Group calls for release of government records
February 3, 2009 by Personal Liberty News Desk
A major civil liberties organization has petitioned the Justice Department to release secret memos dating from the time of the Bush administration.
In a letter to the department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) requested the release of the memos that provided the legal basis for the former administration’s controversial national security decisions.
"Releasing the memos would allow the public to better understand the legal basis for the Bush administration’s national security policies; to better understand the role that the OLC played in developing, justifying, and advocating those policies," ACLU wrote in the latter.
The memos in which the organization is particularly interested relate to interrogation, detention, rendition, surveillance and other policies conducted under the banner of the "war on terror."
The letter goes on to say that releasing the documents would send a message to the American people and the world that the government is ready to "turn the page on an era in which the OLC served not as a source of objective legal advice but as a facilitator for the executive’s lawless conduct."
After taking office on January 20, President Obama moved to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and prohibit the use of torture, but his executive order did not explicitly ban the controversial practice known as "extraordinary rendition."
The aclu etc should investigate the B.C. years and have the papers (expos’e) concerning the enforced lending policies put into place that got us in the mess we’re in now! The American club of liberal unprincipled (aclu) is nothing more than blight that needs to be rubbed out one way or the other! They will have their day in court with the ultimate Judge sooner than they would prefer!