Power Wars: Unmasking National Security Legal

Power Wars: Unmasking National Security Legal Policy Deliberations Under Bush & Obama (Kindle Single)

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When the President’s top lawyers disagree about sensitive issues, should newspapers treat those internal arguments as front-page news – even at the risk of chilling the candor of the legal advice offered to the commander-in-chief? How should the public evaluate the work of the politically appointed lawyers who determine the rules within which executive branch policymakers may operate?

Pulitzer Prize-winner Charlie Savage, a Washington correspondent for the New York Times, makes the case for revealing the questions that executive branch lawyers struggle with behind closed doors. He argues that a crucial lesson of the post-9/11 era has been that such internal fights matter enormously, especially in national security disputes that are rarely tested in court. And, drawing on his work as an author and a reporter, he offers models to help understand the impact that the Bush and Obama legal teams have had on American democracy – and provides a framework for analyzing a recurring question: Has President Barack Obama become indistinguishable from George W. Bush as he carries forward the continuing war on Al Qaeda and its allies?

Adapted from a keynote address to the Harvard Law School-Brookings conference “Law, Security, & Liberty After 9/11: Looking to the Future,” on September 17, 2011.