The Pentagon Tuesday made public a now-defunct legal memo that approved the use of harsh interrogation techniques against terror suspects, saying President Bush's wartime authority trumps any international ban on torture.So Bush has basically spent his entire term working on making the president exempt from laws passed by Congress, laws passed by international bodies, and international treaties.
"Our previous opinions make clear that customary international law is not federal law and that the president is free to override it at his discretion," said the memo written by John Yoo, who was then deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel.
The consolidation of power at the executive level is something that I find terrifying and I don't believe that many of the precedents that have been set over the last seven years will be reversed, no matter who is elected.
An interesting aside: McCain has publicly stated that he will not issue signing statements if he becomes president, but both Obama and Clinton said that they would continue to use that option although in a more restrained manner.
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