Charlie Savage, In Pursuit of the Imperial President

[seemslikeadream]

LISTEN TO THIS!


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14181701

Fresh Air from WHYY, September 5, 2007 · Boston Globe reporter Charlie Savage won a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for a series detailing how often President Bush used "signing statements" — controversial assertions of a chief executive's right to bypass provisions of new laws.

Now Savage has written a book describing how the Bush-Cheney administration has expanded executive power. It's called Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy.

[BOSSHOG]

1. Thanks Very Much

The show is aptly named FRESH AIR.

[Benhurst]

2. Thanks! Recommended #2

:bounce: :kick:

[Buzz Clik]

3. KICK! You must check this out. It tells us EXACTLY why we're in the stew we're in.

Terry Gross interviewed Charlie Savage about the expansion of executive power in the Bush/Cheney administration. New book: Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy.

Savage goes into the unitary executive theory: revisionist interpretation of the constitution in which all executive power should be wielded exclusively by the President and his subordinates.

The Office of Legal Counsel is the center of the problem we are facing, and they are exactly why impeachment is such an enormous improbability. Bush populated the Office with those who believed in the unitary theory and essentially said that the President can do anything he wants, particularly when it comes to national security.

John Yoo, of Cal Berkeley, is the face associated with this disaster. Yoo was in place on September 11, 2001 and established the legal framework for the executive branch and its war on terrorism. He gave legal cover to the President for authorizing tapping phone calls without warrants. "We think it beyond question that Congress cannot place any limits on the President's determination as to any terrorist threat, the amount of military force to be used in response, or the method, timing, or nature of the response. These decisions under our Constitution are for the President alone to make." This is more than just a misguided opinion, this is a solid bit of legal insulation for the President. It is not beyond challenge, but it will require taking the argument right up to the Supreme Court.

In 2001 when the Bush administration was just gearing up, Ashcroft became embroiled in a dispute over who would control the Office of Legal Counsel. His main nemeses? Cheney and David Addington. The office remained vacant summer. The appointee was committed until December 2001, leaving John Yoo in charge despite Yoo having never been confirmed by Congress. Yoo, in all his incredibly fringe opinions, wrote all the opinions and policy. His work was completely classified and never reviewed by his immediate peers. Thus, his work became the binding structure.

Very important point: if the Office of Legal Counsel tells the president that something he is doing is legal, then the President is absolved of all responsibility of wrong-doing. (Savage attributes this whole mess to Cheney)

[seemslikeadream]

4. Office of Legal Counsel

It was the most amazing interview I have heard in a long time


Yoo was in place on September 11, 2001 and he did not have a boss

[Buzz Clik]

5. Totally agree.

This was a major eye-opening moment for me as all of this came together in one place.

[seemslikeadream]

6. Didn't he say that this unitary executive theory was number one priority

from DAY ONE

[Buzz Clik]

7. Yep.

And 9/11 was a complete blessing -- without 9/11, they'd have had much more difficulty getting what they wanted. However, the timeline is totally contrary to any MIHOP and, to a lesser degree, LIHOP theories because the Office of Legal Counsel was in chaos at the time of 9/11. The in-fighting and incompetence of the administration were critical to having all the pieces fall into place.

It's shocking to think that it would be much worse in the absence of John Ashcroft.

[seemslikeadream]

8. I was thinking maybe the chaos was planned

[Buzz Clik]

9. I have no doubt that giving Yoo the space he needed to do his work was intentional.

No Congressional interference. No peer review. No boss. And he really delivered.

[seemslikeadream]

10. Do you remember the names of the guys who turned the postition down?

There was like five or six

[Buzz Clik]

11. No, I don't. Sorry.

[seemslikeadream]

12. kick

[seemslikeadream]

13. kick

She was assigned to the Counterproliferation Division at CIA Headquarters, where she served as the chief of a CPD component with responsbility for weapons proliferation issues related to Iraq.

While assigned to CPD, Ms. Wilson engaged in temporary duty travel oversees on offical business. She traveled at least seven times to more than ten countries. When traveling oversees, Ms. Wilson always traveled under a cover idenity-- sometimes in true name and sometimes in alias-- but always using cover--whether official or non-offical cover (NOC)--with no ostensible relationship to the CIA
In August 2003, Ms. Wilson was assigned to a senior personnel position in CPD, where she supervised staffing, recruiting, and training for CPD. She had been selected for this position prior to the leak


ADDINGTON'S ROLE IN CHENEY'S OFFICE DRAWS FRESH ATTENTION

That's David (Geneva Convention is "Quaint") Addington


http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2005/1030nj1.htm

By Murray Waas and Paul Singer

10-30-05

David Addington, counsel to Vice President Cheney, has been named to succeed Scooter Libby as Cheney's chief of staff. Addington's own role in the Plame matter is emerging just as the vice president selects him for the top job.

