A week ago, Pro Publica published a terrific hyperlinked list of 50 of the Cheney-Bush administration's memos on torture, detention, warrantless wiretapping. Investigative journalism at its public service best.
Most of the memos came from the Office of Legal Counsel, whose decisions are binding on the Executive branch. Primarily because of lawsuits, 11 of the memos have become public over the past few years. These include John C. Yoo's view that the U.S. Deputy Attorney General has authority to approve warrantless wiretapping and Jay S. Bybee and John C. Yoo's infamous take on the (non)application of treaties and laws to al Qaeda and Taliban detainees. Thirty-nine of the memos remain classified. Upon publishing the list, Pro Publica called upon the Obama administration to make them public.
On Monday, veteran Federation of American Scientists secrecy expert Steve Aftergood took note of written replies to pre-confirmation questions provided by Sen. Russ Feingold by Eric H. Holder, Jr., now the U.S. Attorney General. In one of those replies, he said:
"I will review significant pending cases in which DOJ has invoked the state secrets privilege, and will work with leaders in other agencies and professionals at the Department of Justice to ensure that the United States invokes the state secrets privilege only in legally appropriate situations,"
The devil is in the details, as always. But Holder's statement offers hope that we could soon be getting a fuller understanding of the Cheney-Bush administration's thinking and justification in these matters.