Safeguarding The Smoking Gun?-Back to the illegal wiretapping case.

[kpete]

Safeguarding The Smoking Gun?
by georgia10
Fri Mar 24, 2006 at 11:19:31 AM PDT

.....................

Dealing With The Documents

Back to the illegal wiretapping case. The case is being tried in Portland, Oregon, where the charity is based. I mentioned earlier that the Belew and Ghafoor are in possession of some explosive documents which they claim detail the process of how the government conducted illegal spying on American citizens. Understandably, such documents were immediately put under seal. A newspaper in Oregon filed a few days ago to have those documents unsealed in the public interest. If these documents are what the lawyers say they are, they are the only public evidence of extrajudicial NSA spying conducted under Bush's order. In fact, these mystery documents are so sensitive, the judge in the case had trouble deciding just where to store them.

Because they are "top secret" national security documents, they can't be stored at the federal courthouse in Portland. In fact, they can't be stored anywhere in Portland except the local FBI office. But...the FBI is really a defendant in the case. Despite the government's assurances that it wouldn't tamper with the evidence, the judge didn't buy it, and said no matter what precautions are taken, the government defendant just can't have access to these mystery documents. So, what to do? Build a building to protect these documents? Believe it or not, that was actually considered. But it would cost too much and take too long. Finally, it was agreed that those precious documents would be shipped to Seattle and stored in a secure facility at the U.S. attorney's office there.

So what does this hot potato saga mean? It means that those documents have some damning information in them. Because they were accidentally disclosed rather than declassified, they haven't been redacted yet. And here is why this case is so important. Unless Democrats stand up, it is possible the legality of this program will be decided by the courts and not by Congress. As we all know, there is no "investigation" being conducted by the Senate Intelligence Cover-Up Committee. Gonzales and the Bush administration have treated the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings as just another chance to spin, and lie, and deceive. Who will stand up first for the rights of American citizens? Will it be the judicial branch, that may possess the smoking gun? Or will it be the Democrats, who will stand together and call for the censure of the President? Who says it can't be both?

more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/3/24/131931/878

Newspaper sues for documents in NSA wiretap case
By Chitra Ragavan and Liz Halloran
Posted 3/21/06
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060321/21oregon.htm

Mystery document in wiretap suit sent to Seattle for safekeeping
By TIM FOUGHT
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_OR_NSA_Wiretapping.html

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. Soylent Green is Peeeeeooople!

Another Charlton Heston gem!

[pberq]

2. Kick & Nominated - Thanks for posting this

These documents are also discussed in this interview with Portland attorney Thomas Nelson:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/23/152254

[datadiva]

3. One hopes they have good security

This is really important news. Not redacted? Thats even better news.

Nominated

[kster]

4. KR..nt

[kpete]

5. It all comes together, again...

Lastly, we have this bit from Rawstory,http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Justice_Department_responds_to_House_questions_0324.html in Gonzales's answers to Congress, that says that attorney/client conversations are not specifically exempted from the warrantless eavesdropping program.

So, putting these loose threads together, we have Gonzales admitting that attorney conversations may not have been protected, a "tacit case" by the Justice Dept that physical searches are equivalent to tapping international calls under the authority they're claiming, some suggestions of the feds conducting warrantless physical searches of another attorney associated WITH THE SAME CHARITY.

And now we have a mystery document that is so hot that it must be stored offsite in a secure vault, and so incriminatory that the FBI, even in with their best measures, is not allowed to keep it in their possession.

We got something cooking here.

http://bornatthecrestoftheempire.blogspot.com/2006/03/evidence-of-warrantless-physical.html