CNN– The White House declassified and released Saturday the daily intelligence briefing delivered to President Bush a month before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The declassified intelligence report said the FBI had detected “patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings.” The names of countries that supplied the CIA with intelligence have been removed … Read More
NEW YORK TIMES– The Bush administration, which calls the USA Patriot Act perhaps its most essential tool in fighting terrorists, has begun using the law with increasing frequency in many criminal investigations that have little or no connection to terrorism. The government is using its expanded authority under the far-reaching law to investigate suspected drug traffickers, white-collar criminals, blackmailers, child … Read More
WALL STREET JOURNAL– The Obama Administration this week released its predecessor’s post-9/11 legal memoranda in the name of “transparency,” producing another round of feel-good Bush criticism. Anyone interested in President Obama’s actual executive-power policies, however, should look at his position on warrantless wiretapping. Dick Cheney must be smiling. In a federal lawsuit, the Obama legal team is arguing that judges … Read More
RAW STORY– In a stunning departure from his rhetoric on Guantánamo Bay prison, President Barack Obama signaled Friday he will continue Bush Administration policy with regard to detainees held at a US airbase in Afghanistan, saying they have no right to challenge their detentions in US courts — and denying them legal status altogether. “This Court’s Order of January 22, … Read More
RAW STORY– In a brief filed Thursday evening, Obama Justice Department lawyers extended many of the same arguments made by Bush attorneys — that top government officials have qualified immunity from prosecution and that Guantanamo detainees do not have constitutional rights to due process. The Department of Justice has asserted that a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming the rights of Guantanamo … Read More
