The Times Perpetuates a Myth

Charlie Savage’s byline is familiar to those of us who closely follow coverage of legal issues governing and arising from the global war on terror. His latest New York Times report nominally focuses on the Obama administration’s deliberations regarding tough issues of law and war, but its most controversial allegation actually pertains to the Bush administration. According to Savage:

In the years after the 9/11 attacks, Mr. Bush claimed virtually unlimited power as commander in chief to detain those he deemed a threat — a view so boundless that his Justice Department once told a court that it was within the president’s lawful discretion to imprison as an enemy combatant even a “little old lady in Switzerland” who had unwittingly donated to Al Qaeda.