In this piece, Peter Canellos sheds light on the importance of presidential legal advice. As we are now learning, President Bush was advised by Attorney General John Ashcroft, White House Counsel Harriet Miers and Attorney General (and former White House Counsel) Alberto Gonzales that, as President, Bush possessed the power to listen to phone calls of Americans suspected of connections to Al Queda, without a warrant. A review of the Supreme Court case law on the subject, however, leads to a totally different conclusion. Click here to read the Supreme Court opinion.
“Legal advice given to the president in national security matters can hardly be of greater importance. Telling Bush that he lacks the authority to make a particular move could leave the country vulnerable to attack; assuring him that he has the power to override civil liberties could consign innocent suspects to imprisonment, abuse, or disappearance to secret holding areas in other countries.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, Bush’s legal advisers have cleared the way for him to hold enemy combatants without trials; eavesdrop on overseas telephone calls and e-mails; place ever-greater numbers of government documents under a veil of secrecy; imprison a US citizen indefinitely on the suspicion of terrorist links; and, according to The Washington Post, operate a secret CIA prison in an Eastern European country.”
In another development, UPI and other major news services are now reporting that the President of the United States began warrantless wiretaps only after the special FISA Courts began challenging the basis for the warrants at an unprecedented rate.
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