Newly Released Memos Show How Far Bush Thought He Could Go In Suspending Constitutional Freedoms At Whim

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Justice Department secretly gave the green light for the U.S. military to attack apartment buildings and office complexes inside the United States, deploy high-tech surveillance against U.S. citizens and potentially suspend First Amendment freedom-of-the-press rights in order to combat the terror threat, according to a recently released memo.

The memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel—along with others made public for the first time this month—illustrates with new details the extraordinary powers asserted by Bush administration lawyers. Those assertions ultimately led to such controversial policies as allowing the waterboarding of terror suspects and permitting warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens—steps that remain the subject of ongoing investigations. The memo was co-written by then Deputy Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel, and who has emerged as one of the central figures in ongoing investigations.

In perhaps the most surprising assertion, the Oct. 23, 2001, memo suggested the president could even suspend press freedoms if he concluded it was necessary to wage the war on terror. "First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully," Yoo wrote.

This claim was viewed as so extreme and politically embarrassing that it was secretly revoked just months before Bush left office. Kate Martin, the director for the Center for National Security Studies, a Washington think tank, said the newly disclosed memo by Yoo was part of a broader legal reasoning that gave President Bush essentially unfettered powers in the war on terrorism. "In October 2001, they were trying to construct a legal regime that would basically have allowed for the imposition of martial law," said Martin.