Saturday, March 7, 2009, 11:02am
The Justice Department secretly authorized President George Bush to use the military inside the United States to snoop on, raid and even kill citizens in order to fight terrorism without regard to the Fourth or Fifth Amendment, according to a Oct 23, 2001 memo released by the Obama Administration Monday.
"We do not think a military commander carrying out a raid on a terrorist cell would be required to demonstrate probable cause or to obtain a warrant," the Office of Legal Counsel memo said. "We think that the better view is that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to domestic military operations designed to deter and prevent future terrorist attacks."
Department of Justice special counsel Robert Delahunty and John Yoo, a deputy assistant attorney general best known for penning a memo authorizing government agents to torture suspected terrorists, issued the memo after the administration asked whether it could use the military inside the United States.
...
The memo found that the military could be deployed widely within the United States without being subject to the limits of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Those actions include using the National Security Agency to spy on communications inside the United States without getting court approval -- as the Bush Administration admitted it did for years.
So really, what is the constitution for then?
And didn't Bush on September 26, 2006, push for Congress to revise the laws so the military could seize control immediately after a natural disaster due to Hurricane Katrina? How is it that the Bush administration thought the Posse Comitatus Act would bar the government from rescuing flooded citizens from the roofs of their houses but would totally OK arresting terrorists?