The Justice Department has declassified one of the foundation documents for our legal strategy in the War on Terror.:The Justice Department late Tuesday released a declassified 2003 memorandum long sought by congressional Democrats and other administration critics that outlines the government's legal justification for harsh interrogation techniques used by the military against captured enemy combatants outside the United States. The memo, written by John Yoo, then a key architect of legal policy in the wake of 9/11, dismisses several legal impediments to the use of extreme techniques. Yoo was long a proponent of an aggressive approach in the war against terrorism and a believer in executive branch authority. But the memo was withdrawn as formal government policy less than a year after it was written.By any definition, Yoo took an extremely expansive view of both executive power and the the justification for torture. He dismisses legal and Constitutional arguments against torture...(Read Full Post)