Handling Of 'State Secrets' At Issue - Like Predecessor, New Justice Dept. Claiming Privilege

[kpete]

Source: Washington Post

Handling Of 'State Secrets' At Issue
Like Predecessor, New Justice Dept. Claiming Privilege

By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 25, 2009; Page A01

Civil liberties advocates are accusing the Obama administration of forsaking campaign rhetoric and adopting the same expansive arguments that his predecessor used to cloak some of the most sensitive intelligence-gathering programs of the Bush White House.

The first signs have come just weeks into the new administration, in a case filed by an Oregon charity suspected of funding terrorism. President Obama's Justice Department not only sought to dismiss the lawsuit by arguing that it implicated "state secrets," but also escalated the standoff -- proposing that government lawyers might take classified documents from the court's custody to keep the charity's representatives from reviewing them.

The suit by the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation has proceeded further than any other in challenging the use of warrantless wiretaps, threatening to expose the inner workings of that program. It is the second time the new Justice Department has followed its predecessors in claiming the state-secrets privilege, which would allow the government to exclude evidence in a civil case on grounds that it jeopardizes national security.

Attorneys for al-Haramain are seeking monetary damages from officials at the White House, the National Security Agency, the Treasury Department and the FBI, saying that the government's alleged illegal eavesdropping of the charity's board members and attorneys five years ago violated the charity's rights of due process and freedom of speech. Representatives of the charity, whose U.S. operations have gone out of business, say that its purpose was philanthropic and that authorities have no evidence that it funded terrorism.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/24/AR2009032403501.html

[zbdent]

1. but is Obama classifying everything as "state secrets" like Bush did?

Like Cheney's meetings in Feb 2001? "Can't discuss that ... can't even allow you to see who I met with ... that's NATIONAL SECURITY!" (despite the fact that we weren't at war at the time of the meeting ...

[biopowertoday]

2. the issue is warrentless wiretaps.

[caseymoz]

3. It does cause me more than a little concern.

On the one hand, maybe the Obama administration thinks it's better to go ahead and have the courts throw the matter out. Otherwise, any future President could try exactly the tactics that Bush tried. Since Bush already opened the Pandora's Box, future Presidents could be expected to try it again.

However, if the court finds in favor of it, then there will be no way to limit the powers of the President.