- 2001-2009 - Republican.- Won the election of 2000 because of "Bush v. Gore."- Quickly blamed Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden for 9/11.- 9/11 transformed his presidency and he seized the opportunity to give his administration a new direction and purpose.- Like presidents before him he made freedom the rallying cry for a nation at war with terrorism.- He addressed a joint session of Congress and a national TV audience with a speech that echoed the words of FDR, Truman, and Reagan regarding freedom just 9 days after 9/11 (repeated this theme in later speeches) and announced his Bush Doctrine.- Started the war in Afghanistan by demanding that the Islamic fundamentalists called the Taliban surrender Osama Bin Laden who had established a base in their country - refused.- Named the war in Afghanistan "Enduring Freedom."- The toppling of the Taliban, he repeatedly insisted, marked only the beginning fo the war on terrorism.- In his State of the Union address in 2002, or his axis of evil speech, he accused Iraq, Iran, and North Korea of harboring terrorists and developing weapons of mass destruction that posed a threat to the US calling them the axis of evil - no evidence (weren't involved in 9/11 and never cooperated).- Tensions between America and the rest of the world became starkly evident in his next foreign initiatives.- His conservative administration seized the opportunity presented by 9/11 to press their case to oust the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, from power and he adopted this outlook.- His administration announced a goal of a regime change in Iraq in 2002 - justified this by insisting that Hussein must be ousted because he had developed an arsenal of chemical and bacteria weapons of mass destruction and was seeking to acquire nuclear arms (had no evidence linking Hussein to 9/11 though).- American newspaper and TV journalists repeated his claims about other countries that threatened the US with almost no independent investigation and even those who opposed his new policies at first went along with it eventually (Colin Powell).- Called this the Iraq War "Operation Iraqi Freedom."- Justified the Iraq War by claiming it was an attempt to defend US freedom and bring freedom to others.- After the fall of Baghdad he appeared on the deck of an aircraft carrier beneath a banner reading "Mission Accomplished."- Issued an executive order in 2001 authorizing the holding of secret military tribunals for noncitizens deemed to have assisted terrorism. -in these trials traditional constitutional protections did not apply.- Soon after 9/11 he authorized the NSA to eavesdrop on Americans' telephone conversations without a court warrant - clear violation of a law limiting the NSA to foreign intelligence gathering.- Officials of his administration insisted that after 9/11 the US need not be bound by international law in pursuing the war on terrorism - especially eager to sidestep the Geneva Conventions and the International Convention against torture.- In 2003 he prohibited the use of torture except where special permission had been granted - Defense Department approved methods of interrogation the most observers considered torture and the CIA set up a series of jails in foreign countries outside the traditional chain of military command and took part in rendition of suspects (undermined the reputation of the US as a country that adheres to the standards of civilized behavior and the rule of law.- The Supreme Court did not prove receptive to his claim of authority to disregard laws and treaties and to suspend constitutional protections of individual liberties.- Appointed 2 new Supreme Court justices -(John Roberts and Samuel Alito Jr.) making the Court more conservative, but not enough to side with his abuse of power.- Ex: "Hamdi v. Rumsfeld" - protected citizens' right to a judicial hearing and declared that wartime did give him the power to take rights away from US citizens.- Ex: "Hamdan v. Rumsfeld" - afforded protection to prisoners of war through the Geneva Conventions (the law of the land) and rebuked his presumption that he could unilaterally set up secret military tribunals in which defendants had few view rights.- Ex: "Boumediene v Bush" - affirmed detainees' right to challenge their detention in the US courts and freedom from arbitrary arrest (a powerful affirmation that constitutional rights remain in wartime).