The DOD Torture memo in the WSJ

The memo is now available for non WSJ subscribers on the web.

Also non anarchists have probably excerpted all of it in one place or another.

I haven't seen a specific discussion of this passage yet.

Foremost, the lawyers rely on the "commander-in-chief authority," concluding that "without a clear statement otherwise, criminal statutes are not read as infringing on the president's ultimate authority" to wage war. Moreover, "any effort by Congress to regulate the interrogation of unlawful combatants would violate the Constitution's sole vesting of the commander-in-chief authority in the president," the lawyers advised.

Here the DOD lawyers argue that the president is unlimited by any law or statute whatsoever, when dealing with "unlawful combatants". I find this terrifying because, the Bush administration has clearly stated that Bush can declare anyone an unlawful combatant and no one can overturn such a decision.

Bush claims to have the authority to do whatever he wants to whomever he wants whenever he wants.

Most commentators have focused on the briefer quote "authority to set aside the laws is 'inherent in the president.'" I had hoped that its meaning might have been distorted by the removal of context. I now understand that the context was "following a declaration that the chosen victim is an unlawful combatant."