Opinion | New Documents Reveal Just How Much 'Emergency Power' the US Government Thinks It Might Have
www.commondreams.org
Bush-era records released under the Freedom of Information Act raise concerns about the powers presidents might claim during crises, from suspending habeas corpus to implementing an internet kill switch.
  • knife [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    fun facts:

    In response to Free­dom of Inform­a­tion Act requests, the George W. Bush Pres­id­en­tial Library turned over to the Bren­nan Center more than 500 pages gener­ated during this review and subsequent reviews in 2006 and 2008. (Another 6,000 pages were with­held in full because they are clas­si­fied.)

    . . .

    As with any archival exped­i­tion, the silences are often the most telling. William Arkin, a noted expert on PEADs, reviewed the new mater­i­als disclosed by the library and observed that they relate primar­ily to civil agen­cies—few, if any, touch on the role of the milit­ary in times of crisis. He suggests that this "black side" would have been discussed at a higher level of clas­si­fic­a­tion. By implic­a­tion, the most daring claims to pres­id­en­tial power may have been entirely excluded from this tranche of docu­ments.