Obama DOJ: John Yoo Memos on Spying Must Stay Secret

August 31st, 2011

Via: The Atlantic:

What was Bush Administration lawyer John Yoo thinking when he wrote various legal memos declaring that the president has the power to spy on American citizens without getting a warrant or telling anyone about it?

The Obama Administration isn’t telling:

The Obama administration has refused to declassify a secret memo from the George W. Bush presidency that justified the warrantless spying conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Matthew Aid, a writer who’s covered the NSA and surveillance policy, requested a copy of a 2001 Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion by John Yoo that discussed the legal grounds for electronic spying without permission from a special federal court. The Department of Justice mostly denied Aid’s Freedom of Information Act request, saying the redacted information in the OLC opinion was “classified, covered by non-disclosure provisions contained in other federal statutes, and is protected by the deliberative process privilege.”

They did release 8 sentences from a 21 page memo.

Said John Yoo: “Intelligence gathering in direct support of military operations does not trigger constitutional rights against illegal searches and seizures.”

Related: Appeals Court to Weigh NSA Dragnet Surveillance

Research Credit: noncompliant

3 Responses to “Obama DOJ: John Yoo Memos on Spying Must Stay Secret”

  1. Eileen says:

    Gee, I wonder if Rupert Murdoch has used similar language in his legal defense re phone hacking? Something like: “While we were illegally hacking into PRIVATE PHONE COMMUNICATIONS we learned of some SH@T that is so ultra-classified that we CANNOT reveal what we heard while BREAKING THE LAW. Therefore, we are not BREAKING THE LAW, because if we let you know what we know we would have to kill you.
    Its such a stupid, freaking lame card game the Obama’s are playing on this. What fools they are to rope their ship to the Bush administration. Fools.
    Hey you numbnuts, how and when and on what basis did you decide that humans across the world can’t handle the truth? Hum?
    Classify THIS (middle fingers extended on both hands). GRRR!

  2. LykeX says:

    Intelligence gathering in direct support of military operations does not trigger constitutional rights against illegal searches and seizures.

    But I thought the US military was not allowed to operate domestically. If so, there could be no case where domestic surveillance could be “in direct support of military operations” without also being illegal.

  3. prov6yahoo says:

    After Obama’s actions (as opposed to his sayings) I think (more like hope) some Democrats may be catching on to the fact that the 2 party system is a fraud. Just from what I personally hear out of Republicans mouths I think they will never learn. I’m prolly just dreaming.

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