...

Further, Addington played a leading role in 2004 on behalf of the Bush administration when it refused to give the Senate Intelligence Committee documents from Libby's office on the alleged misuse of intelligence information regarding Iraq. Because Addington may be in line to succeed Libby, the Intelligence Committee-White House battle over the documents has sparked new interest on Capitol Hill.

....

Rockefeller's call for an inquiry by the Intelligence Committee captured the attention of many senators Friday, but did not attract wider press attention. It also surprised senators because Rockefeller, who is a political moderate, was often praised by the Republican chairman of the committee, Pat Roberts of Kansas, and other Republicans for serving as vice chairman in a bipartisan matter. Indeed, some other Democratic senators on the committee have privately complained that Rockefeller had not pressed Republicans hard enough on some oversight issues.

....

During confirmation hearings of Alberto Gonzales to be attorney general, it was revealed that Addington helped draft the White House memo that concluded that the Geneva Convention against torture did not apply to prisoners captured in the war on terror. The memo declared that terrorism "renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions."

....

helped out that torture guy Gonzales too (who maybe under indictment also)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1262353&mesg_id=1262353



http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article323785.ece

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
Published: 01 November 2005
The Independent


Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the senior White House official charged over the CIA leak affair, is to appear in court this week, as investigators continue their inquiries into the activities of President George Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove.

An official said yesterday that Mr Libby would appear in a federal court in Washington on Thursday morning, where he would be formally charged, or arraigned. He faces five charges ­ two of lying to investigators, two of lying to a grand jury and one of obstructing justice ­ in relation to the leaking of the identity of a covert CIA operative, Valerie Plame.

Mr Libby, 55, has made it clear he will plead not guilty. He was replaced yesterday by David Addington, a longtime aide to Vice-President Dick Cheney and his top legal adviser. Mr Addington was among the authors of a White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects.

Over the weekend Mr Libby's lawyers said they would argue that, as a busy White House official, he could not be expected to recollect the full details of every conversation he had with reporters. They will deny that he deliberately intended to lie to either investigators or members of the grand jury about what he had told reporters about Ms Plame.


http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/31/cheney-promotes

Cheney Promotes Individuals Named In Indictment

"Both Addington and Hannah are named in the indictment. Hannah was intimately involved in the strategy of leaking Plame’s identity. From the indictment:

13. Shortly after publication of the article in The New Republic, LIBBY spoke by telephone with his then Principal Deputy and discussed the article. That official asked LIBBY whether information about Wilson’s trip could be shared with the press to rebut the allegations that the Vice President had sent Wilson. LIBBY responded that there would be complications at the CIA in disclosing that information publicly, and that he could not discuss the matter on a non-secure telephone line.

Addington provided legal counsel to Libby in helping to divulge Plame’s identity.

18. Also on or about July 8, 2003, LIBBY met with the Counsel to the Vice President in an anteroom outside the Vice President’s Office. During their brief conversation, LIBBY asked the Counsel to the Vice President, in sum and substance, what paperwork there would be at the CIA if an employee’s spouse undertook an overseas trip.

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2004/3128addington_memo.html
Addington, a "swell " guy...
Cheney's Lawyer Addington
Penned Key Torture Memo
by Jeffrey Steinberg

David Addington, the General Counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney, was the actual author of one of the now-infamous White House "torture memos" that claimed for President Bush the authority to violate the Geneva Conventions on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, in the so-called "war on terrorism." The immediate result of this Hitlerian document was the scenes of inhuman torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, and the as-yet untold tales of similar torture at other secret prison locations in Afghanistan, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in other countries around the world.



http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?id=1521846767-3158

David S. Addington actively participated in the following events:
January 21, 2002 Torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere

White House lawyers visit Guantanamo Bay. On the flight back, Alberto Gonzales agrees with David Addington that all Guantanamo detainees should be designated eligible for trial by military commission under the president's November 13 Military Order (see January 20, 2002).
People and organizations involved: Alberto R. Gonzales, David S. Addington

'Passive' participant in the following events:
Torture, rendition, and other abuses against captives in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere - November 13, 2001 - President Bush issues a 3- ...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5223042
Page 4 - ("Under Secretary of State")International Security Affairs John Bolton or Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman?

Page 4 - ("A senior officer of the CIA") ?

Page 5 ("An aide to the VP") John Hannah - Senior Nation Security Aide or David Wurmser - Middle East Advisor?

Page 5 (CIA briefer") ?

Page 6 ("Libby's then Pincipal Deputy") John Hannah

Page 7 ("WH Press Secretary") Ari Fleicher?

Page 7 ("Counsel to the VP') David Addington?

