US lawyer wrote presidential memo urging sweeping war powers: report

AFP | December 19 2004

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Justice Department lawyer reportedly wrote a secret memo to the White House in 2001 concluding that President George W. Bush has the authority to wage preemptive war against terrorists and countries even if they were not linked to the September 11 attacks.

According to the memo there are effectively "no limits" on the presidents authority to wage war, Newsweek magazine reports, noting that it seems to lay the legal groundwork for Bush to invade Iraq even without approval Congressional approval.

"The President may deploy military force preemptively against terrorist organizations or the states that harbor or support them, whether or not they can be linked to the specific terrorist incidents of Sept. 11," the memo reads, according to Newsweek.

The memo, titled "The Presidents Constitutional Authority to Conduct Military Operations against Terrorists and Nations Supporting Them," argues that the president should be allowed to order whatever military action "in his best judgment" are necessary to protect the United States.

The presidents decisions to use force "are for him alone and are unreviewable," the memo reads.

The 15-page document, dated September 25, 2001, was written by conservative Justice Department lawyer John Yoo and addressed to White House counsel Alberto Gonzales. Yoo has since left government and is a university law professor.

"There was a general awareness after Sept. 11 that the enemy was not simply Al-Qaeda -- but militant Islam in general," Brad Berenson, who served in the White House counsels office at the time, told Newsweek.

The memo was aimed at granting Bush authority to attack groups such as the Abu Sayef rebels in the Philippines or the militant Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah, Berenson told the magazine.