BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

That’s the Fourth Amendment.  And, now to the memo.

The document disclosed, for example, that the administration’s top lawyers had declared that the president has unfettered power to seize oceangoing ships as commander in chief; that Congress has no ability to pass legislation governing the interrogations of enemy combatants; and that federal laws prohibiting assault and other crimes did not apply to military interrogators who questioned al-Qaeda captives.

One section discussed to what extent the president might be allowed to legally maim a prisoner, such as through the use of a “scalding, corrosive, or caustic substance.” A footnote argued that Fifth Amendment guarantees of due-process rights “do not address actions the Executive takes in conducting a military campaign against the Nation’s enemies.”

This memo came into being when John Yoo was a deputy in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.  Of course, there has been much written of Mr. Yoo’s wide range of what he decided was the expansion of presidential powers. 

Two memos written or drafted by Yoo, including the 2003 memo released this week, have been formally withdrawn by the Justice Department. However, the October 2001 memo arguing for unregulated military searches on U.S. soil has not been formally withdrawn and remains a secret but unclassified document, according to Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.

The memo in question was made public on Tuesday, thanks to the ACLU who commented on it saying:

No court has ever ruled that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to the military, said Jameel Jaffer, national security director at the American Civil Liberties Union. “In general, the government can’t send an FBI agent to search your home or listen to your phone calls without a warrant, and it can’t send a soldier to do it, either,” Jaffer said. “The applicability of the Fourth Amendment doesn’t turn on what kind of uniform the government agent is wearing.”

The purpose of this post is to make the reader aware of some of the far reaching powers that have been assumed by the present administration and how they came into being.  In the documentary “Cheney’s Law” there is discussion of how John Yoo, eager to please, addressed and expanded the legal intentions of the administration through various memos. 

Perhaps, it will be years before we know the full extent to which the Justice Department and the little known Office of Legal Counsel have gone to erode our rights as guaranteed under the Constitution.  There has been no transparency in this present administration.  In fact, it has functioned under a fog that few new about, and mostly at the direction of the Vice President.

There are several PBS documentaries that are available in full online that will chill you to the bone.  They are free for the clicking. 

Cheney’s Law

Bush’s War