Democrats seek to narrow secrets law

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - In a new challenge to President Bush's use of executive power, Senate Democrats want to make the government produce evidence to a judge for review when it claims that disclosing that evidence endangers national security.

The Senate Judiciary Committee's chairman is developing legislation aimed at reining in the administration's use of a state secrets privilege to argue for dismissing cases that might reveal misconduct.

Democrats contend the administration has used that tactic in cases involving terrorism suspects interrogated overseas and in the president's secretive surveillance program.

"It has taken a legal doctrine that was intended to protect sensitive national security information and seems to be using it to evade accountability for its own misdeeds," Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Wednesday.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080213/ap_on_go_co/state_secrets