Justice OK'd rights curb to fight terror

WASHINGTON, March 2 (UPI) -- U.S. Justice Department officials approved military attacks on U.S. soil and suspension of constitutional rights to fight terror, newly released memos indicate.

Six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel wrote in a secret memorandum that the government could permissibly order the military to attack U.S. apartment buildings and office complexes, use high-tech surveillance against citizens and suspend First Amendment rights, Newsweek reported Monday.

Citing the Oct. 23, 2001, memo to White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and the top lawyer for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Newsweek said many of the tactics approved by Justice Department officials were never employed.

The Obama administration released the memo Monday, along with several other Justice Department memos that had been kept secret under the Bush administration.

The memo -- entitled "Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activity Within the United States" -- was co-written by John Yoo, who was a deputy attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the time.

"First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully," Yoo wrote.

The Bush administration withdrew the memos between October 2008 and Jan. 15, five days before President George W. Bush left office, after a Justice Department official reviewed them and determined they were based on "unsound legal reasoning," Newsweek said.