"But the 2002 memorandum (pdf) — one of seven nine previously undisclosed Bush-era OLC documents released today by the Justice Department — goes further than simply sanctioning the so-called “extraordinary rendition” program that we already knew about. The memo concludes that there is no legal impediment to torturing suspects held abroad – even if they are in U.S. custody, such as at the U.S. prisons at Guantanamo Bay or Bagram air base in Afghanistan.

“The Geneva Conventions do not apply,” wrote former OLC attorney Jay Bybee (link added by me) to Pentagon General Counsel William Haynes, “because the President has determined that the al Qaeda or Taliban detainees are not legally entitled to prisoner of war (”POWs”) status within the meaning of the Conventions.”  Moreover, the memo continues, “The Torture Convention poses no obstacle to transfer [for the purposes of interrogation under torture] because the treaty does not apply extraterritorially.”

"In other words, because the suspects are abducted abroad and not within the United States, the United States can violate the Torture Convention altogether, so long as the suspects do not enter the United States.

"The memo goes even further: “As removal applies only to the transfer of individuals already within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, and as extradition rarely if ever applies to individuals held abroad, those methods of transfer do not apply to the detainees held either in Afghanistan or at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.”

Although the memo doesn’t prove that U.S. officials actually did torture prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Bagram or elsewhere, it appears to give the clear legal authorization to do so.

"Waterboarding may have been the least of it."

And Reuters reports on the Bushite defiance and violation of the Fourth Amendment.

"The memo, from October 23, 2001, also said constitutional free-speech protections and a prohibition on unreasonable search and seizure could take a back seat to military needs in fighting terrorism inside the country.

"It was one of nine previously undisclosed memos and legal opinions which shed light on former U.S. President George W. Bush's legal guidance as he launched a war against terrorism after the September 11 attacks.

"They depict an administration apparently determined to expand the president's power after the shock of September 11, and add fuel to critics' charges that fundamental constitutional protections were threatened in the process.

" 'The current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically,' Justice Department officials John Yoo and Robert Delahunty wrote White House counsel Alberto Gonzales in the October 23 memo.

" 'We do not think that a military commander carrying out a raid on a terrorist cell would be required to demonstrate probable cause or to obtain a (search) warrant,' they said.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Constitution's Fourth Amendment ordinarily requires a probable cause and a warrant to execute a search. However, the memo said those requirements 'are unsuited to the demands of wartime.'

"Furthermore, it said, 'First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully.'

" 'The government's compelling interests in wartime justify restrictions on the scope of individual liberty,' it said. The Justice Department under Bush had fought a lawsuit which sought to make the memo public.

"But the department disavowed most of the advice in a final memo dated days before U.S. President Barack Obama took office in January, and Obama later declared all of the memos no longer valid."

And yet impeachment was taken off the table by the Democratic Speaker of the House!