Page 7 ("Ass't to the VP for Public Affairs") Catherine Martin (she was his press secretary)?

Page 7 ("MSNBC Reporter") Chris Matthews

Page 8 ("Official A") Karl Rove?

Page 8 (Other Officials) Plane trip from Norfolk

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/28/addington-involved-in-leak-scandal/

Scooter Libby’s replacement as chief of staff to the Vice President is reportedly a man named David Addington. He was formerly Cheney’s counsel, a position he held since 2001. According to the indictment, it appears that Addington was involved in the leak:

18. Also on or about July 8, 2003, LIBBY met with the Counsel to the Vice President in an anteroom outside the Vice President’s Office. During their brief conversation, LIBBY asked the Counsel to the Vice President, in sum and substance, what paperwork there would be at the CIA if an employee’s spouse undertook an overseas trip.

Was Addington aware that he was facilitating alleged criminal conduct?

Unitary Executive theory

http://alternet.org/blogs/themix/#27514

Scooter Libby's insta-replacement, David Addington, believes in the Unitary Executive theory. If you guessed that this meant the power of one CEO who decides liberty and justice for all, you wouldn't be far off. It's not too far from King of Everything, really.

Here's a description of how it works by a legal theorist from Michigan Law School:

Several scholars have recently rearticulated the "unitary executive theory" of Article II , arguing that Article II vests the power to execute federal law solely in the President of the United States. Unitarians do not maintain that the President must personally execute all laws; Congress may establish an administrative bureaucracy and identify particular officials to assist the President in carrying out legislatively prescribed tasks. But, unitarians argue, such officials must always remain subject to the President's direction.

According to Raw Story, Bush has made at least 95 decisions since 2001 using this unitary logic, including many of his ill-fated choices relating to torture and the Geneva Conventions. And who was the author of the infamous "torture memo?"

David Addington.

http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=David_S._Addington

Primary Role in Bush Admin's POW Policies

....

Former attorney general William P. Barr suggested to Gonzales's staff early on that those captured on the battlefield go before military tribunals instead of civil courts. But Ashcroft and Michael Chertoff, his deputy for the criminal division, both adamantly opposed the plan, along with military lawyers at the Pentagon. The result was that the process moved slowly."

"Addington was the first to suggest that the issue be taken away from the Prosper group and that a presidential order be drafted authorizing the tribunals that he, Gonzales and Timothy E. Flanigan, then a principal deputy to Gonzales, supported. It was intended for circulation among a much smaller group of like-minded officials. Berenson, Flanigan and Addington helped write the draft, and on Nov. 6, 2001, Gonzales's office secured an opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel that the contemplated military tribunals would be legal."


"The task of summarizing the competing points of view in a draft letter to the president was seized initially by Addington. A memo he wrote and signed with Gonzales's name -- and knowledge -- was circulated to various departments, several sources said. A version of this draft, dated Jan. 25, 2002, was subsequently leaked. It included the eye-catching assertion that a 'new paradigm' of a war on terrorism 'renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners." More...

http://whateveralready.blogspot.com/2005/10/i-have-brand-new-national-journal.html

by Murray Wass
Thursday, October 27, 2005

....

Cheney has tried to increase executive power with a series of bold actions -- some so audacious that even conservatives on the Supreme Court sympathetic to Cheney's view have rejected them as overreaching. The vice president's point man in this is longtime aide David Addington, who serves as Cheney's top lawyer.

Where there has been controversy over the past four years, there has often been Addington. He was a principal author of the White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects. He was a prime advocate of arguments supporting the holding of terrorism suspects without access to courts.

Addington also led the fight with Congress and environmentalists over access to information about corporations that advised the White House on energy policy. He was instrumental in the series of fights with the Sept. 11 commission and its requests for information...

....

Even in a White House known for its dedication to conservative philosophy, Addington is known as an ideologue, an adherent of an obscure philosophy called the unitary executive theory that favors an extraordinarily powerful president.

....

http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/10/libby_resigns_b.php

Libby Resigns, But Was His Replacement Involved in the Leak?

Posted by Joe Rospars on October 28, 2005 at 04:34 PM


The crack team over at Think Progress has the scoop on Libby's replacement in the White House:

Scooter Libby’s replacement as chief of staff to the Vice President is reportedly a man named David Addington. He was formerly Cheney’s counsel, a position he held since 2001. According to the indictment, it appears that Addington was involved in the leak:

18. Also on or about July 8, 2003, LIBBY met with the Counsel to the Vice President in an anteroom outside the Vice President’s Office. During their brief conversation, LIBBY asked the Counsel to the Vice President, in sum and substance, what paperwork there would be at the CIA if an employee’s spouse undertook an overseas trip.

Was Addington aware that he was facilitating alleged criminal conduct?

