Analysis: Power struggle between Bush, Congress

By John King
CNN

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Republican-controlled Congress that has largely given President Bush his way in post-9/11 America -- and largely kept silent even when his actions offended -- is now beginning to challenge the administration about the expanding role of the executive branch.

And it's an administration that from early on has shown disdain for congressional interference.

"Nixon, Watergate and Vietnam led to a decline in presidential power and an increase in congressional micromanagement of foreign affairs in particular," said John Yoo, a critical behind-the-scenes Justice Department lawyer who spoke to CNN as part of our "Broken Government" series.

Yoo's legal opinions provided the justification not only for the treatment of terror detainees, but also the eavesdropping on calls in the United States. He spoke candidly with CNN about how the administration adopted its aggressive war tactics and about how his views were clearly in line with Vice President Dick Cheney's.

"Most everyone agreed that the president should decide on the measures to wage war and that well, you know, Congress' support is welcome but it's not necessary," he said.

But this isn't just another inside-the-Beltway power struggle. It's an issue that has affected real-life humans at home and abroad.

Meet Moazzam Begg from Birmingham, England. He vividly remembers when he was taken into custody: A midnight knock at the door soon after he had relocated from Afghanistan to Islamabad, Pakistan. (Watch a detainee's cautionary tale -- 2:34 )

"I opened the door to be faced with people, several of them, pointing guns and electric stun guns. None of them said anything," Begg said. "They didn't ask me any questions, they didn't identify themselves. ... I was made to kneel, my hands were shackled behind my back. My legs were shackled. And the last thing I saw -- they put a hood over my head -- was them walking towards the room where my children were."

During a tense van ride, he would come face to face with his captors -- and the reach of Bush's executive powers in the post-9/11 world.

"Somebody lifted the hood off my head," Begg told CNN. "And I heard an American voice speak to me. And I saw him, and he produced a pair of handcuffs. And he said, 'These handcuffs were from a widow of a September 11 victim' -- given to him in order for him to capture the perpetrators."

Begg spent nearly three years in U.S. custody -- in Pakistan, Afghanistan and then the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. To this day, the CIA and FBI consider him a threat to the United States, but he was released from custody after appeals from British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He now lives back in his hometown.

A librarian's post-9/11 fight

His story is just one example of the president's assertion of executive powers after the 9/11 attacks in ways that supporters defend as necessary to confront a vicious enemy. But critics, including some Republicans, say those powers demonstrate not only a disregard of Congress and its right to be involved in major policy debates, but also in some cases a willingness to ignore laws already on the books and the Constitution itself.

George Christian is another example.

He is executive director of a consortium of Connecticut libraries, and remembers a meeting requested by the FBI, and the letter two agents came to deliver.

"A National Security Letter," Christian said. "And I had never heard those three words before, and I am sure most people in the United States never have."

The FBI said its new powers meant it didn't need a search warrant to investigate what it considered to be a threatening Internet session at a library computer terminal; George Christian said no.

"Connecticut, like 37 other of the 50 states, has statutes that guarantee the viability of patron privacy. And we are instructed by the law not to disclose what patrons are up to -- to anyone and without, obviously, a search warrant."

'We have all the authority we need'

Bush's broad assertions of presidential power have been challenged in the courts, and most recently in Congress. Lawmakers -- led by leading Republicans -- objected to an administration plan to reinterpret the Geneva Conventions to allow tough treatment of terror detainees.

A compromise was reached, but South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said the conflict -- and several successful court challenges to administration policies -- could have been avoided if the administration had accepted offers of help from him and others months and years ago.

"They told me in no uncertain terms, 'Thank you for your input, we have all the authority we need,' " Graham said.

In the broadcast "Broken Government: Power Play," CNN explores some of the issues raised by Graham, Christian and Begg and looks at how Bush went from a candidate who promised a humble foreign policy to a post-9/11 president who used striking language and put the world on notice he would do whatever it takes to wage a war on terror.

At his side was a man who for 30 years had been waiting for a chance to reinvigorate the powers of the presidency; Vice President Dick Cheney's views had been shaped during his post-Watergate days as President Ford's chief of staff.

One question now is whether there will be a backlash for future administrations, something University of Texas scholar Bruce Buchanan believes is likely.

"When presidents are very assertive, there tends to be, in the aftermath of that assertiveness, for a year or two or 10 years or more, kind of a backlash -- an effort to rein the president in," Buchanan said.

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