ACLU Seeks OLC Memos

The ACLU asked the Office of Legal Counsel today for Bush administration legal memorandums relating to interrogation, detention, rendition, and warrantless surveillance.  The letter is here; Wired reports here.

Meanwhile, Dan Nguyen and Christopher Weaver at ProPublica have put together this comprehensive (so far as we know) chart on publicly available and unavailable Bush administration OLC memos relating to the war on terror.  This is a fantastic resource; take a look.  (I posted recently here and here that the Bush administration had been releasing some of its previously secret OLC memos in its waning days.  Just a couple of these recently released memos deal with issues in the war on terror.)  Nguyen and Weaver's work shows us just how much of the legal justification for the most controversial Bush administration policies remains secret.

President Obama has already strongly signaled his intent to open up his administration.  Let's hope he gives serious consideration to the ACLU request and releases the many memos that need not--and should not--remain secret.

SDS