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Justice Dept. Okd Bush Having Unlimited War Power

HeadlineDec 20, 2004

Newsweek has obtained a secret Justice Department memo from 2001 that claims there are effectively “no limits” on presidential power to wage war — with or without Congressional approval. The memo written two weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks reads in part “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.” Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff reports the memo seems to lay out a legal groundwork for the president to invade Iraq-without approval of Congress-long before the White House had publicly expressed any intent to do so. In regards to war, the memo claims “the president’s decisions are for him alone and are unreviewable.”

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