Bad Advice: Bush's Lawyers in the War on Terror

by Harold H. Bruff

Book Overview

From wiretapping American citizens to waterboarding foreign prisoners, the Bush administration has triggered an uproar over its tactics in the War on Terror--and over its justifications for using them. Through a close study of the legal advice provided to President Bush, former Justice Department attorney Harold Bruff provides an incisive and scathing critique of those justifications, which he finds at odds with both American law and moral authority...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0700616438
• ISBN13: 9780700616435
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Length: 412 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

A Good Scholarly Critique of the Legal Underpinnings for the Manner that the Bush Administration Pro

In this powerful and telling book, professor of law at the University of Colorado and former Justice Department official Harold R. Bruff investigates one of the most controversial issues to appear in recent American history, the excess of actions by the Bush administration in the period since 9/11 to prosecute an expansive war on terror. The author undertakes a deep analysis of legal opinions offered by Prfesident Bush's Justice Department, ones that he finds much falut with. These include decisions to allow NSA surveillance and wiretapping without the common attributes of warrants, rendition of suspects to other nations, the indefinite detention of terror suspects without trial, the abrogation of the Geneva Conventions for those captured, replacement of civil law enforcement processes by military commissions, and interrogation techniques that have traditionally been condemned as torture. Most important, Harold Bruff, argues that these efforts represented a significant restructuring of American civil liberties. He offers a scathing critique of these efforts. In the end this "Bad Advice," in Bruff's estimation, moved the American nation far from its traditional ideals of law, civil rights, and morality.

Law and Policy in the Arena

The author deals in nuanced depth with issues that are both immediate and have far reaching long term implications, demonstrating passion for our legal traditions and constitution, but not for any one particular "side". The analysis is both comprehensive and persuasive, but, even more important, wholly accessible. Bruff demonstrates that someone who is a genuine master of a subject can explain it clearly to any intelligent person, whether or not they come to it with a professional's experience and background. That is why even non-lawyers witn an interest in how the law interacts with policy where the rubber hits the road will enjoy receiving their own "Bad Advice".

Finally a chronical of the decision making events

For anyone wishing to understand the legal issues and exigencies facing the post 9/11 administration this is a must read. A tightly constructed and well documented analysis of the constitution, statutes and precedent lays the groundwork for the author's analysis of the advice given and the consequent actions of the administration in the War on Terror. The chronology of actions and events finally makes sense of those many years. Very timely.

Bad Advice

We are now in an intense national debate about Bush administration policies that affect persons suspected of attacking America on and after 9/11. If you want to understand the role of indispensable players in the formulation of these policies -- the lawyers who advised President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and others in the Executive branch -- you will read "Bad Advice." The author, Harold Bruff, a leading expert on the separation of powers (see another of his books, "Balance of Forces"), tells the story with great care and without ideological bias; the book may be profitably read both by supporters and critics of the Bush administration. Mr. Bruff looks at dilemmas long faced by advisors who want to support their president, while at the same time giving him opinions consistent with the law. He analyzes how President Bush's lawyers fared in three cases: authorization of warrantless surveillance, detetion and trial of suspected enemies, and interrogation of detainees. Although all lawyers will want this book on their shelves, it is by no means just for insiders. Bruff, ever attentive to the human element, gives insights into persons currently in the news -- Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, Jay Bybee, David Addington to name a few -- and others from earlier times, including Sir Thomas More, Abraham Lincoln (his own best lawyer), and Robert Jackson, FDR's Attorney General, a Supreme Court Justice, and lead prosecutor at Nuremberg. In the tradition of all good books, "Bad Advice" not only informs, it entertains.

Who said it was okay to torture?

Bad Advice: Bush's Lawyers in the War on Terror Are you confused by all the reports of what was going on in the White House when one branch of our government sanctioned torture? This book identifies all the players, gathers all the details and sorts it all out in an orderly fashion. It filters what happened through the lens of time and how our three branches of government worked together both successfully and unsuccessfully over the last two hundred years to set our country's policies. Have a copy of the Constitution at hand while you read this book and determine for yourself how things went wrong.