Memos Reveal Scope of the Power Bush Sought

On Monday, the Justice Department publicly disclosed nine secret opinions issued by the Bush Administration after Sept 11, 2001. The opinions reflected a broad interpretation of presidential authority, asserting, for example, that the government could conduct a program of domestic eavesdropping without warrants. Some of the positions had previously become known from statements of Bush administration officials in response to court challenges and Congressional inquiries. But taken together, the opinions disclosed Monday were the clearest illustration to date of the broad definition of presidential power approved by government lawyers in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks. An Oct 23, 2001 memorandum said that "First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully." It added that "the current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically." In a speech a few hours before the documents were disclosed Monday, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said: "Too often over the past decade, the fight against terrorism has been viewed as a zero-sum battle with our civil liberties. Not only is that thought misguided, I fear that in actuality it does more harm than good." Holder said that the memorandums were being released in light of a substantial public interest in the issue.