{"id":245,"date":"2004-10-27T19:12:08","date_gmt":"2004-10-27T23:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=245"},"modified":"2009-04-12T18:46:05","modified_gmt":"2009-04-12T22:46:05","slug":"the-torture-memo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/10\/27\/the-torture-memo\/","title":{"rendered":"The torture memo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.markarkleiman.com\/archives\/torture_\/2004\/06\/the_torture_memo.php\">Mark A. R. Kleiman: The torture memo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A very good point. To quote:<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>What should the President do when defending the country requires breaking the laws? Why, he should break the laws, which usually means instructing his subordinates to do so. He, and they, remain subject to punishment, and he remains subject to impeachment.<\/p>\n<p>But if the President can lawfully suspend, by his own mere say-so, any law he thinks inconsistent with the public safety, then there is no check on the President&#8217;s power save his own self-restaint and calculation of political reaction. Perhaps one could call a nation so ruled a republic &#8212; the definitional question is a nice one &#8212; but it would not be the republic established in 1787.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Click the link for more details, but it certainly makes sense&#8230; doesn&#8217;t it?<\/p>\n<p>-Keithius<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To quote: What should the President do when defending the country requires breaking the laws? Why, he should break the laws, which usually means instructing his subordinates to do so. He, and they, remain subject to punishment, and he remains subject to impeachment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-3X","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6280,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2025\/02\/11\/oathbreaker\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":0},"title":"Oathbreaker","author":"Keith Survell","date":"February 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Talking about sworn oaths and the people who break them.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":510,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/05\/31\/the-downing-street-memo\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":1},"title":"The Downing Street Memo","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 31, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently this is being kept out of the mainstream media - and that in itself is disturbing. I wonder what the truth of all this is? It certainly does not look good, at least not for Bush & Co.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":702,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2006\/01\/20\/zenith-of-powers\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":2},"title":"Zenith of Powers","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The assertion that the president is perennially \"at the zenith of his powers\" seems to be a common theme of this administration, doesn't it? And the assertion that president is not claiming he has \"a blank check that says [he] can do whatever he wants\" rings rather hollow.\"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":866,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/04\/21\/holy-crap-its-spring-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":3},"title":"Holy Crap &#8211; It&#8217;s Spring&#8230; again?","author":"Keith Survell","date":"April 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"So, it snowed, then it rained for 4 days straight, and then BAM! Spring! I guess Mother Nature finally got the memo.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;personal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":812,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2006\/11\/06\/not-a-morning-person-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":4},"title":"Not A Morning Person (Again)","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Just the other day I had another episode of \"not being awake enough to function.\"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;personal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5282,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2019\/05\/16\/a-mini-rant-on-presidents\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":5},"title":"A Mini-Rant on Presidents","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 16, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A mini rant on what \"the President\" actually means, since so many people seem to have forgotten.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}