FISA and the “State Secrets” Privilege: Court Bars Secret Papers in Eavesdropping Case

[L. Coyote]

Court Bars Secret Papers in Eavesdropping Case
The New York Times - By ERIC LICHTBLAU - Nov 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/washington/17nsa.html?_r=3&ex=1353042000&en=4ad801e09953e5ae&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin


WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 — A federal appeals court said Friday that secrecy laws had forced it to exclude crucial evidence about the government’s wiretapping of an Islamic charity, making it far more difficult for the charity to proceed with its challenge to the National Security Agency’s eavesdropping program.

But the court did please critics of the program in finding that the government’s “cascade” of public statements had made the program anything but a secret, defusing one of the administration’s main arguments for throwing all such lawsuits out of court.

The complex ruling was a partial victory for the Bush administration and signaled possible trouble for those trying to prove that the eavesdropping program was illegal and unconstitutional.

A charity in Oregon, Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, had perhaps the best evidence of anyone of being singled out by the wiretapping program, based on a secret document that the F.B.I. mistakenly gave the group .......

...........the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, found that evidence about the document could not be introduced in court because it fell under the “state secrets” privilege. The court, reversing a lower court ruling, said that the district court judge had made “a commendable effort to thread the needle” but that the ruling allowing the evidence was flawed. The unanimous opinion was issued by a three-judge panel .........

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/washington/17nsa.html...

[Massacure]

1. If the document was handed to a public group its not a secret anymore.

I don't understand how it can be claimed as such. The fact that I cannot read the entire article does not help.

[L. Coyote]

2. release of this information would ‘undermine the government’s intelligence capabilities ...

Which is what they inadvertently did! One must ask HOW?

If WE the People know we are being illegally spied on, I guess that undermines illegal spying. :rofl: