DOJ releases redacted 2004 legal memos OKing warrantless NSA searches of US citizens
The Justice Department has released redacted versions of May 2004 and July 2004 legal memos about the powers claimed by officials in then-President George W. Bush’s administration to conduct warrantless wiretap and email surveillance on U.S. citizens.
The memos discuss the National Security Agency’s so-called Stellar Wind program, which focused on communications involving at least one suspected member of affiliate of al-Qaida and at least one overseas party. Author Jack Goldsmith, who was then an assistant attorney general in charge of the president’s Office of Legal Counsel, justified the surveillance under the constitutional powers granted to Bush in wartime, but also said the president had “an authority that Congress cannot curtail” to conduct such surveillance even in peacetime, the Washington Post (reg. req.) reported.
The Hill, the New York Times (reg. req.) and the Raw Story also have stories about the memos, which were released Friday night.
Staff attorney Patrick Toomey of the American Civil Liberties Union called the memos’ conclusions “deeply disturbing,” and the Post says the memos’ unredacted portions don’t reveal much about the analysis behind the NSA’s bulk collection of email metadata.
“They have continued to keep redacted something very significant,” Jameel Jaffer, a lawyer with the ACLU, told the New York Times.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “NSA phone records collection program is illegal and ineffective, government oversight board says”
