the action.

Even after the Bush administration rescinded that legal analysis, the  
Justice Department refused to release its contents, prompting a  
standoff with congressional Democrats.

The memo was one of nine released Monday by the Obama administration.

Another memo showed that, within two weeks of Sept. 11, the  
administration was contemplating ways to use wiretaps without getting  
warrants.

The author of the search and seizure memo, John Yoo, did not  
immediately return a call seeking comment.

In that memo, Yoo wrote that the president could treat terrorist  
suspects in the United States like an invading foreign army. For  
instance, he said, the military would not have to get a warrant to  
storm a building to prevent terrorists from detonating a bomb.

Yoo also suggested that the government could put new restrictions on  
the press and speech, without spelling out what those might be.

"First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to  
the overriding need to wage war successfully," Yoo wrote, adding  
later: "The current campaign against terrorism may require even  
broader exercises of federal power domestically."

While they were once important legal pillars of the U.S. fight against  
al-Qaida, all of the memos were withdrawn in the final days of the  
Bush administration.

In one of his first official acts as president, Barack Obama also  
signed an order negating the memos' claims until his administration  
could conduct a thorough review.

In a speech Monday, Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder said that  
too often in the past decade the fight against terrorism has been put  
in opposition to "our tradition of civil liberties."

That "has done us more harm than good," he declared. "I've often said  
that the test of a great nation is whether it will adhere to its core  
values not only when it is easy but when it is hard."