Obama, former critic of the state secrets doctrine, now makes unprecedented use of it to avoid discovery in a lawsuit over spying on mosques, among other t,hings, simply because, you know, they have Muslims in them.
http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/09/fbi_nypd_muslim_surveillance.html A paid FBI informant (and convicted con artist--grand theft), pretending to convert to Islam, was trying to entrap those in attendance, like so many cases we have read about before, where some hotheaded fool fell for the entrapment and got his sorry ass arreted as a result. (Does this really make us any safer?)
This congregation, however, got a restraining order against the informant when he started talking violence and notified the authorities.
When his FBI connection was revealed, a lawsuit against the government ensued and the ACLU got involved, siding, of course, against the D of J.
The D of J moved to block discovery in the lawsuit, citing state secrets and the "greater public good."
:puke:
Tuesday, a know nothing federal judge granted the D of J motion to dismiss the case.
ACLU attorney Ahilan Arulanantham argued that the government should not be allowed to “shut the courthouse door” simply by citing national security. “It’s contrary to the basic notion that the judiciary determines what the law is and holds the government to it,” he said. “We’re exempting huge swaths of government activity to judicial oversight.”
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/08/fbi.htmlThe ACLu website's version:
http://www.aclu-sc.org/fazaga/And a know nothing federal judge agreed with the D of J.
Analysis from Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/state-secrets-fazaga-v-fbiWOCMA. (War on Christmas, my ass.)