You'll remember that Republican leader Tom DeLay handed his leadership post to another ethically-challenged Republican, Roy Blunt.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22665-2004Oct10.html

In Cheney's Shadow, Counsel Pushes the Conservative Cause
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, October 11, 2004; Page A21

The vice president's point man in this is longtime aide David Addington, who serves as Cheney's top lawyer....

Where there has been controversy over the past four years, there has often been Addington. He was a principal author of the White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects. He was a prime advocate of arguments supporting the holding of terrorism suspects without access to courts.

Addington also led the fight with Congress and environmentalists over access to information about corporations that advised the White House on energy policy. He was instrumental in the series of fights with the Sept. 11 commission and its requests for information. And he was a main backer of the nomination of Pentagon lawyer William J. Haynes II for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. Haynes's confirmation has been a source of huge friction on Capitol Hill.

Colleagues say Addington stands out for his devotion to secrecy in an administration noted for its confidentiality. He declined to be interviewed or photographed for this article, and he did not respond to a list of specific points made in the article.

[Octafish]

14. Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 hours

Darn. Would that I could be #5.

Thank you very much for another great report and post, seemslikeadream.

[seemslikeadream]

15. What are you doing up sooooo early on a Saturday morning?

:hi:

[Octafish]

16. I am not a drunk. I have never been a drunk.

And if I wanted to get drunk, I certainly wouldn't do so in Detroit, Michigan, of all places.

Regarding "Signing Statements," Amy Goodman interviewed Charlie Savage:

CHARLIE SAVAGE: Essentially, someone in his office, a lawyer, drafts a statement that gets issued along with the signing of the bill. This is not a proclamation that says, "I'm really glad that I signed the bill; it's going to help us." It's a technically legal document that lays out how he's going to enforce the bill, what it is he says that he signed that day. And previous presidents have issued these, but they've never issued them the way President Bush has, both in terms of frequency and in terms of the aggression with which he says, ‘I am not bound by this, I'm not bound by that, I will take this law in bits and pieces, I'll enforce the measures I like, and I have the power as president and commander-in-chief to ignore the provisions I don't like.’

And so, in this case, in the PATRIOT Act case, all the provisions in which Congress said, ‘We'll give you these powers, we'll renew this act. But you've got to tell us how you're using them, so we make sure that they're not being abused,’ he said ‘as president and commander-in-chief and the head of the executive branch, I will decide what I tell you, if anything, and that's just what I can do under the Constitution.’

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/27/1450205

And that's why I drink.

[Up2Late]

18. You could help out my post in GD: Politics with a k&r if you'd like...

...here the link: <http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3504883&mesg_id=3504883>

:kick:

[mod mom]

17. I heard most of this while picking up the kids. thanks for posting-now I'll listen to

the rest. Very interesting-worth listening too imho.

[Up2Late]

19. Also Must hear this interview with Jack Goldsmith Re: his new book "The Terror Presidency"!!!

Jack Goldsmith on 'The Terror Presidency'

Listen to this story...

Fresh Air from WHYY, September 7, 2007 · As head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, Jack Goldsmith led the team of lawyers that advises the presidency on the limits of executive power. During his tenure, he battled the Bush White House on the now-infamous "torture memos," as well as on issues of surveillance and the detention and trial of suspected terrorists. Goldsmith resigned his post after nine months.

He's speaking publicly for the first time about why he resigned in a new memoir, The Terror Presidency — which also recounts what he witnessed in Attorney General John Ashcroft's hospital room, when Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff, demanded that an ailing Ashcroft approve a secret program that was about to expire. Goldsmith was among those who objected to the program.
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14236608>

And if you have another 1/2 hour to devote to another great interview, check out this one from Wednesday with Boston Globe reporter Charlie Savage, he's the got a new book too, also about the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, where Jack Goldsmith worked for nine mouths before he quit:
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14236608>

Charlie Savage, In Pursuit of the Imperial President

Listen to this story...

Fresh Air from WHYY, September 5, 2007 · Boston Globe reporter Charlie Savage won a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for a series detailing how often President Bush used "signing statements" — controversial assertions of a chief executive's right to bypass provisions of new laws.

Now Savage has written a book describing how the Bush-Cheney administration has expanded executive power. It's called Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14236608>

[IDemo]

20. Also highly recommended: "How Would a Patriot Act?", by Glenn Greenwald

http://www.workingassetspublishing.com/

How would a patriot act today? Greenwald has some ideas. “Over the past five years, a creeping extremism has taken hold of our federal government that is threatening to alter our system and who we are as a nation.” Greenwald adds, “This extremism is neither conservative nor liberal by nature, but is instead driven by theories of unlimited presidential power that are antithetical to the values that have governed this country since its founding.”